Cloud storage continues growing in popularity each year. And no wonder. Cloud storage offers extra security and accessibility from any part of the world that has a connection to the internet.

With cloud storage, you can share large files and have unlimited space for keeping your data. There are two major cloud storage providers that offer their services to millions of users around the globe: OneDrive and Google Drive. But, what is the difference?

OneDrive

OneDrive is a product from Microsoft. It’s virtual cloud storage that you can only access with an internet connection. There are two types of subscriptions for OneDrive: Personal and Business.

OneDrive provides 5 GB of free storage with an account. As the name suggests, OneDrive Personal is a great option for personal use that involves management of documents, videos and images.

OneDrive for Business is a paid subscription that services small, medium and large businesses. OneDrive can be a part of various Microsoft 365 plans and is also available as a standalone version.

Subscription plans include:

  1. Office 365 Home. This plan gives you 1TB of storage space per user (with up to 6 users on a plan) and yearly access to such applications as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Access. Office 365 was renamed as Microsoft 365 Family in April, 2020. The annual subscription cost for Microsoft Family is $99.99.
  2. Office 365 Personal. This is a single-user plan with 1TB of storage. It works with multiple devices, such as PCs, tablets, mobile phones and operating systems (OSs). You can use this subscription on up to 5 devices at the same time. In addition, Office 365 Personal offers the following Microsoft 365 apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, Editor. The annual subscription for this plan is priced at $69.99 per year. 

Note: If you want to increase your storage space to 2TB, it will cost you an additional $120 per year or $10 per month. 

Google Drive

Now let's go over what Google Drive has to offer. Google Drive is a secure space that integrates with applications such as Docs, Sheets and Slides to support collaboration between teams. With Google Drive, you can share content without leaving your other cloud app.

Google Drive offers integration with Microsoft Office files and can edit and restore a variety of file types, including PDF, images, CAD files and more. Google Drive has a fast and advanced search incorporating AI that can help you find the file you need quickly Drive has two subscription plans for its users: for individual users and Google Workspace (former G Suite). 

You can pay monthly or yearly. The yearly costs for Google One subscription plans are as follows: 

  1. $19.99 for 100 GB per year/user
  2. $29.99 for 200 GB per year/user
  3. $99.99 for 2 TB per year/user

The monthly Google Drive plans are as follows: 

  1. 100GB plan. $1.99 per user/month
  2. 200GB plan. $2.99 per user/month
  3. 2TB plan. $9.99 per user/month

Keep in mind that you can upload up to 750GB to your Google Drive daily. And remember that you cannot upload more than 5TB overall.

You also need to differentiate between Google Cloud Storage and Google Drive. Google Cloud Storage offers persistent disk storage, network file storage and object storage. You can store your backups in Google Cloud Storage. Like in Amazon S3, Google Cloud data is stored in buckets. 

Note: After comparing OneDrive and Google Drive plans, it becomes obvious that the price for 2TB in OneDrive is twice as high as the price for 2TB in Google Drive. 

File sharing and versioning

You can share the content you keep in Google Drive or OneDrive with selected users by selecting their email addresses. You can also share content with the public by creating a link to a shared folder.

Google Drive

Google Drive allows you to share content with selected users or publicly. You can set up the permissions to allow the users to edit, organize, add or view only the content. 

If you want a user to view your content, you can send out an invitation with a link to a folder or particular file. Alternatively, you can share content by selecting the users’ email addresses. You need to grant permission to the selected users for viewing your content.

If the user is not on the list of people who have access to the document, the user can request access from their side. To share the content publicly, select one or several options from: can view / edit / comment. 

In addition, you can share content with the groups. To do so, you need to create a group list by defining the email addresses. You can configure all options related to internal and public sharing in the Google web interface.

OneDrive

The OneDrive sharing options are set to private by default. If you want to share your content in OneDrive, you need to allow sharing. You can either send a link to a designated party or make the content publicly accessible by choosing the Publish to the web option. Additionally, OneDrive sharing enables you to:

  1. Grant editing permissions 
  2. Put an expiration date on the shared content
  3. Protect your content with a password
  4. Grant permission via a link
  5. Grant permission to a selected group of users
  6. Allow access on an individual basis 

What is versioning?

Versioning enables you to go back in history and find a previous iteration of your content. By using versioning you can return to a previous state of your document with all subsequent changes undone.

In addition, versioning enables you to see the name of the user applying the change to the content. You can use versioning in the web interface of OneDrive or Google Drive. 

If you are using OneDrive, the following options are available for versioning:

  1. Restore older versions of all file types such as Microsoft 365 files, PDFs, images, videos and CAD files 
  2. Restore deleted files from the Recycle Bin
  3. Enable versioning for list or library files

The version control process starts with viewing the version history of a file. Then, after you find the version you search for, you can easily restore it. If your document ended up in the Recycle Bin, but you need it, just restore it from there! Remember, OneDrive enables you to restore up to 25 versions of a document.

If you are using versioning in Google Drive, the following options are available:

  1. See changes in your documents and see the name of the person who made these changes 
  2. View, delete, download previous versions
  3. Restore edits and comments in file docs 
  4. Access any version from any device

Google Drive allows you to go back in time to up to 100 versions or 30 days. 

Privacy and security

We know that data in the cloud is vulnerable to ransomware attacks and other types of cyber threats. That’s why following the right privacy and security practices are integral to both OneDrive and Google Drive. The question is: how can you protect your data in these services?

Both cloud storage services implement a 2-step verification process utilizing an additional layer of security beyond passwords. Google Drive uses a text message or a phone call with a special code as a second step authentication.

OneDrive also uses phone or sms verification. The other security measure from Microsoft is Personal Vault, which is an extra secure space in OneDrive which you can only access with additional authentication methods: a code via sms or email, fingerprint, or facial authentication.

Another security method is encryption. Neither Google Drive nor OneDrive offer end-to-end encryption (encrypted file transfer from the user to the cloud via the Internet and file decryption in the cloud). Google Drive and OneDrive use different HTTPS protocols to encrypt data. 

Google Drive uses:

  1. AES 128-bit encryption for data transfer over the network
  2. AES 256-bit encryption for files stored on Google Drive

OneDrive uses:

  1. AES 256-bit encryption for data transfer over the network
  2. No encryption for file storage for users with Free accounts
  3. Custom encryption keys for users with paid accounts

Conclusion

Both have certain differences and similarities but they are both great solutions for storing data. Google Drive is a more cost-effective solution for storing larger amounts of data, but one drive has advanced security options. Both OneDrive and Google Drive are great options for small businesses and large enterprises as well as for personal use.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to which option has been chosen by your organization. If you are using Microsoft 365 and OneDrive for your business, don’t forget to backup your data. Microsoft is not responsible for any data loss caused by ransomware attacks or accidental deletions.

However, you can safeguard your data with a third-party OneDrive backup. NAKIVO Backup & Replication is an affordable all-in-one data protection solution that can protect your OneDrive for Business, Exchange Online and SharePoint Online data.