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Summary: This article compares OneDrive and OneDrive for Business, highlighting their features and advantages. It emphasizes the suitability of OneDrive for personal use and OneDrive for Business for enterprise-level needs, with a mention of a migration tool for data transfers.

Many individuals who use cloud services are acquainted with OneDrive, Microsoft’s cloud storage platform. OneDrive comes pre-installed on the most recent Windows-based computers. On the other hand, OneDrive for Business represents the business-oriented iteration of this service, accessible to companies via the Microsoft 365 subscription. In this article, we will conduct a comparison between OneDrive and OneDrive for Business, highlighting the distinctions between them.

OneDrive – OneDrive serves as a complimentary cloud storage solution designed to store a computer’s offline files in an online cloud repository. It can be accessed through any web browser, enabling users to securely store a wide range of data, including documents, spreadsheets, presentations, audio, video, and various other file formats. Additionally, OneDrive facilitates seamless data sharing with colleagues, fostering collaboration. Its user-friendly interface ensures ease of data management.

OneDrive for Business – OneDrive for Business caters specifically to businesses, offering expanded cloud storage capacity. Designed for professional use, its utilization within an organization is overseen by a designated business administrator who adheres to the company’s policies and guidelines. The administrator has the authority to allocate OneDrive for Business accounts to users and facilitate seamless collaboration among team members.

Difference between OneDrive and OneDrive for Business

There is a comparison chart showing the difference between the two platforms. You can check a difference between OneDrive and OneDrive for Business based on common features.

Features OneDrive OneDrive for Business
Storage Available 5 GB 1 TB per user
Desktop Syncing with Windows Yes Yes
Desktop Syncing with Mac OS Yes Yes
Smartphone Access Yes Yes
Usable for personal storage like music, audio, video, or individual files Yes No
Versioning and history Yes Yes
Auditing, Reporting, and Industry Compliance No Yes
Create/Open/Edit MS Office Suite applications in a web browser Yes Yes
Multifactor authentication support Yes Yes
Co-Authoring with M Office documents Yes Yes
SSO/ADFS/Directory sync support No Yes
Save Business Library directly at SharePoint Server No Yes

Advantages of OneDrive

OneDrive offers a significant advantage in the form of free online storage space within the Microsoft cloud. This storage is diligently secured by the Microsoft security team, assuring its safety. Users can access their files seamlessly across Windows, macOS, and smartphone devices, enhancing flexibility. Moreover, OneDrive provides a robust feature set for fine-grained control over sharing, editing, and access rights for each document shared with friends and colleagues. It also promotes efficient collaboration by allowing users to share documents directly from OneDrive, eliminating the need for large email attachments.

It’s worth noting that all these features are available free of cost with OneDrive. When comparing OneDrive vs. OneDrive for Business, these capabilities are included in the OneDrive package at no additional expense.

  • Unlimited file saving and access.
  • Retrieves files globally for data collaboration.
  • Free device support for multiple platforms.
  • Completely shareable content.
  • Customizable experience for the user interface.
  • Saves multimedia files like audio, video, application files, etc.
  • Directly interacts with MS Office 365 files.
  • Higher level of security through Microsoft Support team.

Advantages of OneDrive for Business

OneDrive for Business takes the features and advantages of OneDrive to the next level, tailored for enterprise-level usage. It offers expanded storage capacity, heightened security measures, and enhanced collaboration features. Integrating seamlessly with Microsoft 365 Business and Enterprise plans, it aligns with the needs of larger organizations.

While the standard OneDrive application is well-suited for individual users, it may lack the necessary tools for multi-user interaction. To fully harness the potential of OneDrive for Business across a team or organization, users can easily upgrade by subscribing to a business or enterprise plan. This distinction between OneDrive and OneDrive for Business becomes particularly apparent when one appreciates the professional platform’s benefits and suitability for collaborative, business-oriented environments.”

  • It can interact with MS Office applications and create, edit, modify them completely. It provides the full functionality of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.
  • Users can set the sharing and editing permissions to each file.
  • Multiple users can get access rights for a document and edit it.
  • OneDrive for Business can interact with Microsoft Teams and allow the user to access documents in various teams and groups.
  • OneDrive for Business can interact with Exchange-based email accounts.
  • OneDrive for Business can work with SharePoint Server through the Site collection library.

Perform OneDrive Migrations

When you want to perform OneDrive migrations, manual migration will not be helpful, and it can cause data loss too. So, it would help if you used Kernel OneDrive Migration tool for such migrations.

This software allows users to incorporate OneDrive for Business accounts as both sources and destinations for data migration, catering to specific requirements. It offers a range of filtering options to tailor the migration to precise needs, ensuring that only the necessary data is transferred. Additionally, the software generates a comprehensive migration report upon the completion of the process, offering valuable insights and documentation of the migration.

Onedrive for business