Difference between using WebDAV and e.g. dropbox

I’m familiar with the difference between storing your attachments in Zotero storage vs storing it on a third party cloud provider like dropbox, onedrive, etc and I would have treated a cloudstorage provider offering WebDAV exactly the same.

What confuses me, though, is that Zotero seems to treat WebDAV differently. It seems to be some kind of in-between solution. Could someone clarify what exactly the difference is? Do attachments stored on webdav count as ”managed by zotero”?
  • The WebDAV protocol is supported by Zotero and other protocols, like Dropbox's, Google Drive's, OneDrive's... are not.
  • Yes, in terms of protocols, that is obvious. But in order to store attachments on Dropbox & Co, it is not necessary to support their protocol because files can just be saved locally...
  • WebDAV still uses Zotero’s sync system; it just swaps in the WebDAV server for Zotero’s own storage server.

    A linked file workflow with a service like Dropbox requires that you manually manage your files, ensure syncing is working correctly, and resolve any sync conflicts.

    It also is not compatible with Group libraries or the Zotero iOS app.
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