Google Drive vs OneDrive & SharePoint: file storage compared

A plain-English comparison of Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive and SharePoint to help you understand how file storage works on each platform.

Storing, sharing, and organizing your business files is one of the most important things your productivity platform does. This guide compares Google Drive (the file storage tool in Google Workspace) with OneDrive and SharePoint (the file storage tools in Microsoft 365).

Quick summary

Google Drive is simpler and works in a single unified place. Microsoft's approach splits storage across two tools: OneDrive for personal files and SharePoint for team files. Both approaches work well. Drive is easier to start with. SharePoint is more powerful for structured team document management, but takes more setup to use well.

How Google Drive works

Google Drive is a single place where all your files live. You get your own "My Drive" for personal files, and your organization can set up "shared drives" for team files.

The key idea: everything lives in Drive. Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, PDFs, images, and any other file you upload all appear in the same file system.

Sharing is simple. You share a file or folder with someone by entering their email address and choosing whether they can view, comment, or edit.

How OneDrive and SharePoint work

Microsoft 365 splits storage across two products:

OneDrive — your personal file storage. Every user gets their own OneDrive, similar to "My Drive" in Google. Files here are yours unless you share them.
SharePoint — your team and organization file storage. SharePoint is designed for structured document libraries, intranets (internal websites), and shared team resources. It is more powerful than Google's shared drives, but also more complex.

In practice, many small teams barely touch SharePoint and just use OneDrive for everything. For larger or more structured teams, SharePoint is very valuable.

Side-by-side comparison

Feature	Google Drive	OneDrive + SharePoint
Personal file storage	My Drive	OneDrive
Team file storage	Shared drives	SharePoint document libraries
Storage amount	Varies by plan; pooled across the whole organization	1 TB per user on the business plans (OneDrive), plus SharePoint storage for the organization
Learning curve	Simple	OneDrive is simple, SharePoint is complex
Browser access	Excellent	Good
Desktop sync	Google Drive for desktop	OneDrive sync app
Mobile app	Excellent	Excellent
Offline access	Via the sync app	Via the sync app
File version history	Yes. For uploaded files Google warns a version may go after 30 days, or once there are 100 newer ones, unless you pick "Keep forever"	Yes. Microsoft says file version history is retained for 30 days
External sharing	Yes, with link or email	Yes, with link or email
Folder permissions	Simple (viewer, commenter, editor)	Detailed (SharePoint has granular permissions)
Integration with Office apps	Opens Office files and saves your changes back in the original format (some formatting differences)	Native (Word/Excel open directly from SharePoint)
Search across all files	Good	Good

Where Google Drive stands out

One place for everything

Drive keeps all files — personal and shared — in one consistent place. There is no switching between personal storage and team storage tools. Everything works the same way.

Sharing a file or folder in Drive takes seconds. You enter an email address (or choose "Anyone with the link") and select the permission level. The controls are easy to understand.

Shared drives for teams

Shared drives let you create team file areas where, as Google puts it, the files belong to the team instead of an individual. Even if members leave, the files stay. Setup is easy and manageable without IT support.

Works seamlessly with Google Docs

Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides are stored directly in Drive. Creating, opening, and sharing a document is one continuous experience — no downloading and re-uploading files.

Where OneDrive and SharePoint stand out

SharePoint is genuinely powerful

For teams that need structured document libraries, approval workflows, version control, or an internal company intranet, SharePoint has capabilities that Drive does not match. If document management is central to how your business runs, SharePoint is the better tool.

Native integration with Office apps

When you open a Word document from SharePoint or OneDrive in the Word desktop app, it opens directly — no download needed. Saving goes straight back. For heavy Office users, this is seamless.

OneDrive desktop sync is reliable

The OneDrive sync app keeps your files available locally and synced automatically. File Explorer on Windows and Finder on Mac show your OneDrive files as if they were on your computer.

Granular permissions in SharePoint

SharePoint allows precise control over who can access what. Permissions are inherited from the library a document sits in, and you can then set different ones for specific people, folders or individual files. One rule to know: Microsoft says you can override an inherited permission with a higher one, not a lower one — so if a library gives everyone edit access, you cannot cut a few people back to view-only. For complex organizations, this level of control is still valuable.

SharePoint has a learning curve

SharePoint is powerful, but it is not a simple tool. Small teams often find that OneDrive alone serves them well and that SharePoint is unnecessary complexity. If you are a small team on Microsoft 365, start with OneDrive and only move to SharePoint if you hit a real need it solves.

Which should you choose?

If simplicity is your priority, Google Drive is easier to start with and manage without technical support. One tool, one mental model.

If your team already lives in Microsoft Office and you want files to open directly in Word and Excel without any conversion, OneDrive and SharePoint integrate more naturally.

If you have complex document management needs — structured libraries, approval workflows, version control at scale — SharePoint is the more capable tool.

Common questions

What happens to files when someone leaves the company?

On Google Drive, files in shared drives stay with the organization automatically — Google's own wording is that your organization owns those files, not the user. Files in someone's personal My Drive need to be transferred, and there is a Transfer ownership tool for that in the Google Admin console, under Apps then Google Workspace then Drive and Docs. Microsoft 365 has a similar transfer process for OneDrive files. In both cases, you want to handle this before deleting the departing person's account.

Can I access Drive or OneDrive files offline?

Yes, both support offline access via their desktop sync apps (Google Drive for desktop and the OneDrive sync app). You need to set up the sync and tell the app which folders to keep available offline.

Is my data backed up automatically?

Both platforms maintain file version history (so you can restore previous versions of a document) but they are not traditional backup systems. For critical business files, a separate backup approach is still a good practice. Talk to us if you want guidance on your specific situation.

Version history also does not keep everything forever. Microsoft says file version history is retained for 30 days. Google warns that a version of an uploaded file may be removed after 30 days, or once there are 100 newer ones, unless you mark it "Keep forever".

Can I open a Google Doc in Microsoft Word?

Yes. You can download a Google Doc as a .docx file and open it in Word. Formatting is usually preserved for simple documents. More complex layouts may look slightly different. For ongoing collaboration, it is cleaner to stay within one platform's tools.

Need a hand?

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