Google Drive Review - The Leading Storage Service

Do you have a Google account?

If your answer is no, hurry up and create one.

With a free Google account, you will get 15 GB of storage for Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos, together with a wide range of features and apps.

Dive deeper into this Google Drive review to learn how to take advantage of this tool and all of its features, what perks you can get with a paid account, and even how to use it to secure your business.

What Is Google Drive

Google Drive is a backup and synchronization data storage service with cloud-based architecture. It’s one of the core apps of Google Workspace, formerly known as G Suite.

Fantastic for both individuals and businesses, Google Drive is one of the best cloud storage options out there.

How Does Google Drive Work?

Before you start using Google Drive for Business and Home, you have to create a Google Account. With the free plan, you will get access to 15 GB of storage for Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos.

Google Drive works both as cloud storage and cloud backup.

You can connect your computer and mobile phone to it and easily sync your data across devices or use it as a backup system.

We’ll discuss its features in more detail in the next section of this Google Drive review 2022.

Google Drive Features

Google Drive for Business is a feature-rich service, part of the renowned Google Workspace toolkit. The individual plans have useful but more limited capabilities.

In this section, we’ll evaluate all features and functions of the platform. We’ll explain the plans and pricing further down below.

Supported Devices and Operating Systems

The Individual and Business Google Drive editions support the following devices:

• PCs
• Macs
• Android phones and tablets
• iPhones and iPads

Google Drive is compatible with:

• Windows
• macOS
• Android
• iOS

File Sharing and Sync

Google Drive for Individuals comes with the file sharing and sync options, but these are even more advanced with the Business editions.

With both Google Drive for Business and Individuals, you can share file or folder links to people or groups. The link sharing option is restricted by default so that only you can see and not edit the file.

You can give permissions to others to edit or comment on the file you shared. You can restrict their access or the activities they can perform at any moment. If needed, you can prevent others from downloading or sharing your files.

Drive for Business adds the option of giving temporary access.

File Sync

Google offers two sync options: Drive File Stream and Backup and Sync.

Drive File Stream is a great business solution that allows you to stream My Drive and shared folders from the cloud. Thanks to this option, you don’t have to save any data locally and the sync time decreases.

Backup and Sync is the only option available with the individual plans.

During the research process for this Google Drive review, we at Web Tribunal discovered that it uses continuous backup and speed throttling. This means that Google Drive will continuously backup your folders, including whole partitions.

You can limit the bandwidth Google Drive uses and increase your internet speed in case you need it for something else.

With Drive File Stream and Backup and Sync, you can sync your data across connected devices. But these options have a few differences.

Firstly, Drive File Stream comes with the Google Drive Professional plans, while Backup and Sync is the home package option.

Both options allow you to:

• Access files in My Drive
• Sync selected folders in My Drive
• Use apps like MS Word or Photoshop

With Drive File Stream, you can:

• Access files in shared drives
• Stream files on your demand
• Sync individual files, not only folders
• Real-time presence option to see who’s editing the document
• Integration with Microsoft Outlook

Drive File Stream is just one of the many amazing features you will read about in this Google Drive for Business review.

You can also manually upload files and folders to your Google Drive account via a web browser, even with a free account. You can share files and folders, sync across different devices, and backup your data.

Data management has never been easier.

Productivity Tools

Google Drive for Business doesn’t come alone. In this G Suite review, we’ll present you the most popular and some less familiar productivity apps:

• Gmail

Gmail is the free Google email app. It efficiently fights phishing and spamming. And it’s ad-free! But with the more advanced Business plans, it also comes with eDiscovery, retention, and even S/MIME encryption.

• Meet

Meet is a video and voice conferencing app. A call over this app can last up to 24 hours. It packs many more features, such as a digital whiteboard, polls, and Q&As. We’ll elaborate more on that in the Google Drive for Companies plan comparison section.

• Calendar

With the shared calendars app, you can browse through conference rooms or reserve them.

• Chat is the team messaging app. It’s available with all plans but comes with more advanced features with the bigger business packages.
• Docs, Sheets, and Slides—these are Google’s alternatives to Microsoft Office apps and the most commonly used Google Drive tools. Docs, Sheets, and Slides are compatible with the Office files.

Other less familiar apps include:

• Keep, used for sharing notes
• Sites for website building
• Forms for creating surveys
• And last but not least—Currents, the internal communication app for engaging employees

After this thorough review of Google Apps for work tools, we’ll continue with Google Drive integrations.

Integrations

Google Drive has an ever-evolving range of integrations. You can connect it with more than 200 apps. Some of the most popular ones are work communication tools like Slack or Zoom.

For your project management needs, you can connect your Google Drive with Asana or Trello (or use specialized project management software if this is your priority).

Some users claim in their Google Drive reviews that it is part of their customer relationship management toolkit because it integrates nicely with HubSpot CRM and Salesforce.

Google Drive also integrates with other cloud storage services, such as Dropbox, Box, and Microsoft OneDrive, and even with social media platforms like Facebook Pages or Instagram.

The numerous Google Drive integrations make it a great business solution. But how easy is it to use this service? We’ll find out in the next section of this Google Drive for Business review.

Ease of Use

Whether you need Google Drive to handle your personal or business affairs, learning how to use it won’t be a problem.

With Google One—web, desktop, and mobile app, data management becomes child’s play. These platforms are straightforward to install and use with arguably the finest user interface.

But the highlight of our Google Workspace review process was the robust yet intuitive admin console—all options are visible and fast to access.

Whether you’re an admin or a team member, you will enjoy your Google Drive experience.

Google Drive Plan Comparison

Google Drive has plans for individual and business use.

In this section of our Google Drive review, we listed some of the most important features in the packages.

Google One

All individual plans that include Google Drive are under the subscription service called Google One.

Google Workspace

Google Workspace unifies all business plans. It is one of the most popular cloud-based business platforms for collaboration and productivity in the world.

Our research for the Google Drive for Business review for 2022 showed that it’s suitable for various types of businesses—new, small, enterprise, retail, manufacturing, professional services, technology, healthcare, government, education, and even nonprofits.

Every plan contains a set of apps that contribute to the productivity of your business. The two core and most popular apps are Gmail and Google Drive. They are included in all plans, but their features are more advanced with the pricier packages.

Support also varies upon the plan. Let’s see what to expect:

Support

While researching for this Google Drive review, we find out that contacting support is a struggle if you’re not a Google One or Google Workspace user. The help center will often redirect you to the knowledge base and the community forum.

With Google One, you can contact the support team 24/7 via live chat, phone, and email. You won’t spend a lot of time on the waiting list. Agents are very polite and address queries promptly.

When we contacted them for the purposes of this Google Drive for Business review, they provided all the necessary information and resolved our issue promptly.

Google Drive offers standard, enhanced, and premium support via chat or phone. The more advanced the support, the faster the response time.

But what do users say?

Google Drive User Reviews

If you look for a Google Drive review on Reddit, you may find that many users are worried about their privacy. But this problem can be solved easily—you can give your data an extra layer of security and encrypt sensitive information before uploading it.

Users praise the ease of use of the service, the free account with a decent amount of storage, and the amount of storageon paid plans. Some customers complain about the speed of Google Drive, especially when editing online. That said, this is often due to an unstable internet connection.

We read tons of user opinions for this Google Drive review and tested the service ourselves, so we can affirm that the positives outweigh the downsides.

When to Use Google Drive

If you use Gmail, then you’ve probably also taken advantage of Google Drive’s benefits with the free account. In case you need additional storage or want to increase the security and management control, you can easily upgrade to one of the advanced plans.

It’s an excellent business service, especially for small companies. You can even get unlimited storage with Google Drive’s Enterprise plan.

You can try Google Drive with the free account or use the 14-day free trial to test Google Drive for Business.

Google Drive Alternatives

In case you don’t think that Google Drive is the right service for you, check out this cloud storage comparison:

Google Drive for Business vs Dropbox Business

Both services have a similar price range. But Dropbox has a 30-day free trial, while Google Drive’s trial period is only 14 days.

Dropbox Business also has numerous useful productivity and collaboration tools. However, Google Workspace has a unique worldwide-known set of apps used by many people and 200+ integrations.

Google Drive for Business vs Box Business

The pricing of these two services is very similar, but Box Business gives a 25% discount for annual purchases. It also offers more storage than Google Drive on the lowest plan and unlimited storage on every other plan.

Then said, Box Business is just cloud storage, while Google Drive provides both storage and backup services.

Final Verdict

Google Drive is an excellent solution for individuals and businesses of all sizes. Thanks to its numerous integrations, productivity tools, and collaboration features, it has become an essential part of many organizations.

If you still haven’t used this service, try the free plan or the 14-day trial of the business version, just as I did for this Google Drive review.