With the development of society, more and more users are used to storing important data in the cloud instead of storing it on the hard disk. Because most of us now rely heavily on broadband, cloud computing is becoming more powerful. In this article, we will list the advantages and disadvantages of the mainstream cloud providers on the market: Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive so that everyone can choose one cloud that suits them best to use.
1. Google Drive
Google Drive is one of the most attractive cloud storage service that Google currently provides. It is a file storage and sync service. At present, just creating a Google account (Gmail, Google Calendar, Youtube) will give you a Google Drive account.
1.1 Main Features
- No matter what service you use (Gmail, Google Calendar, Youtube), these services
share 15GB of free space.
- Any documents, forms, slides-hows, etc. that someone else shares with you via Google Drive will not count towards the 15GB limit.
- Google discards any photos with a resolution of less than 2048*2048 and videos less than 15 minutes, so these settings can be tweaked on your phone or other device to get unlimited space and not take up 15GB of space.
1.2 Advantages and Disadvantages
1.2.1 Advantages
- Google File Integration
- Support for many third-party applications
- Support for in-app writing
- The interface is very easy to operate
1.2.2 Disadvantages
- Weak file sharing security because it uses 128-bit AES encryption
- No private encryption options
- No block-level synchronization
1.3 Price
- 100GB storage space, $1.99 per month or $19.99 per year
- 200GB storage space, $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year
- 2TB storage space, $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year
If you want to get 10TB, 20TB or 30TB of storage space, these prices are relatively high and are not designed for personal use.
2. Dropbox
Dropbox is a file hosting service, which offers cloud storage, file sync, personal cloud and client software. It can meet a wide range of operating system standards, including the usual Windows, Mac OS X, Android and Blackberry. Dropbox provides a small storage space of 2GB for free accounts, which may be enough to store documents, but not enough to store any type of media files (photos, music or videos).
2.1 Main features
All file servers on Dropbox use SSL for AES 256-bit encryption, which provides strong security and privacy; and requires a two-step authentication process.
In addition to creating and synchronizing important user documents in a local folder on a PC or latest smart device, Dropbox’s offline function will also make the files selected by the user available offline. Therefore, it is not always dependent on the network connection.
Allows editing and updating user files and documents.
Through linking and sharing, files and folders can even be shared with non-Dropbox users.
2.2 Advantages and disadvantages
2.2.1 Advantages
- Very fast sync speed
- MS Office online integration, which is more convenient for team collaboration
- Dropbox Paper: An unlimited page document application that allows you to store text, images and videos without saving the content as a file.
2.2.2 Disadvantages
- For Mac OS and iOS users, it may be difficult to sort them to find the required files or sub-folders because by default, files and folders are organized in alphabetical order, and folders and files are mixed together.
- Too little free space and it’s only 2GB
- No zero knowledge encryption
2.3 Price
2.3.1 Personal plan
- Plus version, you need to pay $9.99 per month when you pay annually, including 2TB of storage space.
- Professional version, the annual cost is 16.58 US dollars per month, including 3TB storage space.
2.3.2 Team Plan
- Standard, when paying annually, each user needs to pay $12.5 per month, including 5TB of storage space.
- Advanced, when paying annually, each user needs to pay US$20 per month and includes the required space.
3. OneDrive
Microsoft OneDrive (formerly known as SkyDrive) is a file hosting service and sync tool. OneDrive allows users to store files and personal data in the cloud, share files; and synchronize files on Android, Windows Phone and iOS mobile devices, Windows and macOS computers, and Xbox 360 and Xbox One game consoles.
3.1 Main features
- Additional storage space can be obtained through referral programs.
- You can manage any type of files (including photos, videos, and documents) through OneDrive, and then access them from any PC or mobile device.
- On the web version, social media can be linked to your OneDrive account. This allows sharing files with colleagues, and permissions can be set for each user, from read-only to full access to edit documents.
- Provides options for browsing user files, creating folders, and viewing thumbnail previews. It also displays files in a list, where you can perform smooth file management.
- Support automatic backup of photos and videos.
3.2 Advantages and disadvantages
3.2.1 Advantages
- Low cost pricing
- Bundled with Office 365
- Very suitable for teamwork
3.2.2 Disadvantages
- No static encryption
- Manual uploads may stop
- NTFS support only
- Doesn’t work with Firefox and IE, but works with Chrome only
3.3 Price
Microsoft 365 Personal, which can provide you with 1TB of storage space and access to different Office Apps, at a cost of $69.99 per year or $6.99 per month.
The Microsoft 365 series provides 6 terabytes of storage space and access to different Office applications for 6 users. It costs $99.99 per year and $9.99 per month. This is where OneDrive really shines.
Summary
As you can see, this article has listed the advantages and disadvantages of mainstream clouds, you can choose one to use according to your preferences. We all know that many people now have different clouds to store files. If you want a free cloud storage manager to help you manage your clouds, MultCloud will be a very good choice. It enables cloud sync and cloud transfer. Besides, it can also be a good cloud transfer service to help transfer files between clouds directly with no download and upload.