---
title: "Privatta and Dropbox, side by side · Privatta"
description: "What happens to your file with each of them, and the two side by side, row by row."
url: "https://royalsoftworks.com/products/privatta/vs/dropbox/side-by-side/"
source: "https://royalsoftworks.com"
format: "markdown"
note: "Markdown rendering of the HTML page at `url`. Same content, same canonical URL."
---

Privatta vs Dropbox · 1 of 3

# Privatta and Dropbox, side by side.

What happens to your file with each of them, and the two side by side, row by row.

Contents

1. 01What happens to the file

01

## What happens to the file

Anything you put in Dropbox is uploaded to Dropbox's servers and synced back down to your devices. Sharing a file means giving someone access to that stored copy, by link or through a shared folder, and it stays there until you delete it.

Privatta keeps nothing. You mark a file as shared, the person you allowed asks for it, and it travels directly from your machine to theirs. There is no stored copy to secure, back up, pay for, or forget about.

## Side by side

**Privatta compared with Dropbox on ten capabilities**

| Capability | Privatta | Dropbox |
| --- | --- | --- |
| True P2P — no cloud copy ever | Yes | No |
| End-to-end encrypted | Yes | No |
| LAN / local-network mode | Yes | No |
| Internet transfers (no own server) | Pro | Yes |
| Fully offline / air-gap capable | Yes | No |
| Per-user access control | Pro | Yes |
| Group / team permissions | Pro | Yes |
| Access audit log | Enterprise | Yes |
| Device / machine identity verification | Pro | Yes |
| Native desktop application | Yes | Yes |

A tick means every edition of Privatta, the free one included; an edition name means that edition or above. Dropbox’s column is its row from our [comparison of 26 file-transfer tools](https://royalsoftworks.com/products/privatta/compare/).

[Previous vs Dropbox: all 3 pages](https://royalsoftworks.com/products/privatta/vs/dropbox/) [Next When to use which.](https://royalsoftworks.com/products/privatta/vs/dropbox/which-to-use/)

[All of Privatta vs dropbox](https://royalsoftworks.com/products/privatta/vs/dropbox/)

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