OneDrive and SharePoint

This article attempts to describe the differences between OneDrive and SharePoint.

Detailed Information

Personal storage vs. collaborative storage:

Storage use is where most of the confusion between the SharePoint and OneDrive comes into play. Yes, both options are great for cloud-based storage, but the main differentiation is what you’re going to be putting IN said storage. OneDrive is your own personal storage. This is where you'll want to put documents and files that you don’t want other people in your organization to access. For instance, perhaps you’re working on a document that you are not quite ready to share with your co-workers. In this case, you would want to store it in your OneDrive. While it's private, you do still have the ability to share the document with select people if and when you wish, but your organization as a whole will not have access to it without your express permission.

SharePoint, on the other hand, is your collaborative cloud storage. This is where you would store a document in which you want to collaborate with a group of co-workers. For example, lets say you’re working on a project that requires the contribution of several people. If you store this in SharePoint, anyone within your group will have access to view and even edit the document if you set the permissions to allow them to do so. SharePoint is also where everything within Teams is stored. This is because Teams in it’s essence, is a collaboration tool.

An easy way to remember the difference is this (here's that mnemonic I was telling you about!). Think of the “One” in OneDrive as in the storage for one person (you). Similarly, the “Share” in SharePoint is your shared storage where you want to keep things that are meant to be collaborated on.

One drive is great for storing my documents, while Sharepoint allows me to easily share with the team

*Some information and graphics borrowed from https://www.bemopro.com/cybersecurity-blog/sharepoint-vs.-onedrive

Environment

  • Windows10+, MacOS

 

Details

Article ID: 138594
Created
Mon 4/4/22 2:50 PM
Modified
Wed 10/26/22 10:23 AM
Applies To
Students
Faculty
Staff