Commercial services backed by Dropbox

[GreenbackBoogie]

Hi!

My question is more about legal aspects rather than technical ones.

Let's assume one developed image-hosting web-service where images are stored at Dropbox via API. Is it eligible to make this service be paid? I guess it is, but I'm a bit confused by the Dropbox Reseller Program. What is it about? When do you have to become a reseller and when you don't have to? And also: does one have to go for Dropbox Business subscription for this purpose or it's possible to use personal Dropbox Plus for this?

[Greg-DB · Accepted solution]

Dropbox does not prohibit or require Dropbox API apps to be paid. How you distribute your app is up to you.

We do encourage developers to offer Dropbox in both free and paid versions of their apps, if they have them:

https://www.dropbox.com/developers/reference/developer-guide#great-apps

In any case though, you should be sure to review all the guidelines and terms before developing an app:

https://www.dropbox.com/developers/reference/tos
https://www.dropbox.com/developers/reference/devguide
https://www.dropbox.com/developers/reference/branding

The Dropbox Reseller Program is just for people who wish to resell Dropbox plans themselves. It is not required for using the Dropbox API.

Use of the API itself is actually entirely free. The API is built such that developers can create apps that (once in production mode) any Dropbox account can link to. The Dropbox accounts used with the app can be of any type (Basic, Plus, or Dropbox Business.)

It is only if the owners of any individual (or group of) accounts want to upgrade is there cost involved. You can see more information on pricing and plans here:

https://www.dropbox.com/plans

[GreenbackBoogie]

Thank you for the detailed answer! 🙂