Google Drive vs The Rest

Google Drive launched today and has been making the rounds. Being that hundreds of Millions of people have a Google account, this is a great way for the company to offer another potentially valuable service which is tied into many other services that people already use.

Over at Engadget, they compared Google Drive to three other services in a well put together list. The competitors? SkyDrive from Microsoft, DropBox, and iCloud from Apple. To start things off, SkyDrive takes the cake in terms of free storage with 7GB and if you optin during the limited period, you can get 25GB of free storage. Microsoft doesn’t specify on when the limited period is up, though some have reported the beginning of May.

As far as pricing is concerned, Google Drive easily has the cheapest with 25GB for $2.49/month, 100GB for $4.99/month, 200GB for $9.99/month, 400GB for $19.99/month, and 1TB for $49.99/month. They also support storage all the way up to 16TB, though you’re talking nearly $1,000/month for that option.

With a cloud storage service, most have file size limits and in that category, it’s a bit of a tie between Google Drive and DropBox. With Drive, there’s a 10GB maximum file size, though through the DropBox desktop app, there’s no limit. All four cloud storage services have desktop and mobile apps, however, iCloud is only available on Macs and iOS devices.

After it’s all said and done, Google Drive stacks up really well. The fact that it’s deeply embedded across other Google products make it an easy choice for those who rely heavily off of their products. Still though, it’s hard to beat SkyDrive’s 25GB of free storage which is likely to keep people using it and more people giving it a shot. And let’s not forget DropBox who’s ease of use and simple design is still trusted by Millions and a major force that’s led others to pursue this space.