Best Alternative Dropbox Clients for Mac If You Have Enough App
If you’re using Dropbox on a Mac, you’ve probably gotten frustrated with its app at some point. The app is resource intensive, it constantly asks for your Mac’s password to update, and it doesn’t even natively support Mac M1. Sure, it works on Mac M1 through Rosetta 2, but the lack of built-in support results in excessive CPU usage and battery drain. Until Dropbox provides its own Mac client, you can either switch to a different cloud storage service or look for alternative Dropbox Mac clients. If you’ve chosen the latter, we’re here to help make the transition smooth.
Maestral
Maestral is a free, open source, lightweight Dropbox client for Mac. It natively supports Mac M1 computers and syncs your files and folders seamlessly. It runs quietly with minimal resource consumption even on older Intel MacBooks, making it ideal for anyone using Dropbox. If you are tech-savvy, you can use Maestral using the command line interface. This is useful if you want to cut down on resources even further, but the GUI client is also very lightweight, so this shouldn’t be a problem for most people.
As good as Maestral is, it’s not for everyone because it doesn’t support some of Dropbox’s features. For example, it does not support transferring only the portions of a file that have changed, so if you make changes, Maestral will have to download or upload the entire file again, which consumes more bandwidth than the official Dropbox client. It also lacks Dropbox Paper support, Dropbox team management, or shared folder settings.
Mountain duck 3
Mountain Duck 3 has several nice features that make it a worthy Dropbox client. It does not require admin rights to install, so if you come across a Dropbox password for an update, this app will suit you much better. It also shows you which files have been synced and which have not (a green check mark means the file is available offline, and the cloud icon means it is online).
The app also lets you copy the URLs of your files for quick sharing, which is an essential feature for a lot of people. The Mountain Duck context menu is one of its best features. You can right-click any file or folder and select Mountain Duck to access useful features like copy URL, download files, reload them, etc.
The app costs $ 39 and supports multiple cloud storage services including Google Drive and OneDrive. You can try its features for free with a two-week trial.
Strongsync
Strongsync is an application that allows you to access multiple cloud storages on your Mac. Each of these services is mounted as a network drive on your Mac, making it easy to access directly from the Finder. If you’re looking for a native app that lets you sync folders from Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and Sharepoint, then Strongsync is just right for your needs. It’s slightly heavier than Maestral, but much better than using the official Dropbox client.
Strongsync is manufactured by a company that also makes ExpanDrive. These two apps overlap in functionality, so if you already have ExpanDrive, you can continue to use it to access Dropbox as well. Strongsync has a weekly free trial, and if you’d like to continue using the app after that, it’ll cost $ 50.
Hand over
Panic’s Transmit is a great FTP app that also lets you access Dropbox. It’s a great alternative to accessing Dropbox from a web browser, but not a replacement for the official Dropbox client. If you use Dropbox to upload and download files, but not sync them across devices, Transmit is perfect for you.
No one is going to buy Transmit just to access Dropbox, but it’s a useful tool on your Mac if you upload files to various services like Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, Google Drive, Box, OneDrive, etc. Transmit is native tool. on Mac and uses fewer resources than browser tabs opened with the cloud service of your choice. We have been using Transmit to upload and download files for many years, and we have succeeded in everything.
Transmit costs $ 45 for a single-user license, but there is a seven-day free trial to help you decide if it’s worth buying.