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Kiteworks vs Microsoft OneDrive comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Kiteworks
Ranking in Content Collaboration Platforms
14th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Content Management (14th), Email Security (27th), Managed File Transfer (MFT) (9th), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (11th)
Microsoft OneDrive
Ranking in Content Collaboration Platforms
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Content Collaboration Platforms category, the mindshare of Kiteworks is 2.7%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft OneDrive is 9.8%, down from 13.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Content Collaboration Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

Sukkanta Banerjee - PeerSpot reviewer
Two-factor authentication and .ZIP format make large file transfers very secure
The most valuable feature is the ability to send a large file of 30 GB in size and more. In Outlook and other email applications, you cannot send files that are larger than 20 MB. But with Kiteworks, 30 GB is transferable by default and, with the proper approval, a file of up to 100 GB can be sent. It makes file transfer very easy and smooth. Also, only the .ZIP format is supported because it is a very secure mode of file transfer, and that is why it is recommended. It also has built-in antivirus, so if it detects any malware it will quarantine the file and it won't be delivered. This is really important to keep the service up and running in a proper and secure manner. With people working from home, the data needs to be checked to see what kind of data is being sent. It has a two-factor authentication mechanism. For example, if a person with a particular domain is using Kiteworks and sends a file to a party outside of his domain, that external party has to go through two-factor authentication. The receiver gets a link that takes them to the setup of a temporary account, which will be valid for three days. The recipient will also receive a customized password separately. Only after all these steps will they be able to access the file. That access is only available to a person with the mail ID to which the file was sent. In addition, admins can see who is sending sensitive content, what that content is, and to whom it is being sent, and can track emails. One week of good training will give a user complete knowledge for using the solution. The system is very easy to use. You just click on "Compose," attach a file, and send it. It's very easy compared to Outlook or Teams. It's quite simple, even for someone logging in for the first time. It is very smooth and easy to send files.
CJ Aulisa - PeerSpot reviewer
Keep organized and have access to important files wherever you are
From my own personal experience, I have a story that tells about how and why the product can be improved and it mostly has to do with customer care. This is about a situation that really caused me great aggravation. I am an independent consultant, so I have OneDrive in my business set up and I pay monthly and it bills monthly. I foolishly let my granddaughter get a robot gaming account under my Microsoft account. Because she is only nine years old and she has autism, she really does not understand what she is doing sometimes. She kept buying points for a game she was playing a lot of and I did not know she was doing it. She would go buy $200 a day in robot points, and then I got on my robots bill and found out what was going on. They would not let me separate the accounts so I could stop the billing. If I canceled the account, I would have to cancel her account, and then she would lose all the things that she had done and accumulated in the game. So I removed the credit card, let that account die out, and then started a new account. I made a new password and all that stuff to start over. When you get a new account, they give you a 30-day free trial. Because I use it and knew I wanted it I already bought PowerPoint in the project and they built that. When the trial came near to the end, they sent me an email saying "your trial is coming to an end" and I called them just to make sure that the PowerPoint purchase was not considered part of the trial that they were talking about because I didn't want to lose anything when I let it lapse. They assured me that everything was good. When the trial came to an end. They removed all the files and I had been working on with a client analyzing their IBR (incremental borrowing rate). So I lost all my trees and they totally removed everything I'd spent hours on. I called and tried to find out what was going on. They spent an hour or two on the phone with me trying to go different ways calling different departments to find out where they might still have the data. Turns out they did not. They lost it. So my caution about the product and trial periods is to be careful. Because I had multiple Microsoft accounts, when the first tech checked and looked it up they thought I had a valid license for the new Microsoft account. They were referring to the old one. There is my lesson learned. Besides that episode, I like working with Microsoft products. But then another thing happened. I had another customer and they wanted me to set up on their desktop. So I created a Microsoft account for them so I could use their client email and their OneDrive and all that stuff in their name. For the life of me, I could not get that removed off my desktop after I had it installed. I had to call Microsoft to try and get it working right again. I could not do a regular delete to get rid of the stuff from the other account. It does not let you delete it. So every time I logged in from scratch, it sent up an error saying I had the wrong password for this account. I just do not need that account anymore and there was no way to get rid of it or regain control of the login. They were terrible for support after COVID hit. I want to write an article on the companies that achieved during COVID and then the companies that used it as an excuse to provide poor customer service. Microsoft would be under that jurisdiction. In the end, I would use it again if it worked and I got my password straight. It works great but with the product, you get the behemoth Microsoft customer support services. I have not contacted them lately, so I do not know if they got it working right. When COVID hit, they just went off the deep end claiming they could not fill support requests. Otherwise, I think Microsoft is pretty good. I can not think of anything that I could make OneDrive better. Besides having different outcomes from these experiences with Microsoft products, I have been happy with them.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The top two features are the two-factor authentication, which is pretty good. It's easily understood by the users. And their API is rather robust. We have numerous integrations that work off the API."
"We could see whether the customer with whom we shared a file had downloaded it, which was not available with GitHub."
"Scalability is impressive."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to send a large file of 30 GB in size and more. In Outlook and other email applications, you cannot send files that are larger than 20 MB. But with Kiteworks, 30 GB is transferable by default and, with the proper approval, a file of up to 100 GB can be sent. It makes file transfer very easy and smooth."
"The solution removes the limitations with file attachment size that is found with regular email."
"I like Kiteworks or Accellion because it's continuously upgraded. I also know that it probably works with a lot of clients."
"The best part of this solution is that we can generate multiple reports about how the data is transferred and about user information or IP."
"The most valuable aspect of Kiteworks is undoubtedly the private content network. This feature is particularly beneficial for us. Furthermore, it serves as a centralized platform that enables us to track and manage our information exchange."
"The stability of Microsoft OneDrive is very good, it is reliable. There were multiple instances where I had lost my valuable data on hard drives in several other places. However, with Microsoft OneDrive, I've never lost a single file."
"We use Microsoft OneDrive for file sharing without the need for additional hardware (such as flash drives or external hard drives)."
"The backup capability is one feature I love about OneDrive. I also like how it syncs when you're working offline. Everything is updated once you connect again."
"It's pretty easy to learn. Once someone taught me, I was able to navigate it quite easily."
"It is good as a central hub for the storage of documents and sharing among team members."
"It was extremely easy to setup."
"Being able to use OneDrive as a mapped drive in Windows Explorer is the most valuable feature. Rather than using OneDrive on a browser, you can also open up the Windows Explorer and I can see the file structure in the normal format."
"Image management is great since the search is simple, and accessing images with labels is easy."
 

Cons

"We have experienced a few hiccups and bugs when using the admin console and from a user perspective."
"It could be more stable. In the next release, it would be better if it was more stable with improved performance."
"Kiteworks could benefit from enhancing the proposal knowledge base section, specifically regarding the type of work involved. Currently, the knowledge base seems insufficiently dedicated to this topic, making it challenging for new users to access the relevant administrative law. Improving the visual aids and providing clearer explanations could alleviate this issue."
"Perhaps there could be a notification to users about their bandwidth or network packet loss."
"It would be nice if Kiteworks could provide a free version of the platform so that it could be used for a certain number of file transfers. We could be charged a fee if we exceeded the number of allotted file transfers."
"I would like to see immediate releases of fixes because now it takes at least a week. If that time span can be reduced to one day or two days, that would be very helpful for users so that things are sorted and transactions work smoothly."
"There is no offboarding process for end-users in Kiteworks. It's a manual process. There is no automated syncing with LDAP and checking to see if the account is still active. It's a manual process to get people out of here, which isn't the best way."
"There are always issues when there are bugs or upgrades. The challenge with upgrading is getting more storage from the customer. Every time we have a new version, it requires additional storage. This means that the customer would need to procure more storage for their server, which they don't like because it means additional cost to them. So, I think my request would be that the version upgrades don't require any significant storage requirement."
"An online video player would be great, since sometimes you have to download the video to play it."
"If I want to pick out certain criteria of pictures, Google enables me to do that whereas OneDrive is a bit sort of flaky."
"The solution has sub-folders, which are visible to various team members. If you want to ensure the information is private, you would need to have a certain level of seniority in the office."
"The file structure insight could be made more flexible like for creating more flexible folders."
"The online application is quite limited, for this and other Office offerings."
"The user interface sometimes fails and when it cannot connect, it does not give the reason why."
"The user interface could be a little more intuitive."
"The area that can be improved is to be able to share easily with folks outside the organization and with folks who don't have an office account. Sometimes, when you send a link, you might have some form of repetition. If you don't know how to share it properly, whoever you are sharing it with will have issues using it. Also, the link that you use to share a document can be made a bit shorter. It doesn't have to be long. Typically, when you want to share a document, it has everything, such as the name of the organization, SharePoint, etc. A short URL will be easier to use, and it will just make life easier, especially because a lot of people are now going mobile. I'm not sure if there's a mobile version of Microsoft OneDrive, similar to Google Drive. If they don't have a mobile app, it would also be nice to have a mobile app because that would help in checking out your documents. It would be easy to check your documents on the go on your phone."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I believe it's a little costly, but given the faith that we put into it from a security perspective to maintain the integrity of our patient information that is being transferred through this system, that's a small price to pay. So, on the surface, it might look like a lot of money, but depending on the need for security, which is where we feel it shines, it's okay price-wise."
"The price of Kiteworks is reasonable."
"They changed it midstream. We were being charged a certain flat rate for SFTP traffic. For whatever reason, at the beginning of the year, our pricing changed, and we are now being charged more for using a feature of the product than we were when we first bought it. That has been our experience with billing. It turned out to be more expensive than when we started with it."
"The license management is changing and confusing. If I could make one change to it, it would be better license management through the API."
"It is not really expensive. I mean, to me it's obviously expensive, but it's worth it."
"The solution is very expensive because we are buying with Malaysian Ringgit and it's sold in US dollars."
"Using this software, it has had an amazing impact moneywise on our business. It allows us to share documents without the need of extra hardware."
"OneDrive comes with Microsoft 365 so it is just an added part of that package."
"This is a pricy solution, given that we are only using it at 50% capacity."
"We pay a lot for the Enterprise version, but it is a premium service."
"The licensing is expensive and on a yearly basis."
"It is free if you are using Office 365, and you get a terabyte of storage with your account."
"Costwise, it is a great option. In most cases, it is a free space, which will be more than enough for most customers."
"The price of Microsoft OneDrive is reasonable and compatible with competitors."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
13%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Educational Organization
49%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
Government
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is Kiteworks?
Kiteworks is a secured file sharing platform that enables users to collaborate with different parties across a robust offering of secured protected channels. Users have the option of virtual privat...
What do you like most about Kiteworks?
The benefits that Kiteworks has provided to its customers in terms of data sovereignty.
What needs improvement with Kiteworks?
I'm not a network expert, however, there must be some room for improvement. Perhaps there could be a notification to users about their bandwidth or network packet loss. If users receive such notifi...
What do you like most about Microsoft OneDrive?
The backup capability is one feature I love about OneDrive. I also like how it syncs when you're working offline. Everything is updated once you connect again.
What needs improvement with Microsoft OneDrive?
It takes too long for OneDrive to synchronize various applications, especially when you are saving office data. It also requires too much bandwidth.
What is your primary use case for Microsoft OneDrive?
We use OneDrive to share documents throughout the organization and collaborate. It is also used for backups.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Accellion
MS OneDrive
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

United States Securities and Exchange Commission, National Health Service, Husch Blackwell LLP, NYC Health + Hospitals, Viatris, MITRE Corporation, Chubb, Kraft Heinz, KPMG, Kohler, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Purdue Pharma, AVL
Chevron, Accenture, Booz Allen Hamilton, DBS, Nestle, Lowe's, MGM Resorts, Textron, MGM Resorts
Find out what your peers are saying about Kiteworks vs. Microsoft OneDrive and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.