Google Drive Reviews

Pros

Google Drive is probably the easiest software to use for cloud file storage. It has apps for phones, tablets, mac, and pc. I mostly use the web interface for managing my files and permissions because it seems to have the most robust and consistent feature set. It's remarkably easy to upload a file and then share that file with another person or get a public link to that file to post anywhere. I like that you can share entire folders and make collaborating on file storage downright simple. You can upload multiple files at once and it handles it in the background. It's mac and pc apps make it possible to sync a folder (or your entire drive if you want) with a folder on your computer. It has very generous storage allotments and a payment structure for upgrades that's neither complex nor expensive. Another awesome feature is the ability to preview most documents. Most only storage systems just allow you to view a file type thumbnail and download the file. When looking through hundreds of files, it's cumbersome at best. But with Drive, you can easily preview most documents without having to open them in a separate window.

Cons

It is very difficult (possibly impossible) to collaborate with users who don't have a Google account. Also, when trying to implement Google Drive via a custom software product, their API documentation is very complicated. Their examples are almost useless. Finally, it's not a version control system. While Google Docs and Sheets allow users to see the history of their edits, it's not simple (it may not be possible) to recover a document from Google Drive that was changed/deleted in the past. There is a trash system, but it's not for recovering different versions of a file. None of these were deal-breakers for me, so I love the software.

Alternatives Considered

Dropbox Business, IDrive and iCloud

Reasons for Switching to Google Drive

Google Drive was not only cheaper, but had better integrations with other platforms and a simpler overall interface.

Pros

As with most things Google, its DRIVE is adequate. It works for smaller businesses. The price point is excellent and using it with the rest of Google suite (workplace) offerings is seamless. It is good on desktop or in mobile applications.

Cons

Google Drive is not able to be modified in needed ways. I like to color coordinate my files/documents. Also, I would like to show only those items I need via brands. This is currently not possible. Drop and drag with 3rd party platforms is not possible. Not with Constant Contact.

Pros

Everything you need is on Google Drive. The permission system is simple and clear, and file sharing works very well.

Integration with other (non-Google) Drive products is very well done and requires no special configuration.

As always, this is a service that works very well and is rarely down.

Finally, the real-time collaboration system on Sheets, Docs and Slides works without a hitch.

Cons

Contacting support isn't always easy, which makes it difficult to fix and report bugs and problems.

Alternatives Considered

Gmail

Pros

Google Drive is a service that gives you a large amount of free space (15 gigabits) and additional storage for a monthly fee. As a musician, I upload files onto Google drive to share to my bandmates and anyone in the world. Beings that media files are typically large, the benefit of a large amount of storage for a small fee is a great value. This service also gives me peace of mind that my files will stay safe in the event of a computer crash (files stay on the cloud). I can share access to my Google Drive so the rest of my band can access entire folders of files.

Cons

The compression of the files can lower the quality of the media.

Alternatives Considered

Dropbox Business

Reasons for Choosing Google Drive

Dropbox compression degraded the media quality to a noticeable extent.

Switched From

Dropbox Business

Reasons for Switching to Google Drive

The size of the Dropbox Mobile app was impeding on the overall functionality of the operating system on my smartphone, and did not offer the ability to move to SD card or alternative storage. Dropbox compression degraded the media quality to a noticeable extent.

Pros

Fully integrated with Google's services, Google Drive is a very efficiant and easy to use cloud solution for your personal and professional files.

Cons

Can be limited in some areas and doesn't offer as much space as competion

Alternatives Considered

OneDrive

Reasons for Switching to Google Drive

The integration of Google Drive within Google's echosystem is what mkes the difference. It's easy and straight forward to use with all the other Google's services.

Pros

I don't know what I would do without Google Drive. I teach several classes and I am able to store and organize so much. I also am able to create shared drives for classes to store photos, etc. instead of crowding my Google Drive. It then becomes an online database that all of my students can access. I can share items with others and select the amount of ownership they have.

Cons

One of the cons for Google Drive mainly comes from shared drives. I have found that any form that is created in a shared drive is unable to use the upload photo option.

Pros

It’s easy to navigate, the search function is excellent and means you don’t really need to organize your files, the cloud integration is fantastic and you can easily share documents and moderate access to files.

Cons

I find the main drive page laggy at times and sometimes the way files appear in the drive list isn’t up to date.

Pros

I love how easy it is to organize and the ease to search for your folders/files.

Cons

It would be great to be able to change the font for folder names.

Pros

It is very easy to use, fast set up, transparent access control, and can be used across devices. Great teaching tool and good for committees as well!

Cons

Sometimes hard to reassign ownership of a folder or see where docuemtns are stored from within a document.

Pros

Google Drive is very user friendly and can be accessed from anywhere!

Cons

There isn't anything that I dislike about Google Drive.

Pros

1. It has very advanced and strong security, you can upload files and limited different levels of access (read, write, etc) to you and your friends.
2. It has a very easy way to share documents with friends, by click a link to generate a tiny url that can be sent via email, sms, and all other chat programs.
3. It supports all types of documents, such as powerpoint, spreadsheet, word documents, pdf, and there are a huge library you can install extensions for more types of documents.
4. you can easily map local drive and it will take care of the synchronisation, and you don't need to do any extra work to have your documents available everywhere online.
5. excellent integration with gmail, you can insert documents from gmail text editor, also you can download and save attachment directly into google drive.

Cons

1. Sometimes after I uploaded word documents, the format is messed up, it might be because the different format between Google and Microsoft office.
2. Sometimes it failed to upload from my mobile and asking me to provide feedbacks. But it never get fixed or improved. I would like to see more support from Google's team.
3. Permission management is a bit confusing, it is hard to have a overview which extensions have what permissions in google drive.

Alternatives Considered

Amazon S3

Reasons for Switching to Google Drive

Great integration with all other google products. such as Gmail, Google Sheet, Google Doc, etc.

Pros

I have SO much more peace of mind now, not worrying about HD crashes because I have my important files backed up and synched continually using Drive. Invaluable.
So easy to set up and use. Works invisibly in the background. Just start it on Day 1 and forget about it.
So cheap considering the peace of mind you get from it!

Cons

Having said how cheap it is, I wouldn't mind if it were a touch cheaper :) Storage space in the cloud should be getting cheaper, not more expensive, as it becomes more ubiquitous in the internet world today.

Alternatives Considered

Dropbox Business and OneDrive

Reasons for Switching to Google Drive

Price was similar for all, but I went with Google's product because I felt like they would be the most likely to last the longest without having to fold and then have me risking losing everything.

Pros

I really love to use Google Drive. It keeps my files safe, it backups my computer automatically, so I don't have to worry about the files being lost if my computer gets broken or stolen. It made my life much easier to share files with my co-workers and also big files, which were always very hard to share.

It's also very easy to use and the added benefit or having Google Docs is amazing for work.

Cons

I still feel like Clew makes a better job at finding your files through Desktop, which is a software that enables your computer to have a command + space bar feature type, but for Google Drive. Also, I miss being able to connect a hard drive on Google Drive and it automatically and safely backing it up.

Alternatives Considered

Dropbox Business and Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage

Reasons for Choosing Google Drive

Because backblaze was much harder to use as a storage system that other people could have access. Also, very hard to re-download heavy files from Brazil.

Switched From

Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage

Reasons for Switching to Google Drive

Because Google is a technology monster, they have great servers, very fast and reliable. I also have been using gmail for a long time and I love the ease of use, so it made much more sense to use it. I just wish it was cheaper or that it had more terabytes available for the same price.

Pros

- Fast
- Reliable
- Ability to work with files offline
- Safe
- Great value

Cons

There aren't a lot of cons with this software. I find it annoying only when files have been backed up when there's a constant message popping out on the top of the screen and I can't get it to go away.
Other than that, it's a very good solution for my needs.

Alternatives Considered

Dropbox Business

Reasons for Choosing Google Drive

It's more efficient, less bugs and works across all platforms unlike the previous service.

Switched From

iCloud

Reasons for Switching to Google Drive

The competitor is incredibly more expensive with very similar features.

Pros

I use Google Drive (mostly Docs) to create working documents and share those among members of my team. It's great that multiple people can collaborate on the same files and it's relatively easy to use.

Cons

Search and sorting seem a little buggy. I've run into issues with the sharing permissions on certain folders and files. I'd love to be able to edit docs on mobile without using the specific app. It sucks when you paste content into WordPress it carries with it a bunch of garbage html on the backend.

Alternatives Considered

Dropbox Business

Reasons for Choosing Google Drive

I was using Google Docs for content creation and collaboration, but switched from Dropbox for some other file sharing and storage because of the better value and user interface. At that time Dropbox didn't allow for file editing, which was a pain.

Switched From

Dropbox Business

Pros

We use to store files and images in Dropbox then share it through email with our team. But now we can easily upload our document on google drive and share with our team within min using our mobile phone

Cons

We have been using goggle drive for more then 3 years now, so far we have not found anything we don't like yet.

Alternatives Considered

Slack and monday.com

Reasons for Choosing Google Drive

So that we can consolidate all the storage and document sharing from one location

Switched From

Dropbox Business and Microsoft 365

Reasons for Switching to Google Drive

Google drive price is better and most of our team are familiar with Gmail usage.

Pros

I feel like I shouldn't even have to explain this but the way it's laid out over the years. Your teaching yourself how to use without even noticing it's very. Subprime

Cons

Would say a long time ago. Couple years it was a little bit laggy but now compared more cloud base storage and cost I cannot complain. There's no recoil at this point

Alternatives Considered

OneDrive

Reasons for Choosing Google Drive

It would took a more space and it may have more features but it didn't need to be that much extra for what was needed. I would still maybe should have outlook for academical feature

Switched From

Microsoft Outlook

Pros

I use Google Drive to store all my photos and files. All the files and folders gets uploaded on the backend; there is no need for a manual upload. Google drive's app allow searching for content easy and gives you access to the entire Gsuite in one place.

If you have Google photos then there is no 'Cap' to the amount of photos you can upload. It lowers the quality to 'HD' but it is more than good enough compromise to have a free unlimited storage. I have been using Google Drive to back up all of my photos over a year all free of cost.

I can also share files to my family and files very easily through any app or send an editable sharing link for collaborative work with your colleagues. Since it is also integrated with Gmail, you are able to save the email attachment directly from your Gmail to your Gdrive.

Cons

Google Drive's Mac app is not as intuitive as their mobile apps. On PC desktop computers if you have set up a folder to sync it sometimes does not sync fully and therefore does not update any new files you load into that folder - this is a big issue if you are using it to sync work documents.

On Mac, if you remove some files from your folder Google drive also removes those files from its system rendering the whole thing useless. Fortunately, this can be altered inside the setting but due to the app not being user friendly this information can get lost.

Pros

Most of our smart phones (Android) is having Google accounts to operates and Google Drive is the advanced cloud storage media contains with free 15GB of storage for all the Google accounts to store the files freely. As general, cloud is the new technology we are using to access our resources remotely from anywhere, anyplace, and anytime.
Google Drive providing with the user friendly environment where the user can feel the he/she is working with their file system (e.g: can create a folder, create a word/excel/power point, cut/copy/past the files and folder, file/folder sharing with advance option such as view/edit, etc.)
It is accessible if we have signed our Google Email and we can share the documents through the email or as by links. It is acting as a portable, accessible and not tangible storage device for all of us.

Cons

It perfectly alright to the well known users and it may be difficult to the new users (users are low in technical knowledge). When we are sharing a confidential file it is restricting the others access by providing their emails but it will be more secure if those files share with passwords.
We can backup our own folders in our PC. So, as attackers perspective any attackers can misuse this feature to copy some file from someones PC without any storage devices. It will be good if it have encryption mechanism to store the confidential files and to share with others.

Pros

What did we do before products like Drive? We rummaged for files on our desktop, sent a thousand emails to colleagues looking for information, and lost documents in a shuffle of unorganized madness.

Drive makes it easy to store and collaborate on files within your organization and outside of it.

- The "search" feture within Drive is accurate and useful, easily and accurately identifying the content I'm looking for. As long as you use clear, identifiable titles on the items in your Drive, you will find what you're looking for in less than 5 seconds. No rummaging around on your hard drive or desktop for files, no emails back and forth to other departments to look for something.

- If I need to share a Doc or a Sheet with a client for approval or collaboration, I can easily identify what level of permission I am offering them: editing or viewing. It keeps me from accidentally letting someone edit a document who shouldn't have access to it.

- It is very reliable. I never experience glitching or accidentally losing content due to software malfunction (an issue I've had with competitive software).

- The layout of the applications within Drive (Sheets, Docs, etc.) are intuitive and easy to navigate. I feel confident even my mostly computer illiterate 68 year old mother could handle navigating Drive and utilizing it well.

- It has a clean, modern appearance that helps me feel less stressed when I'm looking for files.

- The color scheme is pleasant.

Cons

Even the most brilliant products have ways they can improve.

1. While Drive offers an easy launch pad into other applications like Sheets and Docs, there is not an easy way to navigate back to Drive once you're in a spreadsheet or a document.

The link in the top left corner will take you back to the Sheets homepage, but not to Google Drive. For that, you have to do a few extra clicks or utilize a bookmark.

In our company, we constantly hop back and forth between Sheets and Docs, so I wish there was an easier way to go back to the parent Drive page.

2. The second area for possible improvement is the permissions section. When I want to share a script with a client outisde of our organization for them to make edits to, I have to make 6 clicks. For an action that I frequently do, that's a lot.

There are less clicks required if you're sharing to someone within your organization, but I find that useless as each member on our team already has access to all of our company files and doesn't need a special link for sharing purposes.

Pros

Google Drive is the best thing that has happened since sliced bread! It allows you to upload photos, documents as well as any other file you intend on saving for future use. Personally, I love the fact that you can choose to share your drive with another Google user at your own discretion. You can allow either only specific files to be shared or you can share the entire drive.

In the past I worked at a company where we used Google Drive daily to upload work documents to each other, whether we were at the office or at home. It was super easy and very convenient.

It is linked with most apps and other software like Facebook for instance. If you want to post a picture from your drive onto Facebook it can easily be done. Google Drive also has an excellent amount of space, I have uploaded hundreds of files and am no where near my max capacity.

Cons

Honestly, I love pretty much everything about Google Drive. It is such a great tool for those that work in an office setting - I can not emphasize this enough. Being able to privately and securely access files between you and your fellow coworkers is an amazing feature.

Pros

The cost is the main pros of this service. At the low price of $12/user/month, we get access to email, an entire office suite as well as unlimited file storage via Google Drive. The download speed is fast, I mean, it's by Google, what else do I need to say.

Cons

Frankly, there is no much cons that I have. It works exactly like dropbox but at a fraction of it's cost and comes with more features.

Alternatives Considered

ownCloud

Reasons for Choosing Google Drive

Cost

Switched From

Dropbox Business

Reasons for Switching to Google Drive

We prefer a 3rd party to manage our cloud.

Pros

I like it because It's free and very easy to use with an excellent and clean user interface.
I can access all my files, pics, videos...etc from anywhere and I can use my phone or my PC/laptop to access them.
I like The offline access option because it's allowing me to access all my files without the need to have an internet connection.
I can store any files from Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and I can access and edit them without any problem.
The best thing is I don't need to have a large capacity hard disk because I can now store all my important files in the cloud using Google Drive and I don't need to worry about losing them because everything is safe and secure on Google Servers.
I really love the security system and the encryption file transfer google offered in Google Drive and I really feel safe and I don't need to panic about my files or my account getting hacked.
It helped me to stay organized and helped me to manage my files, pics, videos and I like how I can control who has access to my files while running my business.
I can install the Backup and Sync tool to automate the file saving and if I make any changes the tool will automatically Sync everything in Google Drive.
Google Support is great and they are available 24/7 and they have a lot of resources and videos about google drive and I learned a lot from their blog articles too.

Cons

They can add passwords or any sort of protection when sharing a link.
They can improve the Uploading speed because sometimes it's very slow especially when uploading big files to your Drive account.

Pros

Google Drive can be used even without downloading a software. That makes this cloud storage system is the best when comparing to other cloud storage solutions. Google drive has some offline features that can be helpful for anyone if they face sudden connection failures. Even if you have lower strength of network signal, this google drive works perfectly. It gives us 15GB FREE Storage when we sign up for the first time. This storage may be enough for thousands of documents if you need google drive just to store Documents. Drive is very powerful when it comes to Access Controls. You can manage how you want to share your docs or folders with others. You can set up various Access Levels and Protect your data. Drive can be used from any device available today. We can configure Auto Backup option to make it more easier.

Cons

There is a Risk of storing data in a Cloud Solution. It does affects to all other cloud storing solutions too. Lots of Cyber Attacks are happening now a days. So, there is a Risk. Other than that i have nothing to highlight.

Pros

I like Google Drive because it is a very user-friendly platform that allows me to easily store and organize my files in the cloud. I can access my files from any device with an internet connection, which is very convenient for me as I often work on different devices. The collaboration feature is also a major pro for me, as it allows me to share and work on documents with my colleagues in real-time. This helps me to stay productive and efficient. I also appreciate the built-in productivity tools, such as Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, which allow me to create and edit documents, spreadsheets, and presentations without the need for any additional software. Additionally, Google Drive has a large storage capacity, which is great for me as I store a lot of files.

Cons

One of the cons of Google Drive that I have noticed is that it can sometimes be slow to load or sync files, especially when working with large or complex files. This can be frustrating and can slow down my workflow. Another area of improvement for Google Drive would be to have a better file organization system, as it can be difficult to find specific files among the many that I have stored on the platform. Additionally, it would be useful to have more advanced file management features, such as being able to tag or categorize files, or to have more control over permissions when sharing files with others.