Table of Contents.and are two of the biggest names in cloud storage. Each provides not only a useful way to free up hard drive space by storing files in the cloud, but a range of features and integrated applications that make them ideal for getting work done. That includes the two best browser-based office suites available today in Google Docs and Office Online.That’s why both factor into Cloudwards.net’s roundup, even if they necessarily dominate, or really even come close to dominating, the field like you might assume.Picking between them is maybe a good problem to have.
It’s kind of like choosing between pepperoni and hawaiian pizza. Nevertheless, its not an easy decision, either, so we’re here to help.
With Drive Enterprise, businesses only pay for the storage employees use. It comes with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides — and works seamlessly with Microsoft Office.
This head-to-head matchup will give you all the information you need to know to decide which of these cloud storage solutions is the best fit for your needs.If you prefer making up your own mind, give our and a read. Google Drive vs OneDrive: Which is the Best Cloud Storage Solution for You?Our library contains a range of cloud storage options for just about any need, from super-secure services like Tresorit (read our ) to the shutterbug lockboxes mentioned in our review.Google Drive and OneDrive fit into the picture as top cloud storage options for being productive. While business users might find more value in the alternatives laid out in our piece, there’s no doubt that Google Drive and OneDrive are the two top picks for home users, students, freelancers and the like when it comes to getting things done.Both are reasonably inexpensive, handle file sharing and syncing well, and, above all, have excellent productivity apps like their previously mentioned office suites. Storage CostUp first, we’ll take a look at each service’s storage plans and how much they’ll set you back. While the bottom line shouldn’t be the only thing you consider, it’s usually a smart place to start.
Google DriveGoogle Drive starts you out with 15GB of free cloud storage just for creating a Google account. For some people, that’s all that will ever be needed. While we don’t necessarily consider it the available, it certainly deserves to be in the conversation.If 15GB isn’t enough, Google Drive has a nicely priced 100GB plan you can subscribe to rather than going straight to 1TB like you have to with many cloud storage services. And, if 1TB isn’t enough, you can get more with Google Drive, while much of the competition stops there. That makes Google Drive one of the more flexibly-priced cloud storage services out there, even if it’s not as good a deal as, say, the 2TB for $8 you get with pCloud (read our ).That storage can be used connect any computer running Windows or MacOS. Surprisingly, Google hasn’t yet added Linux support, so if that’s a need you’ll want to give our article a read. Android is also supported, of course, as is iOS.
OneDriveOneDrive also has a free cloud storage plan, but you only get 5GB, far short of Google Drive’s offering, though that’s more than Dropbox’s 2GB of free storage. OneDrive also has a low-cost plan for those that don’t want to jump all the way to 1TB.
Its 50GB for $1.99, so half the storage for same price as 100GB with Google Drive.Beyond those two plans, however, OneDrive proves a much more budget-friendly option than Google Drive. The 1TB plans is only $6.99.
For the same cost as 1TB of Google Drive, in fact, $9.99 a month, you can get a OneDrive family plan that gives five different users 1TB of storage. Save 17%In addition to storage, both the 1TB and 5TB OneDrive plans let you use the desktop version of Microsoft Office, Office 365, along with the browser-based Office Online. All in all, it’s a very good deal.Like Google Drive, computers running Windows and MacOS can connect to OneDrive with easy-to-install desktop clients, and mobile apps are available for Android and iOS (and Windows Phone, if anybody cares). Round One ThoughtsThat both Google Drive and OneDrive are priced much more agreeably than their biggest rival, Dropbox (read our ), is clear. Choosing between them is a bit tough, however.On the one hand, Google Drive gives you three times more free storage than OneDrive, and its $1.99 plan gets you 100GB of storage verses 50GB with Google Drive. On the other hand, OneDrive’s 1TB plan cost $3 less than a 1TB Google Drive plan.We could arbitrarily make a good case for either service to win round one, but we’re siding with OneDrive on account of that fact that it does something that no other cloud storage solution we can think of does: it offers a family plan.
Plus, that family plan a really good deal, too. File SharingFile storage might be the key feature of any good cloud storage service, but file sharing is just as important. In round two, we’ll take a look at the file sharing capabilities of both Google Drive and OneDrive and figure out which does it better.
SyncFile synchronization, or sync, refers to the ability to access the same files on different devices without having to manually copy them yourself. The key to sync is a special folder called a sync folder that gets installed in your file system.By default, any files stored in this folder are stored both on your hard drive and in the cloud. With multiple sync folders installed on multiple devices, file changes get transferred between devices with the cloud as the middleman.While the basic approach is similar from one cloud storage service to the next, as with file sharing, added features can make sync more or less efficient. Let’s see how Google Drive and OneDrive fare. Google DriveThe Google Drive sync folder is called “Google Drive.” As noted, it pretty much looks like any other folder in your file system, although it doesn’t entirely behave like one.You can quickly view the status of your sync operations by right-clicking the Google Drive icon in your taskbar. This will show you files that have recently synced and alert you to any failed syncs.Generally speaking, sync with Google Drive runs pretty smoothly. There’s a massive 5TB size limit on files that can be uploaded, so that should cover just about everything.
The company could certainly do better, however, by implementing a to file copying like Dropbox and Egnyte do, or, to a lesser extent as we’ll see, OneDrive does.Another key feature of sync today is the ability to turn sync off, known as selective sync. Google Drive makes this a pretty simple process: just access the “preferences” window available from the taskbar menu. Then, click on the Google Drive tab.You’ll be able to toggle folders in your Google Drive sync folder, turning sync on or turning it off. By turning it off, files will still be stored in the cloud but not on your hard drive, which serves to free up space. OneDriveThe OneDrive sync folder works just like that of Google Drive, Dropbox or any other cloud storage service.
Installed in your file system with subfolders for documents, pictures, music, favorites and shared, all you need to do to send files to the cloud is drop them inside.While OneDrive doesn’t incorporate block-level file copying on the whole, it does at least for Microsoft Office documents (Word, Excel and PowerPoint).OneDrive also has a selective sync feature, accessible by clicking “settings” in taskbar menu. Once open, click on the account tab and “choose folders” to open the selective sync window.Then, uncheck all the folders you don’t want stored on your hard drive.
Round Three ThoughtsThere’s very little separating the sync capabilities of Google Drive and OneDrive. Both, in our testing, performed well and without any errors or hangups. Google Drive does a little bit better keeping you informed of sync status, while OneDrive at least offers a limited version of block-level copying.Of the two, OneDrive’s is likely the better advantage, though obviously only if your a user of Microsoft Office. Still, we’ll give victory in this round to it, albeit narrowly. AppsIn round four, we’ll be taking a look at integrated apps. This is an area where many of Cloudwards.net’s favorite niche picks fall short.
Cloud storage solutions with money behind them, on the other hand, like Egnyte, Box, Dropbox and both of the services features in this article, tend to excel.Google Drive and OneDrive actually stand out from the crowd a little further, in that both have their own native office suites. As mentioned, Google Drive has Google Docs, while OneDrive, of course, has Microsoft Office.
Google DriveIt wasn’t long ago that many people wouldn’t have bothered looking at an office suite other than Microsoft Office, let alone one that was browser-based. However, Google Docs has proven itself a capable alternative that’s nearly as powerful and, best of all, free.Google Docs is both the name of the suite and the name of the suite’s word processor. Also included are a spreadsheet application called Google Sheets, a presentation application called Google Slides and a form-building application called Google Forms.Files created in any application store automatically to Google Drive. By sharing Google Docs files with others, you’re able to collaborate within the application itself, leaving comments in the margins, making suggestions and, if granted permission to do so, even edits.In addition to developing its own applications, Google has opened up its API to developers to create their own integrations. Thanks to that, there are now hundreds of applications available to Google Drive users, most for free.Google even makes it easy to find them with a searchable library. All you need to do is login into your Google Drive account, click on the “new” button on the top-left side, then click “connect more apps.”You can search for specific apps or browse by categories like business tools, productivity, games and communication.
Some of the notable entries include DocHub, PicMonkey, WeVideo and Kami. OneDrivePerhaps in response to Google Drive, two years after the launch of Google Docs, Microsoft unveiled its own web-based, free version of Office called Office Online. Included are lightweight versions of Word, Excel and Powerpoint.Microsoft has also included a handy web-based note-taking tool called OneNote.
While not quite as nice as rival Evernote, OneNote still lands on our list of available today.As noted in round one, if you sign up for the 1TB personal or the 5TB family plan with OneDrive, you also gain access to the desktop version of Office, Office 365, which includes Access.With Office Online, you can collaborate in near real-time, just like with Google Docs. That includes leaving comments in margins and making edits.In addition to Office Online, OneDrive has a few other Microsoft-owned applications of note already integrated.
These include Mail, Tasks, Calendar, People, Skype and Flow, a cloud-based tool for designing workflows.While its native integrations are impressive, OneDrive doesn’t have much in the way of third-party apps to speak of, despite opening up its API in 2015. Many of those that are available are just enhancements for Microsoft Office, too, rather than standalone software.Additionally, Microsoft doesn’t give you an easy way to search for an integrated apps like Google Drive does with its application library. Round Four ThoughtsDown three rounds to none, Google Drive needs a win. Lucky, integrated apps happens to be where it shines the most. While some people will prefer the familiarity of Microsoft Office and the desktop apps of Office 365 over the web-based tools of Google Docs, if you can make the transition the payoff is well worth it.Google has done great work building technology partnerships and its selection of third-party apps for Google Drive far outpaces not only OneDrive, but every other cloud storage service, too. SecurityIn our final round, we’ll take a look at security.
You can read more about steps services can take to protect your privacy in our article. We also have a primer that will give you a good idea of why it’s so important. Google DriveGoogle Drive encrypts your files while in transit between your computer and the cloud using TLS and 256-bit AES.
One arriving at the data center, your files get decrypted and then encrypted again, this time using 128-bit AES.Neither 128-bit nor 256-bit AES are believed to have been broken outside of a few message board conspiracy theories, mostly having to do with the NSA. In fact, it’s estimated it would take a supercomputer billions of years brute-force crack either, so at this point the use of 256 over 128 bits probably doesn’t mean much.The fact that Google decrypts your files at all is the bigger concern, as it means you files aren’t encrypted end-to-end like they are with, for example, Sync.com (read our ).Google didn’t actually start encrypting files at rest at all until after it got called out for playing along with the NSA surveillance program, in 2013.On the plus side, Google does support, which protects you in the event that your password is stolen. With this feature on, logins from unfamiliar machines will require a security code to be entered as an additional credential, which is itself delivered to your mobile device.Google Drive also provides file versioning. While this is just as much for backing out of your own mistakes, versioning provides a measure of protection against.
Ransomware works by corrupting files and holding the clean copies ransom. With versioning, once you’ve removed the ransomware from your computer, you can just revert your files back to past, uncorrupted copies.Google retains past versions of Google Docs files indefinitely.
Non-native files, meanwhile, are kept up to 100 versions, but only for 30 days. After that, they get permanently deleted. OneDriveSecurity poses a major issue for OneDrive, at least for ordinary consumers. The reason is that while OneDrive for Business files are encrypted at rest, those of OneDrive personal users are left in plain text.You read that right.That means if someone were to gain access to the Microsoft data center where your files are kept, they could read your files without also having to gain access to your encryption keys.Files are, at least, encrypted while in transit using 256-bit AES.
However, the lack of at-rest encryption is in itself the most compelling reason we could offer you to choose Google Drive, or just about any other cloud storage service, instead. That’s especially true given that Microsoft has always been a popular target for cybercrime thanks to its popularity.Another issue with OneDrive is that versioning is only possible for Microsoft Office file types. Non-native files aren’t afforded that protection, meaning if those files are corrupted with ransomware, there’s no getting them back.About the only thing we can say in OneDrive’s favor is that two-factor authentication is an option. Round Five ThoughtsTruth be told, security isn’t a strong point for either service. Neither provides the privacy of client-side, end-to-end encryption.
If that’s a need, you’ll want to check out our list of. If you do go with Google Drive or OneDrive, consider encrypting your files yourself using Boxcryptor, which is compatible with both.That said, while Google also has some potentially shady marketing practices added to its security misses that we address in our full, they’re not nearly as troubling as Microsoft’s failure to encrypt your files at rest. The VerdictOneDrive took three out of five rounds, but for our money, this victory falls easily in Google Drive’s favor.
![A Little Thing Called Love Gdrive A Little Thing Called Love Gdrive](/uploads/1/2/5/4/125465233/905841788.png)
Round one, cost of storage, was more of a toss-up than clear-cut victory for OneDrive. Rounds two and three, covering file sharing and sync, were only slightly clearer victories.Google Drive, meanwhile, has a vastly superior third-party app library to OneDrive and its Google Docs suite is just as good as Office Online, leaving round four firmly in its favor unless you’re truly hung up on Office 365.The real key to victory here is security, though, which is saying something given that Google Drive isn’t exactly a bastion for user privacy. But if a zero-knowledge service like Sync.com is too light on productivity features for you, at least go with with service that doesn’t leave your files in plain text.
Final Winner:Did we get it right? Feel free to chime in on the debate in the comments below, and thanks for reading! Yeah, this is also a huge consideration. Even with native office apps like word or onenote, it will sync the file seamlessly even when documents is opened. Very useful for people who edit some documents collaboratively, take a comments there, and even if you don’t want to work like that, this feature is also useful if you work cross devices (like what i do, writing some documents or note on pc, then upload some screenshot from my phone and without closing and re-opening the app itself, the screenshot is instantly appear there).
I’ve been evaluating cloud storage solutions like Google Drive and One Drive, and I really appreciate this article. It was well-written and laid out a great comparison of the two.While I appreciated the section about encrypted data, there’s another angle to security: people accidentally seeing my data. I want to keep copies of all my files on my PC, as well as in the cloud. That means that someone who has access to my computer may be able to open and look at my files.
Google Docs does not allow me to password protect my files, while One Drive does. Google Drive will allow me to upload a password protected Word file, but I cannot then open and view that file through Google Drive. One Drive handles this just fine when it opens the file in Word.I realize that there are certainly some good technical reasons for why this is so, but I don’t want to have to worry that if someone gets hold of my phone they’ll be able to see my stuff. That’s a more real threat than what happens to my stuff at the server farm.I’m still evaluating both of these cloud solutions. Thank you for such an honest review. I really agree. Google Drive is way much better.
The documents are safe. Got problems with Onedrive also. I am a Onedrive user since 2010 but now I am very disappointed when I found out that my onedrive account’s storage space was lower down to 5 GB. Because I’ve done the current referral process before and referred many people to use onedrive to achieve a 30 GB storage and you reset it again. I’m a fan of Onedrive even before it was Skydrive but now I am really upset and felt that I was stolen of something I should have. I am switching to Google Drive atleast they have a default 15 GB and you don’t need to refer someone to avail that 15 GB storage. I have been using Amazon unlimited storage.
I have 2.2 tb of files on there. I got an email that they are ended unlimited and my account will end in September. I was looking for another storage option. I have 1tb from Onedrive, for getting Office. I don’t really like the way it works. I just go online to back things up. I do not use an app on my Mac.I can get 5tb for $99 a year, from Microsoft or i can get 10 tb for $99 a month from google.I edit videos a lot.
I have a copyright on a cartoon and am writing a series of kids books. I do all the art and have a large number of photoshop files as well as word documents. I have a lot of apps. While I can just get them from Apple, I like backing them up.I can not decide which to go with. I am telling myself, that with 10tb, I would be set. For a LONG time. On demand loading (for Windows 10 computers only, apparently) is working pretty well for me too.However, one thing this review didn’t evaluate is the relative capabilities of the two’s search functions, and that’s just a point that Google Drive wins hands down because Onedrive doesn’t even allow you to sort your search results in any way, while Google Drive at least allows a sort by date.
In fact, Onedrive’s results are listed in random order, so you are forced to check each file instead of saying OK, I know it is sometime in 2015 so I can skip all the 2016, 17 and 18 files. Nice write-up.Interesting that going by your “round” system OneDrive wins 3-2, yet you prefer Google Drive. I do tend to prefer Google Drive, too. Now, Google Drive may take the two rounds also, depending on the user needs.1. Storage Cost – Google Drive could take this round if the user wants “free” and can live with 15 GB, which is more tham OneDrive’s 5GB. On the other hand, if user needs more space, up to 1 TB, or needs Office, or needs to provide for more users then OneDrive seems like a better deal.3.
Sync – The winner could also depend on particular user needs or preferences. In this case, I refer to a weakness these services have had in the past. That is the need or desire to Sync a folder wherever it is without having to move it to the applications folder. Many don’t want to move their folders out from My Documents or wherever they feel comfortable having them.Regarding this, Google Drive now provides the user the ability to select folders outside its own Syncing folder and have them sync. OneDrive doesn’t have that option. One can work around this by creating symbolic links (MKLINK cmd) in DOS for every folder you want to sync, but that is cumbersome, beyond the technical ability of most end-users and it’s a shaky workaround when GDrive makes it easy.In my case, GDrive could win 4-1.
However, the integration of Office, the standard business apps, with OneDrive carries a lot of weight which makes it a closer call. Then I see how nicely Google apps work with Android phones and one tends to go with the Google suit of products beyond GDrive. Biased towards G Drive as I’m a longtime gmail adherent, I’ve never liked or needed the bloated Office suite, use Android and G Photos as backup, and have had 100+ GB for a number of years for $2 a month. Now I need more storage and this is where One Drive is trying to compete, with a much better price than Google’s $10 a month for 1TB. I have three Windows machines so One Drive would seem to be a good choice. It’s interesting to me that you find G Docs to be as good as if not better than the online Office apps. I’ve used Docs for years alongside LibreOffice for heavier docs, but recently I tend to just use the G Docs because I don’t have to install or update ANY software on any of my machines and they have gotten to be as competent in features as I need.
![A Little Thing Called Love Gdrive A Little Thing Called Love Gdrive](/uploads/1/2/5/4/125465233/190591188.png)
Other than cost in my book G Drive wins. I recently tried G Suite but found it surprisingly hard to set up with existing multiple gmail accounts, which is kind of a bad knock on Google in that respect. I’m back to just sticking with my existing Gmail setup, not going with G Suite, just adding more storage to my personal G Drive account. All these options need work IMO, but I guess I’ll stick with G Drive. I have to strongly disagree on google drive’s app performance. Every time you start your OS, the app will serially scan through all the files in the sync folder, which, in the case of a TB level folder, could take over 3 minutes. It also prevents updating big files in Adobe applications, making it impossible to update your progress while you are making modifications of your photo/illustration file.
The Google Drive syn algorithm also does not immediately detect changes (admittedly, oneDrive does it slowly, too, but still a lot snappier than Google Drive — hats off to Dropbox, which is by far the fastest of the entire bunch)I just think it is not doing justice to OneDrive to rate the slow, cumbersome and buggy GoogleDrive app as a winner. I was a big user of Microsoft Office, but I realised that I was not using all the features in the programs. I signed up for a free Google Account but saw that you could not turn a Google Doc into a MS Word Document, however you can save a MS Word Document in Google Drive as a Word Doc or convert it to a Google Doc. It also depends on what you want out of each program and seems that Google updates there programs every week whereas Microsoft does it once a month or every few months.Google Drive has my vote. This is a great article and well written, even someone like myself who isn’t exactly the most knowledgeable in computers and programs could understand the information. I would like to ask a question for my own style of use for the systems.
I have music cd’s I’ve downloaded to my computer and backed up on and in other ways for my own protection, but I put a copy of them on onedrive so I can have access to them on my phone for when I’m away from home, and also use it to send occasional pictures to my phone for sharing with others. Is there a program that anyone could recommend that might have a larger storage base along with good reliability of access between home and phone?
I realize this question may not be best for this article but I feel people know what they’re talking about on here. Thanks for your time and patience. Cloudwards.net - Chief Editor.
I was fooled by the reviews on IMDb to watch this movie with high expectation but it turned out to be a very lame, bland movie that might only be acceptable or even loved by kids just reach puberty age. The screenplay was badly written, directed poorly and the acting of most actors, teenagers or adult, male or female, were just as bad as you could get. The movie was so pretentiously made, looked forced and phony to the extreme.
The acting was just horrible to watch, so exaggerated and so elementary level. The screenplay was also childish and naive.
There was nothing worth spending time to write a review. The actress who played Cinderella or black swan was a beautiful young lady. The actress who played as her mother was without any acting talent. There were so many clown or jerk like characters in this movie, classmates, teachers, sister, relatives, so many that just kept deteriorating the whole movie, made it like a poorly assembled 'Farce'. This movie definitely is targeted for teenagers, especially for those junior high girls who are starting to dream about romance no matter how ugly they are, they would just focus on those handsome boys. I just couldn't comprehend why casting so many ugly young Thai teenage girls to support just one pretty girl.
The overly manipulated contrast just made me sick.