There is no stopping at all when it comes to cloud storage, especially nowadays. The ease of use and the assorted features they offer seem to attract traction from all age groups. It is genuinely a breakthrough technology that helps people compute their data and store it at highly cheap rates for ample storage space.
Gone are the days when you needed to carry multiple physical storage devices. Online cloud storage has made things easier on that horizon. You can now view, edit, share or create data from any corner of the world and store it efficiently. The assistive features associated with such platforms are absolutely worth their fame!
Which one to choose? And most importantly, why choose?
Continue reading, and we will help you decode every single difference between Google Drive and OneDrive.
Google VS Microsoft – What we know?
Microsoft Office has been a common household name in many countries ever since it won over the best work suites available monopoly. From schools, hospitals, organizations, manufacturers, Microsoft has been extensively used ever since the 2000s.
Be it creating text documents, effortless presentations, maintaining databases, cloud storage, creating creative templates, the list is almost endless. Everyone had a reason to devote themselves to Microsoft.
For the past five to seven years now, Google has emerged as a much-preferred platform by the general public. The services it offers are free, super easy to use, faster functioning, and have endless options and varieties. There was nothing that Google services could not do like the Microsoft ones, possibly better than them only.
But, which brand has the best ecosystem to work in? Has it completely failed Microsoft in all formats if Google is being loved? Is Google entirely flawless, and is it the best platform to use? Or all these recent services won’t stand a chance with the durable Microsoft Office Suite in the long run? Let us dive deeper.
Read Google Drive Vs Box
Google Drive Vs OneDrive- What exactly are these?
OneDrive is currently Microsoft’s most popular service software, which deals with providing file hosting and data synchronization features.
The web version of Microsoft 365 Suite has an array of service platforms, including the recently added ones; it has become a highly chosen option, especially for larger organizations for maintaining massive records.
Not just this, users love to use OneDrive for personal work as well. It is an excellent service platform for creating backups, synchronizing your PC’s data, or integrating data from other MS services all in one place, the OneDrive cloud.
Similarly, Google Drive is another data computing and storage platform, yet more famous as an online cloud. It is highly cost-effective and has a lot of variety in its advanced features. Easy to upload and download, and a great user experience even under offline folders.
If both of them are so great, what should you opt for?
The following breakdown compares Google Drive and OneDrive on different aspects, going from storage, costs, features, plans, etc., to give you a sharp analysis to choose your next best cloud storage platform!
Read Google Drive vs Amazon Drive
Google Drive Vs OneDrive: Plans and Pricing
Online storage is way cheaper than conventional storage devices, and people swear by this advancement (as it should be)!
An integral factor while you search for your ideal cloud storage platform is its cost. Most of the popular cloud storage clients work on the exact blueprint now.
They are not free to use entirely but offer a specific limited space for absolutely no cost and are followed with monthly subscriptions.
The prices vary on the basis of the space provided. The plans are pretty extensive; let us study them in detail!
For example, after using up the free 15 GB storage in *Google Drive*, you can opt for Google’s ‘Basic’ upgrading plan. It gives you a significant repository of about 100 GB, priced at $1.99 only for every month.
The costs of 200 GB ‘Standard’ and 1 TB ‘Premium’ monthly plans are priced at $2.99 and $9.99, respectively. You can now upgrade the 1 TB plan to 2 TB at no extra cost. Preferably, save up to 17% through annual variants of the subscription plans, as mentioned earlier.
| Plan | Free | Basic | Standard | Premium |
| Pricing/month | Free | $1.99 | $2.99 | $9.99 |
| Storage | 15GB | 100GB | 200GB | 2TB |
The recent introduction of Google One now lets users have more spacious storage, exceeding from 2 TB up to 30 TB. The largest one costs about $299.99 per month for 30 TB of storage. The Google One upgrades are helpful and allow you to share by including your family as well.
Remember, all these Google storage plans are inclusive of Google Photos and Gmail, too, along with Google Drive, of course.
Read Google Drive vs Mega
What do we know about OneDrive?
Coming to *OneDrive*, there are many options to explore. You have the choice to go either for only OneDrive plans or the entire Microsoft Office bonanza. OneDrive is free to use up to 5 GB only, three times less than Google’s.
| Plan | Microsoft 365 Family | Microsoft 365 Personal | OneDrive Standalone | OneDrive Basic |
| Pricing/Year | $99.99 | $69.99 | $1.99 | Free |
| Features | – OneDrive Premium Features – 6TB (1000GB/person) | – OneDrive Premium Features – 1TB (1000GB) | 100GB | 5GB |
The basic plan here is also for 100 GB of storage, priced at $1.99 per month, just like Google.
‘OneDrive for Business’ is used widely in institutions and companies if you only have to use OneDrive and don’t need the entire Office 365 Suite.
The variants under it are priced at $5 per month for every user to have a space up to 1 TB, which is a lot. In case you wish to expand to unlimited storage, the monthly $10 per user plan is the best choice to go for!
To get your hands on the Microsoft 365 Suite experience, the plans are more or less equivalent to Google. The 1 TB monthly plan costs about $6.99, way cheaper than Google. The next upgrade plan is also quite effective, which allows you a space of 5 TB, only at $9.99 per month!
But, here’s a catch. All these plans were established for single users only. Yet, there is a shareable plan by MS, too; the ‘365 Business Standard’ subscription provides you the freedom to have multiple users on the account with a limit of 1 TB per person, at just $15 per month.
Google Drive lets you have a greater free space when you don’t want to spend, but OneDrive gives more value for its prices!
Google Drive Vs OneDrive: Ease of use- User Friendliness
Undoubtedly, this is another essential basis of comparison. The more easy to understand the interface and functionalities are, the more popular the platform is. However, both Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive have a similar taste in graphics and tool positioning.
Google Drive has been designed in an effortless yet attractive way. All the associated options and features are so easily accessible that even while using it for the first time, you will not have a hard time deciphering this platform, no matter your age.
Drive allows you to make specific files available offline too. Talking about the available categorization features, it has become a cakewalk to group your files and folder efficiently.
The way users are super comfortable with OneDrive from top to bottom is attributed to the fact that we have literally grown up with Microsoft Office’s interface. Like any other MS software, it runs from toolbars to navigate groups.
The organization scope here is unmatched. You can sort, search, and arrange your data in a much better format. Like Google Drive, the downloading and uploading options are super handy while doing file transfers.
The sharing preferences and restrictions are similar on both these platforms. On a bigger picture, none of them miss out on integral features. The related services also serve the same purpose without compromising with the execution.
Read Google Drive Vs Google Docs
Google Drive Vs OneDrive: Performance and Efficiency
Well, none of the platforms in our discussion will fail in this arena. Both Google Drive and OneDrive are powerful storage clients.
Hailing from such big market names are safe to use, have no scope for data tampering, and are mostly bug-free, accompanied by frequent technological updates.
Google Drive is based predominantly online but has recently ventured into offline browsing as well. So no worries about space issues on your local computer.
The synchronization is very rapid. It also allows file storage of different formats, be it videos, images, or pdfs. The Google workspace is very light and packed with unique features.
OneDrive, unlike Google, was established as an offline software. But, transitioning into the online format was not a big deal here. The downloading and uploading speeds are apparently much faster on OneDrive. Although people prefer Google Drive due to its commonness, OneDrive has a more robust workflow.
But, OneDrive has a significant drawback to its processing speed. It takes an eternity for it to start, unlike Google, which opens and syncs instantly. Google Drive also cannot escape from nagging third-party clients. The Microsoft software, no doubt, can sustain privacy threats much better than Google Drive can.
Google Drive Vs OneDrive: Compatibility and Integration Capabilities
Google Drive is tremendously compatible with almost all browsers, operating systems, devices, and online services. One Google account and you are good to go. Many Google stans prefer it because of how Google is almost everywhere. It is easier to sync content across millions of web pages using its super-friendly web extension.
Working or maybe just viewing files on Google slides or docs and wish to save the document quickly? No need to download it specifically! You are just a click away from ‘Add to Drive’ and witness the epic synchronization coming together!
Similarly, OneDrive is power-packed with the Office Suite. From Teams, PowerPoint, Word, Access, and everything Microsoft, OneDrive’s impressive cloud integrations hold on everything together beautifully. The Microsoft Productivity Suite is truly one of a kind.
If you have been accustomed to the Microsoft interface since you were a kid, it is better to stick to OneDrive to let the familiarity remain the way it is.
Just like Google Drive, OneDrive, although primarily available as an offline desktop client, has mobile variants too for Android and iOS. The fast real-time sync allows users to share files across operating systems and devices.
Read How to Migrate from Evernote to Google Drive
Google Drive Vs OneDrive: Technological Upgradations
Google Drive has been in the industry since 2012, although it started gaining great popularity from 2015 onwards.
Since then, Google has never flinched away from adding new and beneficial features to boost Drive’s effectiveness. Almost every year, Google adds a new and better version to the already impressive Google Drive.
Its ‘Backup and Sync’ (now Google Drive for Desktop) became the most significant highlight amongst Google Drive’s most beneficial features, rolled out in 2017. Just a single tool and it has single-handedly made Google as efficient as it could ever get.
OneDrive, on the other hand, has been reigning Microsoft power for 14 years now. It was utterly famous as every single person’s Windows desktop storing app, back in the days when online cloud storage was not even a thing.
Although OneDrive has not made any significant changes to its interface since then, it still did not fail Microsoft fans while conforming to the online data storage.
The recent options to create individual shortcuts and modify the content with synchronization have improved the Microsoft users’ data storing experience. The customizable syncing settings have topped all such platforms in terms of user control.
Read related Google Drive tutorials:
- How to Backup Laptop to Google Drive
- Google Drive Download without Zipping Files
- Can Viewers on Google Drive download Files?
- How to Rotate a PDF in Google Drive
- How to move files from DropBox to Google Drive
Final Verdict
Choosing the right platform for you depends on your preferences or your organization’s requirements. If they follow a particular ecosystem in your company, it is undeniable that it is the norm. Both the options, Google Drive and OneDrive, both come down as beneficial platforms to boost your productivity.
The recent transition towards cloud storage from people of all ages and classes has gained such platforms immense fame. They come in very handy even for students to accommodate data of all kinds and ensure its safety and ease of accessibility.
Honestly, both of these platforms are very similar in terms of effectiveness, synchronization capabilities, and features offered. The only variation is the brand.
Both of the ecosystems are equally popular and have their pros and cons. We prefer to choose the ecosystem you are most comfortable with (keep in mind the allied services of the respective platforms).
Contrary to popular notions, nowadays, Google Drive isn’t only limited to personal use, and OneDrive also disagrees with its industrial organization-only platform stereotype. The analysis mentioned above will be helpful for you to decide the better choice for your next cloud storage destination!
Hello, my name is Shirley. I’m a Google Drive expert and have been working with the platform since it launched. I’ve written extensively about Google Drive tips and tricks, and have created numerous tutorials on how to get the most out of the platform. I also enjoy creating tutorials to help people learn how to use Drive like pros. Read more