Mac users have a bad reputation for the Dropbox app. The client is often called out for using system resources when it isn't doing anything. When it does lurch into action, it can sometimes be painfully slow to sync.
The fact that the first Macs with the M1 chip became available almost a year later, and that Dropbox still doesn't support Apple Silicon, adds to this. M1 Mac owners have to use a service called Dropbox with a client that uses a disproportionate amount of memory and has a poor battery life.
If you've had your share of problems with the Dropbox app, you can always switch to another cloud storage service like iCloud, or try one of the following alternative Mac clients to sync with your existing account.
1. Maestral is free.
Maestral is a popular open-source Dropbox client for Mac that's free to use and has a significantly smaller resource footprint than the Dropbox app. The lightweight client syncs files and folders in the background and won't cause your Mac to stop. It also supports Apple's technology. The transfer of only those parts of a file which have changed is a caveat.
2. CloudMounter costs $24.99 a year.
CloudMounter allows you to treat your cloud storage accounts like regular local drives, by connecting them to your Mac's Finder. It doesn't automatically sync your files to your local drive, which is great if you need access to files on a server but don't have a lot of storage space. You can share any file or folder with its link to the clipboard via a contextual menu option.
3. The Mountain Duck 3 is $32.
Mountain Duck integrates with Finder to allow you to access your cloud storage service account from a local drive. You can keep individual files offline on your local disk, and it will show you which files are in sync with little icons. It has a contextual menu to keep sync and URL copying options at your fingertips, and client-side encryption is included.
4. Transmit 5 costs $46.
Transmit used to be referred to as an FTP client, but these days it can connect to 11 different cloud services, which is why we've included it here. It's not a straight up Dropbox client replacement, but it's a good alternative if you want to download and upload files regularly. It has useful features like File sync, which can mirror remote and local files in one click.
5. Strongsync is $49.95.
You can use Strongsync to mount cloud storage accounts on your Mac as if they were local disks. When you request files in Finder or another app, they are downloaded transparently. It supports other clouds. It doesn't need a kernel extension or a reboot, it has a SwiftUI 2 interface that supports both Apple and Intel Macs.
Do you know of any other Mac clients that support the integration of Dropbox? Let us know what you think in the comments.
