Microsoft offers a wide array of solutions for businesses and consumers, and among them, we have SharePoint and OneDrive. Both of these products can be broadly classified as ways to store files and information, but in reality, these two tools are pretty different. They're both cloud storage services to some extent, but there's a lot more to them than that.

Those differences aren't always apparent, though, so let's take a closer look at what makes OneDrive and SharePoint distinct.

What is OneDrive?

And who is it for?

OneDrive is a cloud storage solution offered by Microsoft. Like many of the company's products, OneDrive is available for both consumers and businesses, but the two facets of OneDrive can be a bit different in terms of the features they offer. While both versions of OneDrive allow you to store and share files in the cloud and enable real-time collaboration in Office apps, OneDrive for Business has some more advanced capabilities, making it easier to share items within your organization and keep track of changes made by different people.

For consumers, OneDrive is free to use, but you're limited to 5GB of storage space, with paid plans available to increase that. A Microsoft 365 Basic plan gives you 100GB for $1.99 a month, while Microsoft 365 Personal gives you 1TB of storage for $6.99 per month.

For businesses, OneDrive is available as a standalone plan cost $5 per month for 1TB of storage, or you can also get it as part of Microsoft 365 Business. Typically, OneDrive includes 1TB of cloud storage per user, and that's the primary distinction here.

OneDrive provides an individual library for storing files and folders, which you can then choose to share with other people if you need to collaborate on something. A single OneDrive account isn't designed to be shared with multiple people.

How is Microsoft SharePoint different?

It's not just a storage solution

Microsoft SharePoint can also be seen as a way to store files, but it's a bit more than that. This platform is designed specifically for businesses, and it lets users create sites where they can share resources within the company. SharePoint sites can have all kinds of content, including news feeds and images, but they can also directly host documents and files, much like OneDrive. However, since SharePoint sites are shared, all of those resources are available to everyone within that team. This makes SharePoint ideal for working with others within an organization on collaborative projects, allowing you to create hubs for sharing information easily.

SharePoint is also the backbone of all the content services within an organization. Files shared in Teams or Outlook are stored in SharePoint when used within Microsoft 365 plans.

It's also possible to create public-facing sites using SharePoint, so you can share information and news with customers or users of a product. An organization can create multiple SharePoint sites for different teams and purposes.

There are different versions of SharePoint

That brings up another big distinction for SharePoint, which is that it doesn't necessarily have to be part of Microsoft 365 or even work in the cloud. There are different versions of SharePoint, one of which is the aforementioned SharePoint in Microsoft 365, which stores everything in the cloud and makes it easily accessible from anywhere. This can be included in a Microsoft 365 Business subscription or acquired as a standalone product (which costs $5 per user per month). Oddly enough, the SharePoint plan includes OneDrive storage, too, despite Microsoft listing a standalone OneDrive plan for the exact same price on its website, not including any SharePoint functionality.

However, there's also SharePoint Server, a tool that allows you to deploy SharePoint on-premises within a business. This allows you to create a private SharePoint server that's only accessible within the company, with no data being sent outside the confines of the business. OneDrive still powers the files experience, but more so as a user interface than having any integration with the cloud. SharePoint Server is somewhat different in terms of pricing, and that pricing isn't widely available, so you need to contact Microsoft for a quote.

Can OneDrive and SharePoint work together?

It's all about using the right tool

Microsoft 365 Business plans include both OneDrive and SharePoint, and as a customer, you don't normally have to choose between them. However, within the organization, SharePoint and oneDrive can both be used for different things. OneDrive provides individual storage for each user within the company so they can store the files they're working on. SharePoint is meant for shared resources that multiple users or the entire organization need easy access to. You can move files from OneDrive to SharePoint sites, or across different SharePoint sites as needed to make them available to more people.

The OneDrive sync client for Windows 11 is also able to synchronize your files from both OneDrive and SharePoint sites and make them locally available on your PC, so the two technologies aren't completely disjointed.

In the case of Microsoft 365 plans, both SharePoint and OneDrive also integrate with other Microsoft apps and services, so you can easily collaborate in Word documents stored on either platform and move files around as needed.

Which should you use?

If you're just an individual Microsoft 365 user, SharePoint isn't something you need to think about. OneDrive is the only tool you need for storing and managing files in the cloud. SharePoint's site creation abilities aren't meant for consumers, so if you're thinking about something like that, you'll need a different platform.

As a business, you most likely don't need to choose between OneDrive or SharePoint, either. Microsoft 365 plans include both, so it's all about choosing the right tool for the job. Each user in the organization can use OneDrive to store their own files and share them as needed, but if a file is meant for open collaboration, storing that file on a SharePoint site may be the way to go.

• Microsoft OneDrive

  See OneDrive pricing

• Microsoft SharePoint

  See SharePoint pricing