Alternatives · 2026
6 Google Drive alternatives, honestly compared.
Google Drive is the default file layer of Google Workspace, and it earned that spot: a real-time office suite, generous sharing, search that works. But the default comes with a structural fact — your organisation's entire file canon lives in Google's US-jurisdiction cloud, and there is no self-host path today.
There is a second, quieter problem: a drive is a place files go to be stored, not a place work happens. The folder tree knows nothing about the discussion, the task or the decision each file belongs to.
This guide compares six real alternatives for team file storage. One of them is our own product; we say so on its card and apply the same honest-caveat rule to it as to everyone else.
Five questions worth asking before you switch.
- (01)
Who ultimately holds your files?
A file store is your organisation's memory. If it must live on your infrastructure — or at least in your jurisdiction — most household names drop off the list immediately.
- (02)
Are files next to the work, or in a separate silo?
A standalone drive stores the file but forgets its context. Files that live with the discussion, tasks and decisions that produced them are far easier to find and trust.
- (03)
What happens when you share externally?
Anyone-with-the-link is convenient and unaccountable. Look for expiring, revocable links — and for whether you can see what happened after you hit share.
- (04)
Do you need a desktop sync client?
If your team lives in Finder and Explorer, folder sync is non-negotiable and narrows the field. If work happens in the browser anyway, sync matters less than you think.
- (05)
What does the bill reward?
Per-user storage quotas, pooled tiers, upgrade cliffs when one team hoards video files — check how the pricing behaves when your data grows.
The six contenders.
- 01(01)
Polybase
Our productThe sovereign team workspace
Full disclosure: Polybase is our product. Read this entry as the maker's perspective — the caveat below is as real as everyone else's.
In Polybase, files don't live in a separate drive — they live inside channels, next to the conversation, tasks and docs that produced them, with previews for PDF, DOCX, XLSX and PPTX and OCR text extraction feeding full-text search. Access rides the same RLS-backed, configurable RBAC as the rest of the workspace: protected file fields, and signed share tokens for external sharing — shared document links even report per-page view analytics, so you know which pages were actually read. Hosting goes from EU cloud to private VPC to air-gapped self-host on your own servers.
- Best for
- Teams whose files are work artefacts — briefs, contracts, specs — and organisations that want the file layer on infrastructure they control.
- Hosting model
- EU cloud, private VPC, or self-hosted / air-gapped via Docker Compose.
- Honest caveat
- Not a general-purpose sync client for your desktop — files live in the workspace, not in a mirrored folder — and while docs, viewers and imports are strong, office-suite editing depth is not Google Docs.
- 02(02)
Nextcloud
The open-source file cloud
Nextcloud is the most complete open-source answer to Google Drive: file sync and share on your own servers, with desktop and mobile clients, collaborative editing via Nextcloud Office, and an app ecosystem that stretches into calendar, talk and groupware. For public-sector and privacy-first organisations across Europe, it has become the reference deployment.
- Best for
- Organisations that want a full, self-hosted Drive replacement — sync clients included — under their own control.
- Hosting model
- Self-hosted (open source); managed hosting available from many providers.
- Honest caveat
- It is a platform you operate, not a service you subscribe to: updates, tuning and the varying polish of its app ecosystem are your responsibility.
- 03(03)
Dropbox
Desktop sync, perfected
Dropbox built the product everyone else copied: a folder that just syncs, across every platform, with conflict handling that has been hardened for nearly two decades. For teams that live in the file system, the core experience is still the smoothest there is.
- Best for
- Teams that want the most polished desktop sync experience and work file-first across mixed platforms.
- Hosting model
- Dropbox cloud only (US vendor).
- Honest caveat
- No self-hosting, and it is a file product at heart — its workspace ambitions never quite displaced the folder — so chat, tasks and docs still live in other tools.
- 04(04)
Box
Content management for the enterprise
Box aims above storage at enterprise content management: governance policies, retention, approval workflows, granular external collaboration and a long list of compliance attestations. Regulated industries pick it precisely for the paperwork around the files.
- Best for
- Enterprises in regulated industries that need governance, retention and audited external collaboration.
- Hosting model
- Box cloud only (US vendor).
- Honest caveat
- No self-hosting, and the enterprise focus shows — for a small team, its governance machinery can be more than the storage problem calls for.
- 05(05)
Seafile
Lean, fast, self-hosted sync
Seafile is the performance pick among open-source file servers: a lean sync engine with block-level deduplication, delta sync and client-side encrypted libraries, running comfortably on modest hardware. Teams that mainly need reliable, fast file sync on their own servers — without a groupware suite attached — are its natural audience.
- Best for
- Teams that want fast, no-frills self-hosted file sync and are happy to keep collaboration tools separate.
- Hosting model
- Self-hosted (open source core); Pro edition and hosted offering available.
- Honest caveat
- Deliberately focused on sync — sharing UI, integrations and community are leaner than Nextcloud's, and some features sit in the paid Pro edition.
- 06(06)
Microsoft OneDrive
The Microsoft 365 file layer
OneDrive is Drive's mirror image in the Microsoft world: bundled with Microsoft 365, wired into Office, Teams and SharePoint, with mature sync clients on every desktop. If your organisation already runs on Outlook and Office, your files are probably halfway there.
- Best for
- Microsoft 365 organisations that want files, Office and Teams under one licence.
- Hosting model
- Microsoft cloud only.
- Honest caveat
- No self-hosted edition of the modern service, and the value assumes the Microsoft ecosystem — sharing and admin sprawl across OneDrive and SharePoint takes real effort to govern.
Where Polybase wins — and where we don't win yet.
You are reading this list on our site, so here is the part vendors usually skip.
- Files live where the work isA file lands in the channel where it was discussed, next to the thread, the task and the doc it belongs to. Previews for PDF, DOCX, XLSX and PPTX plus OCR-fed full-text search mean finding it later doesn't depend on remembering a folder path.
- Sharing you can account forExternal sharing uses signed, revocable share tokens rather than bare public URLs, and shared document links report per-page view analytics — you see which pages were actually read, not just that a link went out.
- A file layer you can self-hostEU-region cloud, your own VPC, or fully air-gapped self-host via Docker Compose. Google does not offer a self-hosted Drive today; here it is the headline deployment mode.
- Permissions with one spineAccess control is RLS-native, configurable RBAC enforced in the database rules themselves — with protected file fields — the same auditable model that governs chat, tasks and docs, not a second permission system bolted onto storage.
- Plain pricingDrive is part of Core at €10 per user/month with 5 GB per user, alongside chat, tasks, calls and automation — the file layer comes with the workspace instead of being a separate subscription.
- Desktop folder syncPolybase is not a general-purpose sync client: there is no mirrored folder on your desktop. Files are uploaded, previewed and shared in the workspace — if Finder-level sync is a hard requirement, Dropbox, OneDrive, Nextcloud or Seafile serve it better today.
- Office-suite editing depthPolybase docs offer conflict-free co-editing with per-block locking and presence, and office files get viewers with OCR, DOCX import and PDF/MD export — but Google Docs and Sheets remain deeper as an editing suite. Heavy spreadsheet teams will keep one around.
- Storage headroomCore includes 5 GB per user. That covers work documents comfortably; if your team stores large video or design archives, plan capacity with us rather than assuming Google-scale pooled storage.
- CertificationsNot certified yet — SOC 2 and ISO 27001 are on our roadmap. We answer security questionnaires and architecture questions today.
- Enterprise sign-on and native appsSSO/SAML/SCIM are on the roadmap; today sign-in is email/password and magic links. Desktop and mobile apps are available; the web app and installable PWA are also available.
Choosing a Google Drive alternative.
It depends on your binding constraint. A full self-hosted Drive replacement with sync clients: Nextcloud. Lean, fast self-hosted sync: Seafile. The most polished desktop sync as a service: Dropbox. Enterprise governance and compliance: Box. Already in the Microsoft world: OneDrive. Files inside the workspace, next to chat, tasks and docs, with a real self-host path: that is the case Polybase is built for — we're biased, so read the side-by-side comparison too.
Nextcloud and Seafile are open source and fully self-hostable. Polybase self-hosts too — from a private VPC down to air-gapped Docker Compose deployments on your own servers. Google Drive, Dropbox, Box and OneDrive are cloud-only: none of them offers a self-host path today.
No. Polybase is not a folder that mirrors to your desktop — files live inside channels in the workspace, uploaded and previewed in the browser or installable PWA. If continuous folder sync is a hard requirement, Nextcloud, Seafile, Dropbox or OneDrive are the honest answers; some teams pair one of them with Polybase as the collaboration layer.
Partly. Polybase docs are a block editor with conflict-free co-editing — per-block locking and presence — plus version history, comments and full-text search, and office files get viewers with OCR, DOCX import and PDF/MD export. But it is not character-level co-editing, and there is no native spreadsheet suite at Google Sheets depth — for structured data many teams use Polybase Tables instead, and keep an office suite for heavy spreadsheets.
Through signed share tokens rather than bare public URLs: links can be revoked, and shared document links report per-page view analytics, so you can see which pages of a proposal or contract were actually read. Inside the workspace, access follows RLS-backed RBAC with protected file fields — one auditable permission model instead of a per-file sharing dialog.
Drive is included in Polybase Core at €10 per user/month with 5 GB per user, together with chat, tasks, calls and automation. Google Workspace bundles more storage; Polybase bundles more workspace. Whether it beats your bill depends on what else it replaces — a demo walks through your actual stack. Self-hosted and enterprise deployments are priced individually.
See Polybase next to Google Drive, feature by feature.
Book a 30-minute demo and we'll show a file shared from a channel — signed link, page-level analytics and all — or start with the detailed side-by-side comparison.
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