How to choose between Google One, OneDrive, iCloud

Users can also share their Google One membership with up to 5 additional family members at no extra cost. Photo: Pradeep Gaur/Mint

New Delhi: In a bid to enhance its revenue from storage on the cloud in India, Google Inc. has launched a new cloud storage subscription service called Google One. The idea, according to the company’s tag line, is to “get more out of Google” by providing expanded user storage across its products such as Google Drive, Gmail and Google Photos.

The storage plans start from ₹130 per month for the 100GB plan, ₹210 for the 200GB plan, going up to ₹650 per month for the 2TB plan and ₹19,500 per month for the 30TB plan. Users can also share their Google One membership with up to 5 additional family members at no extra cost. Other benefits include one-tap access to experts for help across Google’s consumer products and services, and benefits such as Google Play credits, and preferred pricing on select hotels found in Google Search.

According to Google, all paid consumers of Google Drive storage plans will be upgraded to Google One in the next few months. According to Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief analyst, founder and CEO, Greyhound Research, though “Google One is an attempt by Google to monetize its public cloud storage business that hasn’t seen the kind of uptick they expected...launching an entirely new product to achieve this does not make sense”. He cites the example of Apple Inc., which put iCloud (storage and backup) and the heart of its OS across all devices—this helps solve both revenue and recall demands.

Gogia believes that instead of naming the new service Google One, which “sounds strikingly similar to Microsoft OneDrive (launched 11 years ago)”, Google would have done better had it used an extended brand name like Google Drive+. Besides, he added: “It would have been apt if Google had spoken about the additional security features that it is providing as part of this new launch.”

Competing cloud storage services also include Microsoft’s OneDrive . If you have a Microsoft or Outlook account, you will start off with 5GB of cloud storage for free that is not much in comparison with Google’s 15GB free storage. The OneDrive 50GB limited features plan costs ₹123 per month, after which you enter the Office 365 premium plans: The 1TB OneDrive storage that includes all premium and security features costs ₹360 a month, while the 5TB storage (1TB per person) is ₹ 460 per month. OneDrive is ideal for those who are already working with Office Suite because you get free access to Office 365.

Then there is the Apple iCloud. Everyone with an Apple ID gets 5GB of iCloud storage accessible on the iPhone, iPad or on iCloud. The 50GB plan is priced at ₹75 per month, a 200GB plan at ₹219 per month and a 2TB storage plan at ₹749 per month in India.