by GoogleCloud file storage and sharing
Drive storage inside Google Workspace: 2 TB pooled per user with Gmail, Meet and Docs from Business Standard at $14 per user with a one-year commitment.
Team storage bundled with business email, meetings and documents in one seat, with SSO, Drive activity logs and a HIPAA BAA on every Business plan.
Business Standard, at $14 per user a month with a one-year commitment, pools 2 TB per user and also buys Gmail with your domain, Meet, Docs, Sheets, Slides and eSignature, so a small company pays for storage and its office tools once. Google lists single sign-on with your identity provider, Drive log events, sharing policies and mobile account wipe on every Business plan, and admins accept a HIPAA BAA in the Admin console. Business Standard adds a data region policy for storing files in Europe.
Against 3 other products we reviewed in Cloud file storage and sharing: what you pay for with each, the five access facts, the plan limits we recorded and each review's bottom line. The note under the table says how each one was checked.
| Metric | Google Drive | Microsoft OneDrive | Dropbox | Box |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you're paying for | Worth the priceTeam storage bundled with business email, meetings and documents in one seat, with SSO, Drive activity logs and a HIPAA BAA on every Business plan. | Worth the priceA terabyte per user with full link controls, file requests, audit logging and a HIPAA BAA for $5.40 per user, with business email and web Office apps. | Easy to adoptTeam storage built for sharing with clients: link passwords, expiry dates, download blocking and 180-day recovery on the entry team plan. | Saves engineering timeUnlimited storage with single sign-on, e-signatures and Box AI from the Business plan, and HIPAA and FedRAMP support on Enterprise. |
| Overall score | 7.4 | 9.2Best | 7.6 | 7.3 |
| Free option | Free plan | Free plan | Free plan | Free plan |
| Card to start | –Not measured | –Not measured | –Not measured | –Not measured |
| Getting access | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve | Self-serve |
| Starter priceCheapest paid plan | $7/user/mo | $5.40/user/mo | $15/user/mo | $5/user/mo |
| Pricing model | Per seat | Per seat | Per seat | Per seat |
| Pricing page | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices | Public prices |
| Billing unit | Per user per month; storage pooled across the organization | Per user per month; 1 TB of OneDrive per user | Per license per month; storage pooled for the team | Per user per month, 3 users minimum |
| Free option | Google account, 15 GB; 14-day Workspace trial | Microsoft account, 5 GB; one-month business trial with a card | Dropbox Basic, 2 GB; free trial of Standard and Advanced (30 days per the plans page) | Individual plan, 10 GB; 14-day trial of business plans |
| Reference scenario (10 users, 2 TB, annual) | $140/mo on Business Standard ($14 × 10), computed | $54/mo on Business Basic without Teams ($5.40 × 10), computed | $150/mo on Standard ($15 × 10), computed | $150/mo on Business ($15 × 10), computed |
| Month-to-month price | $16.80 per user on Business Standard flexible ($8.40 / $16.80 / $26.40) | $6.48 per user without Teams, $8.40 with Teams | $18 per user on Standard ($18 / $30 for Standard and Advanced) | $20 per user on Business ($7 / $20 / $33 / $47 from Business Starter to Enterprise) |
| Storage on the scenario plan | 2 TB per user, pooled (20 TB for 10) | 1 TB per user; SharePoint pool of 1 TB plus 10 GB per license | 3 TB plus 1 TB per additional active license, pooled (12 TB for 10) | Unlimited; Business Starter has 100 GB |
| Restore deleted files | 30 days in the trash; admins can restore 25 days more | 93 days for work accounts; restore the whole OneDrive to any point in 30 days | 180 days on Standard, 1 year on Advanced | 30 days by default, adjustable by admins; 50 file versions |
| Password and expiring links | No link passwords; access expiry for eligible work accounts | Every business plan | Standard and up | All paid plans |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 (Workspace in scope) | SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 (Office 365 in scope) | SOC 2 report and ISO 27001 certificate cover Standard and up | SOC 1 and 2 Type II (under NDA); ISO 27001:2022 |
| HIPAA BAA | Accepted by admins in the Admin console | By default through Microsoft's data protection addendum | Standard and up; US admins sign it in the Admin Console | Enterprise and up ($35) |
| EU data storage | Data region policy from Business Standard | Follows the sign-up country or region | By support request: 10+ licenses, annual billing, billing address outside the current region | Box Zones add-on, no listed price; checked on Enterprise Plus |
| SSO | Third-party identity provider on every Business plan | Microsoft Entra ID (free version included) | Advanced and up ($24) | Business and up |
| Admin activity log | Drive log events on every Business plan | Purview Audit (Standard) on Business Basic | Audit logs with file event tracking on Advanced; Standard admins see 180 days of activity | Full user activity tracking from Business Plus ($25) |
| Bottom line | From its public pages, Google Drive in Workspace ties with OneDrive for the top compliance and admin scores here, for $14 per user with email and documents included. Its sharing tools are simpler: no link passwords or file requests, and a 30-day trash. | From its public pages, OneDrive in Microsoft 365 Business Basic scores highest here: $5.40 per user with full link controls, 93-day recovery, audit logging and a BAA. Storage is per person, and shared team sites draw on a smaller organization pool. | From its public pages, Dropbox Standard is a complete sharing plan for teams: link controls, file requests, 180-day recovery and a HIPAA BAA at $15 per user. SSO and audit logs need Advanced, and Enterprise and extra storage are priced outside the plans page. | From its public pages, Box Business gives unlimited storage, SSO, link controls and e-signatures for $15 per user. External collaborators, activity tracking and HIPAA move you up the plan ladder, and several add-ons have no listed price. |
Evidence: Google Drive: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Microsoft OneDrive: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Dropbox: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run; Box: facts checked 2026-10-16 from its public sign-up and pricing pages, no completed hands-on run. Prices in USD as listed, excluding tax. "–" means not recorded.
Review from public pages
Written from Google Drive's public pages (pricing, security or privacy, and docs) as read on Oct 16, 2026. We did not sign up, and no hands-on run is published yet.
We read the Google Workspace US pricing page with its annual and flexible prices, Google's Compare Business editions page, Workspace admin help on data regions, Drive log events, SSO, recovering deleted Drive files and HIPAA, the Drive help article on sharing, the Google One plans page and Google Cloud's SOC 2 and ISO 27001 pages on Oct 16, 2026; we did not sign up, start a trial or call the API for this review.
The pricing page lists Business Starter at $7, Business Standard at $14 and Business Plus at $22 per user a month with a one-year commitment, and $8.40, $16.80 and $26.40 on the flexible plan. Storage is pooled across the organization: 30 GB per user on Starter, 2 TB on Standard and 5 TB on Plus. A 10% introductory price applies to the first 20 users for 12 months, shown for Oct 29, 2026 to Oct 29, 2027. Enterprise is priced by sales.
The edition comparison is detailed and puts most admin controls on every Business plan, some after domain verification. On sharing, the Drive help article offers view-only sharing that keeps viewers from downloading, but no password-protected links, and it says access expiration dates are only for eligible work or school accounts without naming editions. The trial FAQ says you can pay by credit card after the 14-day trial; it does not say whether a card is needed to start.
Business Standard pools 2 TB per user and includes Gmail with your domain, Meet with recording for 150 participants, Docs, Sheets, Slides and eSignature.
vs Dropbox: Dropbox, Box and pCloud sell storage and sharing without business email.
SSO with a third-party identity provider and Drive log events are listed on Business Starter, Standard and Plus.
vs Dropbox: Dropbox starts SSO and audit logs on Advanced; Box starts full activity tracking on Business Plus.
Admins review and accept the BAA electronically before using health data in Workspace; the help page states no edition limit.
vs Box: Box signs BAAs from Enterprise ($35 per user billed annually).
Business Standard and Plus support a data-at-rest region policy, US or Europe, for the whole organization.
vs Dropbox: Dropbox moves teams to EU storage by support request, with a 10-license minimum.
The edition comparison lists ransomware detection for Drive on Business Standard and Business Plus.
Drive sharing offers view-only access that blocks downloads, but the help article lists no link passwords, and the Drive pages we read list no file request links like those of Dropbox, Box or OneDrive.
Workaround: Share with named people, and restrict sharing outside the domain through Drive sharing permissions in the Admin console.
The sharing help says access expiration dates are available to eligible work or school accounts, without naming the Workspace editions.
Workaround: Admins can review sharing activity in Drive log events.
Deleted files stay in the trash for 30 days; after a user empties it, admins can restore items for 25 more days.
Workaround: Vault on Business Plus retains data for search and export beyond that window.
Business Starter pools 30 GB per user (300 GB for 10 users); 2 TB of files needs Business Standard at twice the price.
Workaround: Storage is pooled, so heavy and light users share one allowance.
Google bills per user per month; the pricing page says the one-year commitment saves 16% against the flexible plan. For our scenario, 10 users on Business Standard cost 10 × $14 = $140 a month with a one-year commitment, or $168 on the flexible plan (computed), before tax, with 20 TB of pooled storage. Business Starter ($70 a month for 10 users) pools only 300 GB. New customers get 10% off the first 20 users for 12 months, which would make the scenario $126 a month in that first year (our arithmetic). The seat also buys Gmail, Meet, Docs and Gemini features. Business Plus ($220 a month for 10 users, computed) adds Vault, eDiscovery and 5 TB per user; Enterprise is priced by sales.
Drive for desktop syncs files to computers on every Business edition, and the Drive API is documented, so files can be copied out. Docs, Sheets and Slides work with Office files, per the plan table. After a user empties the trash, admins have 25 days to restore items; Vault on Business Plus keeps retained data for search and export.
From its public pages, Google Drive in Workspace ties with OneDrive for the top compliance and admin scores here, for $14 per user with email and documents included. Its sharing tools are simpler: no link passwords or file requests, and a 30-day trash.
| Limit | As recorded |
|---|---|
| Billing unit | Per user per month; storage pooled across the organization |
| Free option | Google account, 15 GB; 14-day Workspace trial |
| Reference scenario (10 users, 2 TB, annual) | $140/mo on Business Standard ($14 × 10), computed |
| Month-to-month price | $16.80 per user on Business Standard flexible ($8.40 / $16.80 / $26.40) |
| Storage on the scenario plan | 2 TB per user, pooled (20 TB for 10) |
| Restore deleted files | 30 days in the trash; admins can restore 25 days more |
| Password and expiring links | No link passwords; access expiry for eligible work accounts |
| SOC 2 / ISO 27001 | SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 (Workspace in scope) |
| HIPAA BAA | Accepted by admins in the Admin console |
| EU data storage | Data region policy from Business Standard |
| SSO | Third-party identity provider on every Business plan |
| Admin activity log | Drive log events on every Business plan |
Read from the vendor's public pages on Oct 16, 2026. No hands-on run is published yet. How we check
We have not published a sign-up run for Google Drive yet. The access facts above were read from its sign-up and pricing pages on Oct 16, 2026.
We have not published API calls for Google Drive yet.
Google Drive lists 5 plans. The cheapest paid plan, Business Starter (1-year commitment), costs $7/user/mo.
Prices as listed, USD, excluding tax; observed 2026-10-16.
Source: workspace.google.com pricing page. Prices change; the observed date above is when our agent read them.
We read the pricing, trust, legal and help center pages of three team file storage services on the same day and scored them on the same six indicators. What 10 users with 2 TB cost, which plan has link passwords, SSO and a HIPAA BAA, and who should pick which.
