File Storage · alternatives
Alternatives to Google Drive
21 file storage tools sit alongside Google Drive in this directory. Below is what separates each from Google Drive on the figures we hold, price, model, tier count and rating, and a direct comparison for every one.
- Alternatives listed
- 21
- With a free tier
- 10
- Cheaper to start
- -
- Google Drive starts at
- Free
Why people look past Google Drive
Nothing on the record flags a reason to move. Google Drive has a free tier. People still switch over fit and workflow, and those are not things a catalogue entry can measure, which is what the comparisons below are for.
What each alternative does differently
Ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry. Differences are drawn from price, pricing model, tier count and rating, the fields the category listing carries. For a feature-level difference, follow the head-to-head link on each card: those pages read both full records.
Save web content to Google Drive
- Publishes an entry price of Free, where Google Drive does not.
- Sold on a free model rather than Free tier plus paid storage add-on.
- 1 tier to Google Drive's 3.
Google's photo backup and organisation app, now billed against shared Google account storage
Priced and rated the same as Google Drive on the figures we hold. The difference, if there is one, is in the feature records.
Low cost S3-compatible object storage with egress included up to a multiple of what you store
- Publishes an entry price of $4/month, where Google Drive does not.
- Sold on a Per terabyte per month model rather than Free tier plus paid storage add-on.
- 2 tiers to Google Drive's 3.
S3-compatible object storage that charges nothing for egress to the internet
- Publishes an entry price of $0.015/month, where Google Drive does not.
- Sold on a Per gigabyte stored per month model rather than Free tier plus paid storage add-on.
Open source distributed storage providing object, block and file from one cluster
- Sold on a Open source, no licence fee model rather than Free tier plus paid storage add-on.
- 1 tier to Google Drive's 3.
S3-compatible object storage server you run yourself, now under AGPL with a stripped community edition
- Sold on a Open source, no licence fee model rather than Free tier plus paid storage add-on.
- 2 tiers to Google Drive's 3.
Every Google Drive alternative at a glance
A dash means the catalogue entry carries no figure, not that the answer is nothing.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Tiers | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Drive (this page) | Free | Free tier plus paid storage add-on | 3 | |
| Save to Google DriveIf you specifically want the browser extension for saving web pages into Drive, rather than the storage app itself | Free | Free | 1 | vs Google Drive |
| Google PhotosIf your priority is photo backup specifically rather than general file storage | Free | Free tier plus paid storage add-on | 3 | vs Google Drive |
| IDrive e2 | Free, then $4/month | Per terabyte per month | 2 | vs Google Drive |
| Cloudflare R2 | Free, then $0.015/month | Per gigabyte stored per month | 3 | vs Google Drive |
| Ceph | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Google Drive |
| MinIO | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs Google Drive |
| Storj | Free, then $4/month | Per terabyte per month | 2 | vs Google Drive |
| Tigris | Free, then $0.004/GB/month | Usage-based tiered storage with per-request fees | 4 | vs Google Drive |
| Box | Free, then $5/month | Subscription | 4 | vs Google Drive |
| Nextcloud | Free | Freemium | 4 | vs Google Drive |
| LucidLink | $7/month | Per member per month plus storage | 3 | vs Google Drive |
| VAST Data | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Google Drive |
| Panzura | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Google Drive |
| Scality RING | On request | Quote | 2 | vs Google Drive |
| Cloudian | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Google Drive |
| Nasuni | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Google Drive |
| Veritas NetBackup | $100/month | Subscription | 1 | vs Google Drive |
| Zerto | $5/month | Subscription | 1 | vs Google Drive |
| Microsoft OneDrive | $1.99/month | Subscription | 4 | vs Google Drive |
| Backblaze | $9/month | - | 2 | vs Google Drive |
| IDrive | $2.5/month | Subscription | 7 | vs Google Drive |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry; Softwr hosts no reviews of these products. How each figure is used is set out on the Google Drive badges page.
Cheaper ways to solve the same problem
Free to start (10)
These publish a tier that costs nothing, so they can be evaluated before any money changes hands.
- Save to Google Drive , Free
- Google Photos , Free
- IDrive e2 , Free, then $4/month
- Cloudflare R2 , Free, then $0.015/month
- Ceph , Free
- MinIO , Free
- Storj , Free, then $4/month
- Tigris , Free, then $0.004/GB/month
What you would be giving up
Google Drive is most often brought in for backing up and syncing personal files across a phone, laptop and desktop, collaborating on a document, spreadsheet or presentation in real time with others, sharing a folder of files with specific permission levels with a defined group, storing large attachments to send by link instead of email attachment size limits. Anything replacing it has to cover the ones you actually depend on, and a cheaper tool that misses one of them is not cheaper.
Two things this page cannot settle. It compares on price, model, tier count and rating, because those are the fields the category listing carries, feature-level differences need both full records, which is what the head-to-head pages load. And the ratings are third-party aggregates imported with each entry rather than reviews written here, so a 0.2 difference between two tools is noise rather than a finding.
If Google Drive is broadly right and the question is cost, the Google Drive pricing breakdown covers every tier and what each one adds. If you want the whole field rather than a shortlist, the File Storage category lists everything the directory holds, and best file storage tools ranks them.
Google Drive runs on ios, android, web, windows, macos. Platform coverage is not carried on the category listing for the alternatives, so it is one more thing to check on each head-to-head page rather than here.
Questions about Google Drive alternatives
- What are the main alternatives to Google Drive?
- 21 other file storage tools are listed in this directory, led by Save to Google Drive, Google Photos, IDrive e2, Cloudflare R2. They are ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry, not by any Softwr ranking.
- What is the best free alternative to Google Drive?
- 10 of the alternatives listed here can be used without paying: Save to Google Drive, Google Photos, IDrive e2, Cloudflare R2, Ceph.
- Is there a reason to switch away from Google Drive?
- Nothing in the data flags one. Google Drive has a free tier. Fit and workflow are the usual reasons to move, and those are not things this record can measure.
- What would I give up by switching from Google Drive?
- Google Drive is most often brought in for backing up and syncing personal files across a phone, laptop and desktop, collaborating on a document, spreadsheet or presentation in real time with others, sharing a folder of files with specific permission levels with a defined group, storing large attachments to send by link instead of email attachment size limits. Anything you replace it with has to cover the ones you actually rely on, the side-by-side comparisons linked from each alternative below put the two feature records against each other.
- Is there an open-source alternative to Google Drive?
- None of the file storage tools listed here are recorded as open source. That is what the licence field on each entry says, and the field is not always filled in, so it is worth checking directly for any tool you are serious about.
- How were these Google Drive alternatives chosen?
- They are the tools filed in the same category, File Storage, ordered by the aggregated rating on each entry. There is no editorial shortlist, and nothing on this page is paid: no sponsored placement runs on alternatives pages and the order cannot be bought. Softwr has not used these products.
- Where can I compare Google Drive against one of these directly?
- Every alternative below has a side-by-side page against Google Drive covering price, platforms, features and what each one is used for. Those pages read the full record for both products rather than the summary shown here.
- Does this list cover every file storage tool?
- No. It covers what this directory holds in the File Storage category, 21 tools beside Google Drive. The category page lists the rest of the catalogue as it grows.