Pros and Cons of Google Drive Review
Software

Pros and Cons of Google Drive

Google Drive is a cloud-based free storage software developed by Google. It offers users a 15GB storage space where they have the option and ability to keep photos, documents, emails, and other files on the online server. Apart from this, google drive offers users office tools that rival the Microsoft Office suite. You get access to Google docs, sheets, and slides that rival Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

When using google drive you can share your documents and make edits. It also makes it easier to collaborate in real-time with your peers. Here, we give you the pros and cons of Google Drive.

Pros of Google Drive

1. Easy to use interface. Google Drive has a simple user interface. Once you log in, you can access all the features and operate them easily. From an open dive account, you can view your current saved files, create a new document, view all the shared folders between computers, see starred, recent, or deleted documents.

2. Access your files everywhere. One of the main advantages of google drive is the ability to access and view your files anywhere and anytime provided you have an internet connection. The software is cloud-based hence you are assured about the security of your files even when you lose your device.

3. You can store videos, PDFs, Photos, and Presentations. Google Drive gives users 15GB of free storage space where you can store your files of all sizes and types. From there, you can share the files with your peers. Apart from this, any important attachments saved in your email can automatically be saved to your Drive.

4. Compatibility with Microsoft Office. In the corporate world, users who depend on Microsoft Office and those who use Google drive can work harmoniously without any trouble. You can easily open files from Microsoft in your drive account and access Google documents in MS Office.

5. Instant access to edit files. Google Drive gives you instant access to tools like Google Docs, slide presentations, and spreadsheets which allow you to edit and make necessary changes to your files.

6. It supports different apps and templates. Google drive is compatible with a lot of other apps. These apps and templates enable users to edit photos and videos, create lesson plans, sign important documents electronically, convert different file formats and edit audio files.

7. Sharing documents is simple and easy. You can easily share your files in google drive using a custom link. You can create this link and customize it to who has access to it. Apart from this, you can give different access levels to different users.

8. You can hold open discussions on Google drive. Google drive has a comments feature where you can create comments and reply to comments to get feedback. It makes files more collaborative in the Google drive window.

9. You get to back up your files. When using Google drive, you get to back up your files and photo on your computer. You get to save your data on cloud data on your computer. You also get to customize and save your data on your hard drive making it available to you anytime from any device.

Cons of Google Drive

1. Security risk. When using google drive you face potential security risks due to the no password feature to give additional security to files. It may be an issue when you create custom shared links and have no control over who gets to access the linked files. Apart from this, cloud storage may be unsuitable for organizations or governments that deal with sensitive data.

2. File size limits. Google drive has certain restrictions on certain types of files you upload. For example, any alphanumerical or text documents have a restriction of 1024000 characters regardless of the number of pages the document may have. Slideshows are also restricted to about 400 slides and images within a document to 2 megabytes.

3. You need an internet connection to access google drive. For you to access and operate this software application, you need a constant internet connection. You can still work offline when making changes to a document. The drawback of offline work is that your collaborators will fail to view any changes made within a shared document. The other limitation is you need to have internet access before you turn on the offline feature.

4. Limitations on file size uploaded per day. Google Drive has a 750GB upload limitation per day. In case you have files that surpass this limit, you will have to wait for the next day to upload them.

5. Acceptability of the app. Google drive faces a challenge of acceptability as most people tend to use other software and storage options.

6. Limited plugins. Google drive is limited when it comes to the number of plugins one can use within it. You only get to use the permanent features provided within the drive without making any modifications.

7. Faces lag time when multiple users use the app. The app faces difficulties when many users are logged in at once. It becomes a major issue when you want to edit a shared document that most users are accessing at that particular time.

8. You need to constantly refresh your document when you make changes. You will need to refresh your drivers anytime you make saved changes. At times you may need to log in to the account again.

9. Issues with version controls. Google drive mostly, maintains the original version of a document until the end. Unlike other apps like dropbox, you will find it impossible to control the versions of files you store within the drive.

10. It is limited to Gmail. Your google drive account is tied to your Gmail account. It may be a challenge when you have other work addresses as there will be a syncing problem. In case you want to share your file, you have to ensure the other users have a google account to be able to edit the document.

11. The search function is stressful at times. Trying to find individual documents within google drive can be tiresome. If any of your works happens to match certain keywords stored in Google drive, the work will float in search results.