The different approaches adopted by OneDrive and Google Drive bring with them their own strengths and shortcomings.
The Pros of OneDrive
The main benefits of Microsoft OneDrive are:
Collaboration on-the-go
The free OneDrive mobile application helps businesses upload, edit and share files without having to be chained to one’s desktop. This level of real-time collaboration helps businesses boost productivity without adding to expensive overheads.
Integrated ecosystem
OneDrive allows users to use a host of Microsoft Office apps such as Word, PowerPoint, etc. It features a web version as well as a desktop version, enabling online and offline working effortlessly.
The Cons of OneDrive
The main disadvantages of Microsoft OneDrive are:
Lack of third-party app integration
Currently, OneDrive for Business does not support third-party app integrations. Users cannot sync business accounts with non-Microsoft apps such as calendars, message boards and project management platforms.
Microsoft cannot protect your data
While Microsoft offers protection against infrastructure threats like hardware and software failure, power outages and natural disasters, it does not protect data at your end from human error, illegitimate deletion, program/sync errors, malicious insiders, malware and ransomware. Learn more.
The Pros of Google Drive
The main benefits of Google Drive are:
Collaboration made easy
Shareability and real-time editing features offered by Google Drive has taken personal and professional collaboration to the next level. Share documents, spreadsheets and other content types with colleagues, family and friends with ease.
Idiot-proof user interface
Due to its intuitive UI, Google Drive aces it when it comes to usability. Its efficient built-in search engine is a highlight, allowing users to search files by type and owner.
The Cons of Google Drive
The main disadvantages of Google Drive are:
Collaboration limited to Gmail
Shareability and real-time editing don’t fare well if the recipient holds a non-Google account. The recipient needs access permission before he or she can view the content, and even then, no editing is permitted whatsoever.
Google cannot protect your data
Google has best-in-class security against infrastructure threats like hardware and software failure, power outages and natural disasters. However, it offers no data protection at your end from human error, illegitimate deletion, program/sync errors, malicious insiders, malware and ransomware.
What is the Difference Between Microsoft OneDrive And Google Drive?
Here are the key differentiators between Microsoft OneDrive and Google Drive:
Price
Pricing for OneDrive and Google Drive depends on the amount of storage offered.
OneDrive pricing plans look like this:
- Free Plan: Users can enjoy 5 GB of storage space without paying anything.
- Business Plan 1: $5/month/user and gives 1TB of storage to each user.
- Business Plan 2: Unlimited storage at $10/month/user.
- Office 365 Business Premium: Complete Office access with unlimited storage at $15/month/user.
Conversely, Google Drive pricing plans consist of the following:
- Free Plan: Enjoy 15 GB storage space without paying a single dime.
- Basic: For $6/user/month, users get 30 GB of storage space.
- Business: Users get unlimited storage, additional security and admin controls for $12/user/month.
- Enterprise: You get it all! Unlimited storage and advanced admin controls for $25/user/month.
Speed
OneDrive and Google Drive perform at the same level when it comes to speed. The difference arises when you deal with Microsoft native files that support block-level copying, where a file is broken into smaller packages. Only changes to the file are uploaded to the cloud as opposed to the entire file. As a result, data transfers take less time.
However, if you use Google productivity apps, block-level copying technology has no real benefit to offer with both Google Drive and OneDrive functioning at par.
File Sharing
OneDrive and Google Drive are not only used for storing files, but for file syncing, sharing and retrieving. The ease of file sharing is a crucial factor when choosing cloud storage because it shows the scope of team collaboration.
Generally, there are two ways to share files using OneDrive or Google Drive. You can share files through a shareable link or by entering someone’s email address to give them access. Google users can assign three tiers of permissions: view, comment and edit. On the other hand, OneDrive, with the help of SharePoint servers, offers more user permission options.
File Sync
To sync files across all devices, OneDrive and Google Drive users must download the following apps: OneDrive desktop and Backup and Sync.
While installing these apps, you will need to set up a folder on your device from your OneDrive or Google Drive account. Users can access any files on that folder from anywhere at any time.
Privacy
If there’s one thing Google Drive fans or OneDrive enthusiasts can agree on, it’s data privacy concerns. Google has notoriously been guilty of collecting user information for targeted advertising. On the other hand, Microsoft has the right to scan through users’ data for any sort of objectionable content. Of course, none of these tactics are harmful, but the thought of a stranger sifting through your data isn’t particularly comforting.
Let’s sum up the differences….
| Business plans start at $5/month/user for 1TB of storage space. | Price | Business plans start at $6/user/month for 30 GB of storage space. |
| Native files are revised quickly due to block-level copying. | Speed | Google apps boost productivity. |
| Three tiers plus additional layers of user permission with SharePoint servers. | File Sharing | Three tiers of user permission: view, edit and comment. |
| OneDrive app to sync files across all devices. | File Syncing | Backup and Sync app to sync files across all devices. |
| Mines user information to red flag ‘objectionable’ data. | Privacy | Mines user information for advertising. |
OneDrive Vs. Google Drive: Which Cloud Storage Is Better?
The answer is none. It all boils down to what you need. For instance, if most of your team members use Gmail, it makes sense to opt for Google Drive since your team is already part of the Google ecosystem, and the same thought process applies for OneDrive.
Spanning enables timely backup and quick restoration that keeps OneDrive and Google Drive data safe from all kinds of attacks, thereby ensuring business continuity.
Select a platform below to see how Spanning helps protect OneDrive and Google Drive data.
Google Workspace Learning Center
Shared drives are a great way for teams to collaborate and reference the same files in Google Drive. But it can be confusing trying to tell who can access a file or folder in a shared drive, what permissions they have for that item, and what to do if you want to change access. For a complete list of what each access level allows, review the following table:Member permissions on files and folders
Permission Manager Content manager Contributor Commenter Viewer Can view files and folders ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Can comment on files ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Can edit files ✔ ✔ ✔ Can create and add files, can create folders ✔ ✔ ✔ Can add and remove people and groups on specific files ✔ ✔ ✔ Can restore files from the Trash (up to 30 days) ✔ ✔ ✔ Can move files from My Drive to a shared drive ✔ ✔ ✔ Can move files and folders to the Trash ✔ ✔ Can move files and folders within a shared drive ✔ ✔ Can add or remove people and groups on specific folders in a shared drive ✔ Can move files from one shared drive to another shared drive ✔ Can add or remove members of a shared drive ✔ Can change member access levels ✔ Can permanently delete files in the Trash ✔ Can rename or change theme ✔
Can delete the shared drive ✔
Note: In Google Drive for desktop or files in the Chrome OS Files app, Contributor access gives only read access to files. For example, if you share an Excel file in a shared drive with a user who opens the file in Drive for desktop, the user can only view and not edit the file. To allow users to create, upload, and edit files in a shared drive in Drive for desktop and Chrome OS, give the user Content manager or Manager access to the folders in the shared drive.
Learn how to change member access levels
Members with Manager access and Google Workspace admins can control access to the items in a shared drive. In addition to setting up members, they can set restrictions on sharing as follows:
- Prevent sharing files with people outside your organization
- Prevent sharing files with non-members
- Prevent members with Commenter or Viewer access from downloading, copying, or printing files
These restrictions override file and folder sharing (described in the next section). If a shared drive Manager changes a shared drive’s restriction settings, access privileges for files in the shared drive are updated.
For example, if a file in a shared drive is shared with an external person and then the shared drive settings are updated to prevent sharing with people outside your organization, that external user can’t access the file anymore. However, their permission on the file stays in place. If the setting is changed to allow sharing with external users again, any external users who the file was already shared with regain access to it.
Learn how to set sharing permissions
Share files and folders with non-members
Unless prohibited by the sharing settings for the shared drives (described in the previous section), members with Manager, Content manager, or Contributor privileges can share files with people and groups, the same as other files in My Drive.
Only Managers can share folders with people and groups.
When someone requests access to a file in a shared drive, the request goes to the file creator if the creator has edit access to the file, even if the file creator isn’t a member of the shared drive. If the file creator no longer has edit permissions, the request goes to members of the shared drive with Manager privileges.
Access requests to folders in shared drives are sent to the Managers of the corresponding shared drive.
How sharing a folder in a shared drive works
If you have Manager access to a shared drive, you can share a specific folder with other people and groups. Sharing folders instead of the entire shared drive can make sense when everyone needs view access, but only certain people need edit access. For example:
- For a marketing department, you can make a shared drive accessible by all internal employees, with a specific folder for advertising materials that’s also shared with an external agency.
- For a shared drive used to prepare for a specific event, you can give all members view access to all files, while providing each specific team with edit access to the documents relevant to their part of the event.
You can’t make the access to folders more restrictive than the shared drive itself. For example, a member with Commenter access can’t have only Viewer access to a folder in that shared drive. If access to a file or folder is made more restricted, then access to the shared drive is also restricted to the same degree.
When you share a folder in a shared drive with someone, they get a notification and can find the folder in the Shared with me section in Google Drive. They can organize shared folders in their My Drive using shortcuts.
In Google Drive for desktop, shared drives and folders shared directly with you don’t automatically appear unless you have Manager access. If you don't have Manager access, create shortcuts in your My Drive to the shared folders or shared drives. This way you can easily access them in Drive for desktop.
How link sharing in a shared drive works
Unless prohibited by the sharing settings for the shared drives, you can share files and folders by link instead of directly with users and groups. However, link sharing can’t be less restrictive for files and folders in a folder already shared with a link. If you share a folder in a shared drive with the option Anyone in this group with this link can view, you can't share any file or folder inside with the option Anyone with the link. To work around this limitation, try the following workarounds:
- First, share the item with the option Anyone with the link, then share the parent folder with the option Anyone in this group with this link can view.
- Ask your admin to use the Drive API to share the child folder after the parent.
Learn more about sharing items in shared drives
Move files or folders into a shared drive
When a file or folder is moved into a shared drive, it keeps its sharing permissions, but access privileges may change if sharing settings for the shared drive are more restrictive. If access privileges on the file are more restrictive than the shared drive, they aren’t relaxed. For example, if a file owner sets their file to prevent downloading, copying, and printing, it stays like that after it's moved to a shared drive, even if those actions are allowed by the shared drive.
Moving files into a shared drive does not affect sharing permissions or user roles, such as Editor or Viewer, set directly on the file. However, file permissions inherited from the folder the file was in aren’t copied. For example, if someone had a folder in My Drive shared with them, but not a file, if files from that folder are moved to a shared drive that person can lose access unless they’re a member of the shared drive.
When you move a file you created into a shared drive, you’re still the creator but no longer the owner. If the shared drive's access permissions change, it’s possible for you to lose access to a file you created.
Moving folders into a shared drive can create broad changes to content access. Therefore, only users who have Manager access to the original and target locations can move folders into or between shared drives. If you move a folder to a shared drive, all of its files are visible to all members of the shared drive, including previously hidden files. Hidden files occur in My Drive when you share a folder with someone but remove access to a specific file in that folder.
Move Google Sites files into shared drives
Moving sites into a shared drive doesn’t change the visibility of a published site, but it can change who has access to the site file:
- If the original owner of the site is in the same organization as the shared drive, the Sites file associated with the site is still accessible to users who it was previously shared with.
- If the original owner of the site is in a different organization than the shared drive, the site file is not accessible to people who aren’t members of the shared drive, even if it was previously shared with them.
Learn more about moving files
Move files out of shared drives
If you have Manager access to a shared drive, you can move files and folders out of shared drive to My Drive or another shared drive. To move files from a shared drive to another, you need Contributor, Content manager, or Manager access in the destination shared drive. To move folders from one shared drive to another, you need Manager access in the destination shared drive.
Just like moving files into shared drives, access privileges on files and folders are reassessed when they’re moved out of a shared drive. If a file or folder is moved out of a shared drive to My Drive within the same organization:
- The shared drive’s sharing settings no longer apply and the file’s original sharing settings take effect. Some users might gain or lose access. For example, you have a file in the Sales team shared drive, and all members of the Sales team have Viewer access to the shared drive and the file. The document was also directly shared with five Sales team members to give them Editor access. If the file is moved out of the Sales team shared drive, most of the Sales team loses their access, but the five people it was directly shared with still have Editor access.
- File-level restrictions stay in place unless specifically changed or removed from the file. For example, if a file owner sets their file to prevent downloading, copying, and printing, it stays like that after it's moved out of a shared drive, even if those actions are allowed by the new location.
Remove access to files and folders in shared drives
Just like in My Drive, you can remove someone’s access to a file or folder in a shared drive that’s directly shared with them. (For details, go to Unshare files or folders.) However, all members of the shared drive can still at least view the file or folder. To remove access for shared drive members, you need to move the file or folder out of the shared drive, which requires Manager access.