iCloud Are there any advantages of iCloud over Onedrive in a multiplatform setup ?

[SnowCrocodile]

Trying to decide which way to go...

Have 5 users in the family (myself + wife + kids), all iPhones / iPads, a few Macs, + I am using a couple Windows computers.

I am by far the heaviest user.

I've been paying for Apple One+ family plan, but decided I no longer want to keep it. Apple TV+ has largely been a disappointment, kids could care less about Arcade, the only services we actually use are Music and iCloud.

We're about 175 Gb into 200 Gb limit.

I also subscribe to Microsoft Office ($50 per year, 1TB shared Onedrive with Office apps for all family members)

So, I can do the following:

1) Cancel AO+, keep AM family, buy 2Tb iCloud plan, it will be a wash vs what I'm paying right now. Utilize iCloud Drive as my main cloud storage (the Windows client is OK, not spectacular). Realistically I won't need more than a few hundred GB.
2) Keep the same 200 Gb iCloud plan, save about $70 per year, use Onedrive as my main storage across all devices. Probably need to move most of my iCloud photos to Onedrive (not a deal breaker).

The cost itself is not a big deal, but I see a few issues with switching to iCloud Drive for all storage:

1) No version history. This is a big issue. I would need a robust iCloud backup method but it won't save my behind in case I need to go back a few hours or a couple days.
2) As I recall, file links in iCloud don't really work all that well. It's been a long time since I used it though.

So, are there any advantages to using iCloud instead of Onedrive, that I haven't thought of ?

 

[Morac]

If you are just using iCloud to save files then there’s really no difference. You can even add OneDrive to Files and use it that way.

The main disadvantage of using OneDrive is iOS won’t use it for integrated apps so the following still use iCloud storage.

1. iCloud backups
2. iCloud Photo Library - OneDrive can upload photos, but you lose the syncing feature of iCloud.
3. Notes
4. Messages (if using cloud syncing)
5. Any third party app that store data in iCloud.

If you run out of iCloud storage the above will stop saving.

 

[ShadowJamie]

Trying to decide which way to go...

Have 5 users in the family (myself + wife + kids), all iPhones / iPads, a few Macs, + I am using a couple Windows computers.

I am by far the heaviest user.

I've been paying for Apple One+ family plan, but decided I no longer want to keep it. Apple TV+ has largely been a disappointment, kids could care less about Arcade, the only services we actually use are Music and iCloud.

We're about 175 Gb into 200 Gb limit.

I also subscribe to Microsoft Office ($50 per year, 1TB shared Onedrive with Office apps for all family members)

So, I can do the following:

1) Cancel AO+, keep AM family, buy 2Tb iCloud plan, it will be a wash vs what I'm paying right now. Utilize iCloud Drive as my main cloud storage (the Windows client is OK, not spectacular). Realistically I won't need more than a few hundred GB.
2) Keep the same 200 Gb iCloud plan, save about $70 per year, use Onedrive as my main storage across all devices. Probably need to move most of my iCloud photos to Onedrive (not a deal breaker).

The cost itself is not a big deal, but I see a few issues with switching to iCloud Drive for all storage:

1) No version history. This is a big issue. I would need a robust iCloud backup method but it won't save my behind in case I need to go back a few hours or a couple days.
2) As I recall, file links in iCloud don't really work all that well. It's been a long time since I used it though.

So, are there any advantages to using iCloud instead of Onedrive, that I haven't thought of ?

You might want to consider privacy. With iCloud, only you have access to your data. With Microsoft OneDrive, in theory, anyone within Microsoft could potentially have full access.

 

[SnowCrocodile]

You might want to consider privacy. With iCloud, only you have access to your data.

Well, me and perhaps some three letter agency... but it's not used for advertising and is not sold to 3rd parties.

With Microsoft OneDrive, in theory, anyone within Microsoft could potentially have full access.

Any records I don't want them to see are inside a Cryptomator vault.

The rest are all documents that I assume anyone can read and I don't care. They can have my refrigerator service history.