Hard drives are running the risk of becoming obsolete as more and more people are opting for cloud based storage. However, with so many cloud storage services offering similar features choosing one can be a bit confusing.
We aim to compare two of the most popular cloud storage service offered by two very different companies, Apple and Google. Apple’s iCloud is the new guy in town and is here to battle it out with the trusted Google Drive. Let’s see if it has what it takes to take on Google, in terms of, device compatibility, space offerings, and fees and charges.
The Google Drive:
Google in the recent years is trying to integrate all its services creating a fluid system which now includes the Google Drive. You can easily log in using your current Gmail account like all other Google services. The Google Drive is cheapest cloud based storage solutions in the market today.
It comes with some pretty neat features that are really useful. For example, you can easily attach documents from the Google Drive when sending a mail using Gmail or you can directly save attachment to the Google Drive. Another great feature is that it be set to automatically upload all your photos from your computer and can even do an automatic image enhancement using the ‘Auto-Awesome’ feature. Google has integrated the docs, slides, and sheet services which allows users to share and organize these documents with greater ease. Another great new feature is that when you take a picture of document using Drive it automatically stores it as PDFs in the cloud. Google has done a great job integrating all its services and offers some great new features. Therefore, if you are a Google fan and use some of the popular Google services then there is no reason to choose anything other than the Google Drive.
Device Compatibility: As expected Google Drive comes with Android support and can be easily downloaded for PC and Mac. Google Drive can also be downloaded by iDevices with an iOS of 7.0 and higher.
Free Storage: In terms of free storage space the Google Drive leaves the iCloud far behind. It offers thrice the more space offering an industry best 15 Gb free storage.
Paid Plans: The Drive has two paid plans to choose from a 100GB storage space for $1.99 per month and a 1TB plan for $9.99 per month. It has less options than Apple but their paid plans are significantly cheaper.
The Apple iCloud Drive:
Apple is still trying to figure out the right notes to come up with a system that can overpower the cloud storage industry. It falls short when it comes to free storage limit but does have some nice features up its sleeves.
Much like Drive, the iCloud goes great lengths to integrate the new cloud storage service to the existing Apple services and devices. For example your iTunes can now be stored directly to iCloud which makes it accessible across all your iDevices, Mac, and PC. Most Apple purchases like iTunes, iBook now get automatically uploaded to the iCloud which makes it easier to access them. Mac users can now seamlessly sync files and easily backup emails, contacts, and notes to the drive.
Device Compatibility: iCloud needs at least the iOS 5 and can be used using iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch, iPad Mini, and iPad. It needs a minimum of OS X Lion version 10.7.5 when using it on a Mac. It can also be accessed by the Apple TV with the 7.0 software. PC users have to download iCloud for Windows and have an updated web browser.
Free Storage: It falls far behind with a free storage space of just 5 Gb.
Paid Plans: As far as choices of paid plans go, Apple offers a lot more. Their plans start with the 20 GB storage package available for $.99 per month. Although its more expensive per GB it gives the users the option of accessing a little more for a little monthly fee. The charges for iClouds 200GB, 500GB, and 1TB plans are $3.99, $9.99, and $19.99. This means if you want more storage space Google Drive is clearly the cheaper option.
As with most comparisons, it’s up to the end user to decide which of the features are more important to them. Between these two cloud storage solutions points are scored and lost in several areas. Which features are more important to you?
Related ItemsApple iCloudCloud StorageGoogle DriveiCloud
