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CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform 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

CTERA Enterprise File Servi...
Ranking in Content Collaboration Platforms
12th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
File System Software (3rd), NAS (9th), Cloud Migration (7th), Cloud Storage (10th), Cloud Backup (13th), Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (9th), Cloud Storage Gateways (2nd)
Microsoft OneDrive
Ranking in Content Collaboration Platforms
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Content Collaboration Platforms category, the mindshare of CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is 1.1%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft OneDrive is 10.7%, down from 13.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Content Collaboration Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

Igal Muginstein - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers flexibility, fast performance, and ransomware protection
The platform is releasing new features at a fast pace, which sometimes leads to version updates every three to six months. Although updates are generally not complex, it is challenging to stop the production environment during these updates, even if the downtime is just a few minutes. This is a common challenge across all NAS providers. From my perspective, the most important area for improvement is developing a method to perform updates without affecting customer production environments. Additionally, there are some cache size limitations that might become problematic for future use cases, though they don’t impact current applications. Collaboration for NFS and SMB protocols could also be enhanced. Although this issue isn't specific to CTERA, it is something we are working on together to improve. The quality of the versions has improved, but occasional issues still arise. All solutions face this challenge, but we hope to see a continued reduction in the number of bugs. That said, we haven't had any major production problems in the last four years, and we appreciate how responsive CTERA is to our issues. We engage in brainstorming sessions together, and we value this relationship.
Victor Bayouwa - PeerSpot reviewer
I love the backup capabilities and the offline sync
We use OneDrive to share documents throughout the organization and collaborate. It is also used for backups.  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 takes too long for…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution provides data eviction, where unused data is evicted from the local file, freeing up space. It also allows data to be rehydrated from the cloud when needed."
"Our main reason for going for this solution was the uncontrollable growth of file data. It was unsustainable on our previous platform or technology. We needed something scalable like CTERA, so it was the scalability that we required."
"The solution provides substantial flexibility, allowing the separation of workloads across various hardware platforms without vendor lock-in. This flexibility makes it adaptable to future infrastructure changes."
"The CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is a hybrid solution that supports both on-premises and cloud environments."
"CTERA has out-of-the-box data protection capabilities."
"The best feature is the migration tool within CTERA."
"CTERA is a very scalable product, allowing us to grow."
"The features I find most valuable are in the gateways themselves. They have done a great job over the years of providing insight into what is happening with our products, with the batches that come through that are scanned. I enjoy that part of it, and it is fairly easy to use from our standpoint once we get to know the product."
"It was extremely easy to setup."
"It's quite easy to use and then of course it is quite well integrated to the rest of Office 365."
"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 most valuable feature of the solution is the amount of space allotted to each user that is issued a subscription."
"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 is good as a central hub for the storage of documents and sharing among team members."
"It is free if you use Microsoft Office 365."
 

Cons

"It would help to have a global single-pane-of-glass view of all my CTERA devices. We have different regions, and we must log in to each portal to see what's happening with those. It would be nice to have a single portal to see the health of the devices, versions, and firmware upgrades. Sometimes, we want to dive into something more complex, like investigating why CTERA storage usage grew from 2 terabytes to 4 terabytes in a week. That's a little challenging. It's something we would like to see on the road map."
"The new Edge filer that they have comes with a lot more features than what we purchased. It would be better if we are able to add those extra features without having to swap out the hardware. A clear upgrade path for legacy customers would be beneficial."
"The web portal that our users access to view data and backups could be optimized. CTERA could apply some of the improvements made to their administrative interface on the user side. The administrators are a much smaller group of people than the users, so it would be helpful if they targeted user experience resources to them."
"One suggested improvement for the CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is the ability to distribute data across multiple active backend storage nodes rather than the current limitation of a single active node."
"However, in some cases, they could improve performance."
"One suggested improvement for the CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform is the ability to distribute data across multiple active backend storage nodes rather than the current limitation of a single active node."
"Stability-wise, we just went through one issue that they addressed. We were having cloud sync issues."
"More monitoring from the platform would be good. There is some monitoring, but it is paid. It is a chargeable service. It would be good for that to be included in the base."
"The user interface could be a little more intuitive."
"No one gets an alert when files are deleted."
"The user interface sometimes fails and when it cannot connect, it does not give the reason why."
"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."
"The initial setup is not easy."
"The initial setup is a bit clunky."
"There are not enough ways to assign permissions to shared folders and files."
"It takes too long for OneDrive to synchronize various applications, especially when you are saving office data. It also requires too much bandwidth."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"So far, pricing seems to be fine."
"It is fairly priced. I am not too involved in the pricing of what we used to pay, but it would have reduced the cost of ownership. I cannot give a figure, but the EMC solution was very expensive compared to CTERA."
"It is hard to compare the costs if we want to retain the same model of a separate high-performance storage or certain things, but it is one of the cheapest solutions available in Israel."
"I find the pricing reasonable. They offered us deals that helped us. Especially with the upgrade to a bigger unit last year, they were helpful with the deal."
"I am not directly involved in the pricing aspects, but I understand that CTERA's pricing is competitive and within industry standards."
"CTERA's pricing model is competitive compared to other companies that achieve the same thing. Their closest rival is Nasuni, and CTERA is significantly more affordable than Nasuni."
"CTERA's pricing seems to be on par with some of the other players, such as Nasuni and Azure. They all have benefits, but CTERA is competitive for its features."
"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."
"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."
"It is free if you are using Office 365, and you get a terabyte of storage with your account."
"The price of Microsoft OneDrive is reasonable and compatible with competitors."
"Costwise, it is a great option. In most cases, it is a free space, which will be more than enough for most customers."
"The licensing is expensive and on a yearly basis."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
70%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Educational Organization
3%
University
3%
Educational Organization
54%
Computer Software Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Manufacturing Company
3%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform?
I am not directly involved in the pricing aspects, but I understand that CTERA's pricing is competitive and within industry standards.
What needs improvement with CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform?
One area for improvement is the migration tool, which at times does not work as designed, necessitating the use of alternative solutions like Robocopy. AI and automation features could enhance the ...
What is your primary use case for CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform?
We use it as a hosted cloud solution. We had initially tried Azure File Sync, but that did not work. Due to certain security concerns, I was tasked with researching alternatives. I evaluated severa...
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.
 

Also Known As

No data available
MS OneDrive
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

McDonald's, WPP, US Navy, Gore, Festo, Stryker, Bezeq, PERI
Chevron, Accenture, Booz Allen Hamilton, DBS, Nestle, Lowe's, MGM Resorts, Textron, MGM Resorts
Find out what your peers are saying about CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform vs. Microsoft OneDrive and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
842,296 professionals have used our research since 2012.