OneDrive for Mac or iCloud Drive for Windows? Focus on document availability

[Farrgazer]

Basic context: I am a freelancer and most of my work involves researching, creating or editing word documents, spreadsheets, and presentation files, as well as remote conferencing. Nothing as intense as video editing, programming or making art.

I currently have a stationary Dell Windows PC to cover the brunt of the document creation and conferencing. I also have a MacBook that I carry for on-site work if a client requests my physical presence, whether it’s a day trip or a multi-week project. I insist on having at least one Mac because I use DEVONThink as part of my research process.

With that out of the way, I’m looking for a Dropbox alternative that can work reasonably well on both my MacBook and my Dell. I am not interested in Dropbox because the gap between the free tier (2GB) and cheapest paid tier (2TB, $10/month) is too high in terms of both price and granted storage. I won’t have anywhere near that much data on hand for any project I do.

This leaves me with iCloud+ (eyeing the 200GB tier) or OneDrive (100GB tier, no Office). I already am using iCloud+ 50GB mostly as one of multiple backup locations for my personal photos (I own an iPhone 14 Pro Max, but I also uploaded all of my old photos to iCloud), but very little beyond that. Looking at the materials I’ve gathered for previous projects, 100GB will be plenty for my needs, because I would use this to hold only material that are relevant to the current project I’m tackling.

So this comes down to

1. Which combination works better, iCloud Drive on Windows, or OneDrive on Mac?
2. Do both systems allow me to access all files like I’m accessing a folder in Finder/Explorer, without being online?
3. Are there any quirks that could affect my workflow?

 

[Mike Boreham]

I have used both but not heavily. iCloud for Windows is not good though iCloud Drive is the element that worked best for me.
I would definitely go for the Onedrive solution. More control, more visibility of status.

 

[maflynn]

For cross platform, I'd definitely go with OneDrive over iCloud. I believe (I could be wrong) but there's some level of versioning with onedrive. I don't think iCloud offers that.

 

[keeper]

The other option could be a Synology NAS and use Drive.

 

[LeeW]

I use Onedrive and Google One, both work perfectly well across all. Out of both, I prefer Onedrive, slightly more options, some version control, better layout.

On your specific points:

1. OneDrive on Mac, no contest. iCloud on Windows is total garbage (blame Apple).
2. Yes as long as you sync.
3. Don't think so.

 

[Silvestru Hosszu]

I use OneDrive on 2 windows PCs, 3 Macs and 1 iPad Pro.
No issues at all for at least 2 years.

 

[Lee_Bo]

I thinking paying $50/year for Office which included 1TB of OneDrive storage. I have OneDrive installed on my Windows & Mac laptops, my iPhone and iPad and it works great.

 

[The point and shoot pro]

I am echoing the OneDrive option. My family all use it and it's great. Lots of storage, all Office software included. Works on every device I have.

 

[SnowCrocodile]

iCloud isn't a true storage service, it's a sync service.

Onedrive beats it by a mile.

1) File versioning. That alone is worth picking it over iCloud.
2) Much easier file sharing and file links between different systems and different people.
3) Cross platform. iCloud for Windows is heavy and laggy, and there's no Android or Linux clients that I know of. Onedrive exists on all platforms (you do need an $15 3rd party app on Linux).
4) Links to documents in Onedrive work better than links to documents in iCloud.
5) OCR of saved pictures - AFAIK it still isn't a thing in iCloud.
6) Assuming you are talking paid version of Onedrive, you get 1TB of storage and MS Office suite which is well integrated with Onedrive. And if your company has MS Office subscription, you can get one for home for about half the price, just need to provide your work email.

 

[maflynn]

6) Assuming you are talking paid version of Onedrive, you get 1TB of storage and MS Office suite which is well integrated with Onedrive. And if your company has MS Office subscription, you can get one for home for about half the price, just need to provide your work email.

My concern is mixing personal and work together. Managers and/or higher ups have the ability to access and view my documents on onedrive if I used the work account

Side note, anything you write, or post in teams is certainly accessible by management - keep that inside if you're bitching out a coworker or posting somewhat questionable information, i.e., don't give your employer ammunition that could hurt you.

 

[SnowCrocodile]

My concern is mixing personal and work together. Managers and/or higher ups have the ability to access and view my documents on onedrive if I used the work account

Side note, anything you write, or post in teams is certainly accessible by management - keep that inside if you're bitching out a coworker or posting somewhat questionable information, i.e., don't give your employer ammunition that could hurt you.

You don’t use work account. If your company has O365, MS will sell you a personal subscription at a heavy discount. All you need your work email for is to prove that you qualify. You then get a link to subscribe to O365 using your personal account.