Here’s the Deal

Seafile vs Box

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When comparing Seafile vs Box, the Slant community recommends Seafile for most people. In the question“What are the best personal file-syncing solutions?” Seafile is ranked 6th while Box is ranked 25th. The most important reason people chose Seafile is:

Seafile community edition is licensed under GPLv2 with source code available on [GitHub](https://github.com/haiwen/seafile).

Specs

PlatformsWindows, MacOS, Linux, iOS, Android

APIyes

Encrypted foldersyes

File editingyes (optional)

File sharing (w/ other users)yes

File sharing (w/ third party)yes

File syncingyes

File versioningyes

PlatformsWindows; OSX; Android; iOS; Windows Phone; BlackBerry

Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking

Common Questions

What are the best personal file-syncing solutions?

Pros

Pro
Free and open source

Seafile community edition is licensed under GPLv2 with source code available on GitHub.

Pro
Client-side encryption

All files are transferred with AES 128 bit encryption.

Pro
Huge Data (10 GB) in free plan

Its free plan comes with 10 GB!

Pro
Cross-platform desktop and mobile

Box is available for Windows, OS X, iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phones. Which mean access to ones files no matter the device or platform used.

Pro
Sharing and privacy features built for business and IT users

Such as advanced sharing options, task assignment, notifications. Making an easy way to stay up to date on assigned tasks.

Pro
Extendable via plugins

There are plug-ins for applications that allow interactions with Box.

Pro
Salesforce and NetSuite support

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Cons

Con
Requires maintenance

You have to manually keep the server and clients up to date.

Con
Log in on every use

Any time the app is opened the user's log-in needs to be typed in, which can become annoying. While it is a nice privacy feature, an option to turn it off would be nice.

Con
No Linux client

They are not willing to listen to Linux community. They've also deleted a bunch of messages from Linux users on their forum

Con
Missing collaborative apps

Not being able to easily back up office works through an integrated office suite can be a set back when comparing to backup apps like Drive. While you can set certain apps to save their files to the Box folder, it is not as easy as using something like Google Docs, which not only saves while you are working but as soon as you are done, with no extra steps.