7 Best OneDrive Alternatives And Competitors

Key Takeaways

Google Drive is the most popular cloud storage solution with a Material You makeover, real-time collaboration, and 15GB free space.
Dropbox offers feature-rich PDF editing, DocSend, Sign, Backup, and Capture tools, with 2GB free space and paid plans starting at $12 per month.
Proton Drive is a privacy-focused, Swiss-based alternative with encrypted storage, themes, and a 5GB free plan, with additional services available for a monthly fee.

Microsoft OneDrive remains an integral part of the Windows ecosystem. While the software giant has improved OneDrive with a UI makeover and new features, the usual quirks remain more or less the same. The upload and download speeds feel slow at times, and the media organization also leaves a lot to desire. If you are looking for something that prioritizes speed, privacy, collaboration, and customization, you have come to the right place.

Whether you are a power user, team player, or a privacy advocate, there is a cloud storage solution waiting for you beyond the familiar blue cloud icon on your laptop. Let’s glance over the top OneDrive alternatives in detail.

Should you use Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, or Nextcloud?

Analyzing top cloud storage solutions: A deep dive into Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, and Nextcloud

7 Google Drive

Undisputed leader in the cloud storage market

It probably doesn’t come as a surprise to see Google Drive at the top of an article discussing OneDrive alternatives. Thanks to its neat integration with Google apps and services, Google Drive remains the most popular cloud storage solution out there.

Google Drive received a much-needed Material You makeover for the web and mobile apps. It also has a neat Home view where you can check suggested files, filter them, or use the search bar at the top to find your files quickly. As for organization, you can create folders, upload relevant local folders and files from a computer, and even color code them for better differentiation.

Real-time collaboration and integration with Google Workspace remain two of the biggest USPs of Google Drive. Since most users already have a Google account, you won’t have a hard time sharing files with others.

Google offers 15GB of free space with Drive. It’s divided between Drive files, Google Photos, and Gmail messages. Once you fill it up, you can upgrade to one of the Google One plans. The pricing starts at $2 per month for 100GB. The paid plan also comes with premium Google Photos editing features that are much better than OneDrive’s default media editor. You can also purchase Google Gemini Advanced at $20 per month and get 2TB of Google Drive space included with all the AI goodies. Except for Linux, Google Drive has native apps on all the platforms.

6 Dropbox

Offers all OneDrive features and more

Speaking of the top OneDrive alternatives, you can’t really go wrong with the OG of cloud storage platforms – Dropbox. Although it’s not as well-known as Google Drive these days, Dropbox still remains a go-to choice for power users.

In addition to a neat home page where you can check your folders and suggestions, Dropbox has a bunch of tools to elevate your productivity. For example, DocSend lets you send documents securely and track activity, Sign enables secure eSignatures for any document, Backup automatically backs up all your devices, while Capture helps in creating screen recordings and video messages.

Like OneDrive, Dropbox comes with a feature-rich PDF editor to draw, highlight, add text, and insert comments or signatures in no time. You can password-protect a sharing link and even set an expiration date before sending confidential files via email or Slack.

Dropbox comes with only 2GB of free space initially. The paid plans start at $12 per month for the Plus plan. It offers 2TB of storage, 30 days to restore deleted files, and file sharing up to 50GB.

Dropbox

5 iCloud+

A must-have for Apple users

Apple’s iCloud used to be basic at best. However, Apple has steadily improved it with frequent updates in the last few years. If you live and breathe the Apple ecosystem, iCloud is a no-brainer pick for you. It’s tightly integrated into iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and goes way beyond storing and managing your files.

Apart from your photos, videos, and documents, you can use iCloud to store system and third-party app data. Whether it’s Notes, Reminders, messages, contacts, Journal entries, Health data, WhatsApp messages, and more, you can sync everything to iCloud and access data on all your devices.

iCloud also has a native Windows app (in case you use a PC) that integrates well with the default Photos app and File Explorer. You can even access iCloud Passwords on Microsoft’s desktop OS. iCloud stands out from a crowded market with a couple of unique privacy add-ons – Private Relay and Hide My Email. Private Relay reroutes your internet traffic and keeps your browsing history and IP address hidden from prying eyes. Hide My Email generates temporary email addresses that you can use on unknown apps and services.

Apple offers 5GB of free iCloud space. Beyond this, you need to pay for one of the iCloud+ or Apple One (a bundle that combines Apple Music, TV+, Fitness, Arcade, and iCloud+) plans. iCloud pricing starts at just $1 per month for 50GB.

Apple iCloud+

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4 Box

A business-friendly OneDrive alternative

Although Box sounds and looks a lot like Dropbox, it has a couple of tricks up its sleeve to stand out from a competitive market. One such feature is Box Canvas. As the name suggests, it’s an infinite whiteboard to plan and brainstorm ideas with team members. You can use different tools such as text, shape, notes, arrows, and more to map out your thoughts on a blank sheet. If privacy is important to you, Box offers HIPAA-compliant storage and file sharing (with healthcare grade security protocols).

Like Dropbox Paper, Box Notes is another productivity tool to help you create documents from scratch. Box also offers AI features to automate your workflow in no time. The service integrates well with over 1500+ popular apps. You can easily access your Box files from Slack, Teams, Google Workspace, and even Outlook mailbox.

The free plan comes with a generous 10GB space. You can upgrade to a Personal Pro plan at $10 per month for 100GB of storage. The Business plans are quite attractive, with $15 per month for unlimited storage (something that Microsoft used to offer in OneDrive).

Box

3 Proton Drive

A capable alternative to the Microsoft 365 ecosystem

Source: Proton

One of the biggest advantages of OneDrive is its integration with the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Apart from Google Drive, none of the solutions on the list offer the same suite of productivity tools. Here’s where Proton Drive makes a strong case.

Proton is a Swiss-based company that offers multiple privacy-focused alternatives to popular apps. Proton Drive is one such tool with encrypted cloud storage for all your files. It’s open-source and builds on the foundation of freedom and privacy.

You can customize your vault with different themes, password-protect it, and access your data from all your devices. The free plan offers 5GB of free space. We recommend upgrading to 500GB plan at €13 per month so that you can access other services like Proton Mail, Calendar, VPN, and Pass, too.

Proton Drive

2 Nextcloud

A self-hosted platform

Source: Nextcloud

So far, we have talked about OneDrive alternatives that host your personal data on their servers. However, if privacy and security are high on your wishlist, give Nextcloud a try. It’s a self-hosted cloud platform for personal, professional, and business use.

If you frequently deal with confidential and private files, you should strongly consider a self-hosted open-source platform like Nextcloud to store your data. Be it at home, in your office, or in the cloud, the service helps you keep your data wherever you decide to trust it.

Nextcloud is all about flexibility and gives you more control over how you store the data. Even though the company has tried to simplify the process, creating a self-hosted Nextcloud does require a learning curve. Nextcloud offers a LibreOffice-based online office suite to view and edit your files and native mobile and desktop apps to sync and share your files via an encrypted connection.

Nextcloud prices start at 100 users. The Nextcloud Basic is priced at €37.49 (around $40 at the time of writing) per user per year.

Nextcloud

1 pCloud

OneDrive alternative with lifetime prices

Source: pCloud

Do you want to ditch OneDrive due to recurring subscription charges? Fret not. pCloud is one of the rare cloud storage platforms that offers a lifetime plan. Yes, you heard it right. pCloud Individual has three lifetime plans to choose from – 500GB for $199, 2TB for $399, and 10TB for $1190. Th e company also promises a 14-day money-back guarantee.

Don’t underestimate pCloud due to its lifetime prices, though. It’s packed with useful features. You can share links, file requests, get detailed stats for your links, and even customize links with your own title, image, headline, and description.

As for usual features, pCloud supports camera roll uploads, offline access, data recovery, built-in video player, video streaming, unlimited file size and speed, and backups from other services like Dropbox, Facebook, Google Drive, Google Photos, and, of course, OneDrive. As for subscription plans, they start at $50 for 500GB per year.

pCloud

As you can see, there are plenty of great options when picking up a OneDrive alternative. From user-friendly options like Dropbox, Google Drive, and Box, to self-hosted solutions such as Nextcloud, there is no shortage of capable OneDrive alternatives out there. Pick one that meets your needs and preferences, and start transferring your OneDrive files over.