iCloud vs Google Drive: Pricing, Storage & Features Compared

• Apple users: iCloud is firmly embedded in the Apple ecosystem, which makes it a good choice for Apple users.
• Users who prefer privacy: Thanks to its advanced data protection, iCloud is more private than Google Drive.
• Users with simple needs: iCloud is a simple service with few features, which makes it easier to use.

• Cross-platform users: Google Drive has better app support across different platforms, whereas iCloud has no Android app.
• Productivity-focused users: Google Drive lets you create and edit documents in its Workspace suite.
• Collaborative teams: Google Drive’s file-sharing features and access permissions let you collaborate with others online.

• Deep integration with Apple ecosystem: iCloud comes preinstalled on Mac, iPhone and iPad devices, and it’s where Pages, Numbers and Keynote files are stored.
• Advanced data protection: This feature adds client-side encryption to your account, preventing Apple from accessing your iCloud files.
• Device backup and restore: iCloud is the only service that can properly back up iPhones and iPads, and it can also back up much of your Mac (excluding the operating system and apps).

• Google Workspace integration: Google Drive stores Docs, Sheets and Slides documents, along with Google Photos media and any data from other Google apps, such as Gmail.
• Real-time collaboration: Google Drive is one of the most powerful tools for collaboration thanks to the combination of document-editing apps and advanced file-sharing and access controls.
• Generous free plan: Whereas iCloud offers little free storage, Google Drive has one of the most generous free plans, with 15GB of storage.

Google Drive and iCloud have similar pricing plans, with only a slight difference in the cost of their most practical plans, which provide 2TB of storage.

That said, they offer different packages — Google Drive gives you more functionality, while iCloud has better privacy, making it difficult to truly say that one provides objectively better value. Google Drive offers more free storage than iCloud, though, at 15GB vs iCloud’s 5GB.

Plan Type:
Free	15GB of Google Drive storage	5GB of iCloud storage
Low-tier	200GB for $2.50 per month, paid annually	200GB for $2.99 per month
Mid-tier	2TB for $8.33 per month, paid annually	2TB for $9.99 per month
Top-tier	10TB for $49.99 per month, paid annually	12TB for $59.99 per month, paid annually

Neither service wins this round because their pricing plans are fairly comparable, with only minor differences in cost and value.

Neither iCloud nor Google Drive made our list of the most secure cloud storage, but Apple pulls ahead in this round thanks to its recent addition of end-to-end encryption. With its advanced data protection feature, which grants you control over your encryption keys, you can have all files encrypted on your device before they’re sent to Apple servers.

Google Drive, on the other hand, has a terrible track record for user privacy. After all, its main business is advertising, and its privacy policy allows it to scan every file you upload, making it a poor place to store sensitive documents.

iCloud wins this round because it offers client-side, end-to-end encryption, while Google Drive is actively harmful to user privacy.

Google Drive and iCloud offer similarly poor customer support experiences. While help documentation is plentiful, it’s difficult to even find the correct page to get in touch with a live agent. Once you do, you’ll deal with long wait times and overworked support agents.

Neither service wins this round because the customer support options are equally lacking. It’s too close to call a winner.

Cloud Service	Upload Speed	Download Speed
	0:06:59	0:07:12
	0:11:18	0:08:25

It’s clear that Google Drive is much faster than iCloud, with the latter demonstrating one of the worst performances in our speed tests. You can see the full results of this testing in our fastest cloud storage article.

Google Drive wins this round because it has better upload and download speeds.

Feature
File sharing	Advanced	Basic
File versioning	30 days or 100 versions	None
Deleted file retention	30 days	30 days
Document editing	Google Docs, Sheets, Slides	Apple Pages, Numbers, Keynote
3rd-party integrations	Add-on store with thousands of apps	None

Although both services offer some level of document editing through their respective app suites, Google Drive’s functionality is superior, making it one of the best cloud services for collaboration. Google Workspace gives you more freedom with formatting, and the learning curve is practically nonexistent if you’ve used Microsoft Office.

On the other hand, iCloud uses Apple’s document editors, which have more limited functionality and collaboration options. File sharing is also superior on Google Drive, which highlights its better collaboration potential. In addition, Google Drive supports third-party add-ons for features such as PDF editing and document signing.

Google Drive wins this round because it offers better document editing, sharing and collaboration, and it has an entire store of add-ons to expand its functionality.

Google Drive is a better choice for Android users because it is the default cloud storage for Android, much like iCloud is for iOS users. In addition, Google Drive’s desktop app offers more file-syncing options than iCloud.

iCloud is heavily restricted to the Apple ecosystem. Although you can use the web version freely, you need to activate it on an Apple device before you can install it on Windows. Plus, it lacks an Android app.

Google Drive wins this round because of its better cross-platform support and superior desktop app.