OneDrive vs. ownCloud

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
OneDrive
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
OneDrive from Microsoft is a cloud storage and file syncing service.
$5
per month
ownCloud
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
ownCloud is a self-hosted open source file syncing and sharing option, from the Boston-based company of the same name.
$5
per month
Pricing
OneDriveownCloud
Editions & Modules
OneDrive for Business Plan 1
$5.00
Per Month (Annual Commitment)
Microsoft 365 Business Basic
$5.00
Per Month (Annual Commitment)
OneDrive for Business Plan 2
$10.00
Per Month (Annual Commitment)
Microsoft 365 Business Standard
$12.50
Per Month (Annual Commitment)
Standard
$5
per month
Enterprise
$12
per month
For Teams
$13
per month
For Single Users
$15
per month
Community
Free
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
OneDriveownCloud
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsOneDrive can be purchased as a standalone tool, or as part of a Microsoft 365's business suite.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
OneDriveownCloud
Considered Both Products
OneDrive
Chose OneDrive
The only things that OneDrive does better then everyone else is the integration into Sharepoint/Office documents and the 1TB storage at this price range. Our corporate solution is Google Drive mainly because of the robust client, better cooperation inside documents, better …
ownCloud
Chose ownCloud
The sync client is great and outperforms OneDrive for sure and sometimes even Google Drive depending on the number and size of the files.

If you already have your own home-lab or server room, it's really not expensive to buy a couple hard drives and have TBs of storage. Compared …
Chose ownCloud
ownCloud is better than Google Drive and Microsoft's OneDrive. I have not used Google Drive in some time now, so it may have improved. OneDrive has become better over time too, but my go-to is still ownCloud. Firstly, I prefer to have my data under my control. No other service …
Chose ownCloud
The most important advantage for our research group is security and access control to our files, which cannot be guaranteed with 3rd party services

The sync client is great and outperforms OneDrive for sure and sometimes even Google Drive depending on the number and size of the …
Chose ownCloud
The paid cloud services are expensive if you need a lot of data. You're giving your personal and business information to a data-hungry organization. Local NAS solutions are too slow. We run ownCloud on an older business PC and the performance is outstanding, even for remote …
Chose ownCloud
ownCloud is one of the only self-hosted solutions worth it. It is open source and free, meaning that anyone with a Linux VM or an old laptop can host its own feature-rich cloud server. Many all-in-one firewalls will mix OwnCloud and CrashPlan, joining document management and …
Chose ownCloud
Due to the need to support many external workers it was mainly cost effectivity of open source solution: ability to allow external workers to access company files without the need to pay a license for each of them every month. Unfortunately, ownCloud does not offer until now as …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
OneDriveownCloud
File Sharing & Management
Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Product A and Product B
OneDrive
7.7
113 Ratings
9% below category average
ownCloud
8.5
13 Ratings
1% above category average
Versioning8.389 Ratings9.010 Ratings
Video files6.6100 Ratings7.89 Ratings
Audio files7.294 Ratings8.19 Ratings
Document collaboration7.9107 Ratings7.812 Ratings
Access control8.0108 Ratings9.512 Ratings
File search7.9113 Ratings8.112 Ratings
Device sync8.1111 Ratings9.312 Ratings
Cloud Storage Security & Administration
Comparison of Cloud Storage Security & Administration features of Product A and Product B
OneDrive
7.5
108 Ratings
14% below category average
ownCloud
8.5
13 Ratings
2% below category average
User and role management7.496 Ratings9.012 Ratings
File organization7.7108 Ratings8.713 Ratings
Device management7.491 Ratings7.79 Ratings
Cloud Storage Platform
Comparison of Cloud Storage Platform features of Product A and Product B
OneDrive
7.4
112 Ratings
14% below category average
ownCloud
8.8
13 Ratings
4% above category average
Performance8.0111 Ratings8.813 Ratings
Reliability7.1112 Ratings9.113 Ratings
Storage Reports7.086 Ratings8.410 Ratings
Best Alternatives
OneDriveownCloud
Small Businesses
SugarSync
SugarSync
Score 10.0 out of 10
SugarSync
SugarSync
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Druva Data Resiliency Cloud
Druva Data Resiliency Cloud
Score 9.6 out of 10
Druva Data Resiliency Cloud
Druva Data Resiliency Cloud
Score 9.6 out of 10
Enterprises
Druva Data Resiliency Cloud
Druva Data Resiliency Cloud
Score 9.6 out of 10
Druva Data Resiliency Cloud
Druva Data Resiliency Cloud
Score 9.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
OneDriveownCloud
Likelihood to Recommend
7.6
(113 ratings)
7.8
(13 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(12 ratings)
8.7
(4 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(36 ratings)
8.0
(3 ratings)
User Testimonials
OneDriveownCloud
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
I'll start with what I would not use OneDrive for! I would not use it as a primary source for code repository, there are other more robust tools out there that can help you with storing and making available code repos. Where I would use OneDrive is in a platform for managing files, and with that I mean any file that can be saved offline and access a OneDrive access point, share, or mount. This could be personal, business, or data from a system that is saved in a standard file format. The OneDrive platform is great for documents collaboration as well, with the ability to allow for share and links to be provided to for easy access and collaboration. I would also recommend if you are someone who likes to use cloud services and rely less and less on offline storage. OneDrive excels in this area!
Read full review
ownCloud
I'd easily recommend ownCloud to small businesses or teams within organizations. I've not used ownCloud in large deployments, so I'd hesitate before suggesting it in a situation where more than 10 users need support. That said, ownCloud is easy to set up and multiple instances could be used to service a large user base.
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Pros
Microsoft
  • Sync functions allow to access work virtually anywhere
  • Collaboration options make working with others easier, increasing productivity
  • It works seamlessly in different devices
  • The one drive online functions allows to use office programs like work and excel without having them installed in a device
Read full review
ownCloud
  • Attention and dedication to making the product a world class product with continual product updates.
  • Ease of use from an administration standpoint, and a very Clear UI.
  • The price -- you can't beat free!
  • Mobile applications are great.
  • Integration with public S3 cloud providers like AWS S3 and Wasabi S3.
  • 2FA authentication is supported and works great!
  • Marketplace Add-Ons: I love this! For example, I can install an add-on that natively opens raw images. I am a photographer as well, and being able to quickly view the CR2 Raw Files direct from the camera is fantastic! This was made possible by a marketplace add-in.
  • Embedded Media Players: Photos, Music, and Video files can be viewed and played right in the browser window.
  • Sync application to keep local files on a computer updated with the files on the server.
  • Access control and permissions -- shareable links!
Read full review
Cons
Microsoft
  • I wish OneDrive would allow you to sync multiple personal/individual accounts to your computer. At this time, you can only sync one account at a time. That means that my personal OneDrive and individual corporate OneDrive can't be synced to my computer at the same time.
  • OneDrive has a file size limitation of 15 GB. I know that that is a very large amount, but I have several files that are larger than 15 GB that I wish I could get to sync. I'm hoping that file size limitation changes in the future.
Read full review
ownCloud
  • Inability to easily collaboratively edit the same document by several people. Some advances have been made with Collabora (Libreoffice online) but it is still very sub-par compared to Office365 and desktop/online Office editing Sharepoint or OneDrive documents.
  • Apps for Calendar and Contacts are not part of the basic core, and although now quite supported they cannot still be easily deployed in common email clients such as Outlook or Thunderbird, separate CalDAV and CardDAV plugins need to be installed. Embedding an email solution and plugins for major email clients so they can work just by entering username and password would be good.
  • Risk of moving important folders/files to another location just by random drag-and-drop on Windows. Sometimes this breaks public links that cannot be restored anymore. Reverting such mistake by any of the users is impossible automatically.
  • When some user deletes some data in a shared folder it is put into recycle bin of the owner of the folder. The user who deleted cannot himself/herself revert such action as he/she does not see the recycle bin (trash) of the owner. Also, there is no log in the recycle bin who deleted that file or folder.
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Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft
Due to its tight integration into the Microsoft ecosystem and its bundling into the Office 365 service, continued use of the product is all but guaranteed. Unless there's a shift away from Microsoft, I can see no competing product offering the same ease of use and integrations taking the place of OneDrive
Read full review
ownCloud
No answers on this topic
Usability
Microsoft
Using OneDrive is very intuitive and has been improved over the years. It's just like using native file management on either your Mac or PC. It's drag and drop functionality is easy and it clearly shows when files are uploaded to the cloud or if there are errors
Read full review
ownCloud
OwnCloud is easy for me to use, and I believe it would be for others too. The barrier for most people will be the set up. For a technology professional like myself, ownCloud's setup is pretty straightforward, but it's not the sort of thing most casual users will be able to handle. Also, it's on the user to maintain the service. These can be taken care of by paying someone to do it for you.
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Performance
Microsoft
It has a good performance, the pages load normally, access to the files, management, reports, everything is working well. With regard to integration with other systems, we have not done so yet.
Read full review
ownCloud
Compared with other cloud services, ownCloud has been the most efficient. It doesn't create a noticeable drain on resources and very quickly syncs across all my devices. I'm usually able to save a file on my laptop and by the time I walk over and sit down at my desktop machine, it's already there. I don't need to wait as often as I have with services like OneDrive.
Read full review
Support Rating
Microsoft
It's a Microsoft product so there is a wealth of information online both from Microsoft directly and from millions of users but as a corporate user we also have access to direct Microsoft support through a variety of avenues (phone, email, etc.). This makes finding answers to issues more accessible, however, it does also mean that any new feature requests will get buried.
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ownCloud
Regarding the community edition, there is a reasonably good support on the IRC, forums and in the issue section on Github. Perhaps a much more individual approach would be available if the premium support was chosen and the instance of the server was provided by the Owncloud company that also offers some premium extensions, not available generally. However, we did not need this level of support yet.
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Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
Box is another file-sharing application that is very similar to OneDrive. Box falls short of OneDrive in its syncing capabilities. OneDrive is very quick with syncing so you never have to be concerned that you are not using the most up-to-date materials. Box was always a bit delayed and did not always accurately sync across systems. OneDrive benefits from being backed by Microsoft, so you expect the connection across applications that it allows. OneDrive also provides consistency for use and intuitive understanding because of that Microsoft consistency. I'd prefer OneDrive over Box.
Read full review
ownCloud
The paid cloud services are expensive if you need a lot of data. You're giving your personal and business information to a data-hungry organization. Local NAS solutions are too slow. We run ownCloud on an older business PC and the performance is outstanding, even for remote access, due to local syncing.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • OneDrive allows us to save much time on creating and archiving backup copies of our data. Microsoft gives a guarantee on the possibility of recovery of files or folders even from 30 days ago. It provides a great comfort of work.
Read full review
ownCloud
  • Software is free so if you are going for a hosted solution anyway, it's hard to beat
  • One of the easiest way to make sure your data is secured without compromising on features
  • You need to manage the infrastructure and software
Read full review
ScreenShots