An Unusual EFSS & Cloud Storage Battle in 2021

Egnyte Connect earned the second-highest spot in our best business cloud storage roundup and took the highest slot in our best EFSS information. It’s a enterprise cloud storage platform on the prime of its recreation, however instruments like Microsoft’s SharePoint strike at Egnyte’s weaknesses, as you’ll see in this Egnyte vs SharePoint comparability.

SharePoint is Microsoft’s website-based collaboration platform that lets you connect your cloud storage to a web site and arrange your recordsdata into pages. It’s an important device for giant, multi-departmental groups and complicated initiatives, constructing on the service that Microsoft OneDrive for Business gives.

Key Takeaways:

  • Although there’s plenty of overlap, Microsoft SharePoint and Egnyte are completely different providers with completely different functions, so we really suggest utilizing them collectively.
  • SharePoint is ideal for collaboration, however OneDrive isn’t the very best cloud storage platform available on the market.
  • Egnyte stands out with an enormous record of integrations and glorious safety, although it struggles with monitoring complicated initiatives.

Before diving in, be sure to have our Egnyte review helpful. We don’t have a evaluate of Microsoft SharePoint — it’s a reasonably distinctive service — however we do have a SharePoint guide that explains the fundamentals.

  • No, OneDrive and SharePoint are separate Microsoft instruments that work collectively. OneDrive is cloud storage for your whole recordsdata and paperwork, whereas SharePoint lets you arrange your recordsdata into a web site. That makes your recordsdata simpler to entry and permits your workers to collaborate.

  • You can’t purchase SharePoint other than OneDrive, so it is best to use each Microsoft instruments. OneDrive is a spot to retailer your recordsdata, whereas SharePoint is a spot to arrange and use them.

  • SharePoint lets you arrange your recordsdata and workers round particular duties or an overarching calendar. Instead of sharing particular person recordsdata and folders, you’ll be able to invite new customers to your SharePoint website, permitting them to see the recordsdata in your account and workflows hooked up to them.

Egnyte vs SharePoint Matchup

Egnyte and SharePoint are completely different instruments, so evaluating them instantly is hard. We have a number of classes the place the 2 will go face to face, however there are some areas the place we’ll must deliver in Microsoft OneDrive — which is essential for SharePoint to operate — for a cleaner comparability. 

Each spherical, we’ll speak a bit about every service and the way it compares earlier than declaring a winner. Our winners are necessary, however we suggest studying by way of every part to grasp how we made our choice. That’s very true in this comparability, as SharePoint and Egnyte aren’t direct rivals, and you may even use them collectively.

1. Features

Egnyte Connect is mainly a hub for your enterprise operations. On its personal, it’s an honest content material administration platform with file sharing and content material collaboration options. However, with its record of third-party integrations, it may well function a central place in your workers to see, handle and work on content material throughout your enterprise. 

egnyte dropbox integrations

Egnyte might not supply all of the instruments your enterprise wants, however with its record of integrations, you’ll be able to join your favourite apps.

Egnyte features a few native integrations that provide choices instantly contained in the Egnyte net consumer. The two most necessary ones are Microsoft Office and Google Workspace. You can create, open and collaborate on recordsdata with the 2 hottest workplace suites available on the market, all inside Egnyte. 

Outside of native integrations, there are exterior integrations. The record of exterior apps is for much longer, that includes integrations for Trello, Amazon Web Services SSO and Gmail, to call just a few. External integrations don’t supply choices inside the Egnyte app, however they will let you simply share content material in your account with exterior instruments. 

SharePoint Features

SharePoint isn’t a cloud storage platform, so it doesn’t stack up towards Egnyte one-for-one. It’s the step past cloud storage, permitting you to create a web site that your workers can entry to seek out, share and edit content material. 

To that finish, SharePoint has glorious options. Workflows are the large ones that will let you arrange a movement of duties, connecting different customers and content material with a listing of issues to be accomplished. If you will have a big venture, you’ll be able to create a subsite with its personal separate workflows, duties, paperwork and calendar. 

Egnyte gives a primary job administration device, however nothing on the extent of SharePoint. If you’re going with a standard storage setup, you’ll want to make use of a device from our best project management software roundup. Monday.com is finest for most individuals (learn our monday.com review). 

egnyte review task management tool

Egnyte comes with a primary job administration device, however nothing on the extent of SharePoint.

On the opposite hand, you’re locked into Microsoft’s ecosystem with SharePoint. You’re not actually locked in, nevertheless it’s rather a lot simpler utilizing SharePoint with OneDrive and Teams than it’s with, say, Box and Slack (learn our Box Business review). As we’ll see all through this comparability, it comes all the way down to if your enterprise already has productiveness instruments or if you’d like the complete Microsoft suite. 

When it involves options, Egnyte wins this spherical as a result of it’s extra versatile. That mentioned, SharePoint is a greater device in case you’re utilizing Microsoft’s apps. 

Winner: Egnyte

2. Pricing

Pricing is a wierd matter in this Egnyte vs SharePoint comparability. Egnyte is a single service with one pricing subscription, whereas SharePoint comes with a minimum of OneDrive, and at most, the complete Microsoft Office 365 suite.

Egnyte Pricing

Team

  • 1 to 10 customers, worth per consumer;
    1TB of on-line storage. Read on for extra
  • Storage: 5000 GB

Business

  • 10 – 100 customers, worth per consumer;
    1TB + 10GB per worker. Read on for extra
  • Storage: 10000 GB

Enterprise

  • 50+ customers,
    50GB per worker. Read on for extra
  • Storage: 1000 GB

Starting with Egnyte’s pricing, it’s dearer than most different enterprise cloud storage providers (learn our Sync.com Business review for a less expensive different). The least expensive Team plan is sweet for firms with fewer than 10 workers, however most potential clients will land on the Business plan as an alternative.

The Business plan helps as much as 100 customers at twice the month-to-month worth of the Team plan and comes with further storage. You can try Egnyte’s free trial of Business, if you wish to try it out first earlier than committing. 

Above that, Egnyte gives two configurable plans: Enterprise and Enterprise Lite. They’re similar in virtually each approach, besides the Enterprise model makes use of the facility of machine studying for content lifecycle management, content material classification and menace detection. Regardless of the model you select, you’ll be able to configure the quantity of storage you want by contacting Egnyte. 

SharePoint Pricing

Microsoft 365 Personal

  • Comes with Office 365 Personal
  • Storage: 1000 GB

Microsoft 365 Family

  • Comes with Office 365 Home
  • Storage: 5000 GB

OneDrive for Business Plan 1

  • Price per consumer
  • Storage: 1000 GB

OneDrive for Business Plan 2

  • Price per consumer
  • Storage: Unlimited GB

Microsoft 365 Business Standard

  • Price per consumer
  • Storage: 1000 GB

You can’t purchase SharePoint by itself, and that’s a superb factor. It wants cloud storage to function successfully, and SharePoint by itself doesn’t embody storage. Both the blandly named Plan 1 and Plan 2 include SharePoint, OneDrive and Microsoft Lists, and all three work collectively towards content material collaboration. 

Plan 1 provides you the complete SharePoint expertise. It’s licensed for business use, lets you collaborate in Microsoft Office apps in actual time and allows you to create separate workforce websites to phase your workforce. This plan comes with 1TB of OneDrive storage per consumer. Egnyte, however, solely gives 1TB in your whole workforce. 

Up the chain, Plan 2 comes with just a few further SharePoint options for twice the month-to-month worth. You can customise your search outcomes and use superior knowledge loss prevention capabilities to guard delicate info. Additionally, Plan 2 comes with limitless cloud storage for private use.

It’s exhausting recommending both plan when the Office 365 suite is on the desk, although. Although twice the worth of Plan 2, the Office 365 E3 plan comes with OneDrive, Exchange, Teams, Yammer, Delve, Skype for Business and the complete Office suite. That contains Outlook with business-class e-mail internet hosting with no storage limits. The Office 365 E3 is the one SharePoint plan that provides a 30-day free trial.

Egnyte and SharePoint: Which Is a Better Value? 

There’s rather a lot to speak about between Egnyte and Microsoft SharePoint in phrases of pricing. Egnyte is pricey and doesn’t supply a lot cupboard space, however that’s by design. It’s a hybrid cloud supplier, permitting you to connect different storage sources (in the cloud or regionally). Additionally, it comes with an in depth record of third-party integrations, functioning as a type of modular content material administration platform.

SharePoint shines as a part of the Microsoft Office suite of apps. All of Microsoft’s apps join in a method or one other, permitting you to seamlessly deploy all the apps your enterprise wants without delay. That’s an enormous worth, and even the costliest SharePoint plan continues to be less expensive than Egnyte’s costliest providing.

If you’re ranging from scratch, SharePoint is the higher pricing choice. It’s cheaper, and all of the included apps are glorious. However, if you have already got some apps you want, Egnyte lets you really use them.

Winner: Sharepoint

3. Usability

As far as cloud storage platforms go, Egnyte is straightforward to make use of. The net software gives a primary setup that must be acquainted in case you’ve used Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox. You can see your folders on the left aspect and an exercise go browsing the fitting, together with your recordsdata and folders in a central window.

best cloud storage for teams

Egnyte gives a streamlined net software that makes it simple to seek out your recordsdata.

Digging by way of your account is a matter of clicking folders, however you’ll be able to seek for a particular file utilizing the search bar. By default, your Egnyte account is shared throughout your whole workers. However, you’ll be able to phase sure recordsdata or folders for particular customers or teams. 

Above your recordsdata, you’ll be able to tab over to the “hyperlinks” web page to see your whole lively sharing hyperlinks. There, you’ll be able to see what hyperlinks you’ve created, in addition to any hyperlinks shared with you. Next to that’s the “my duties” web page, which reveals any duties you’ve created and duties assigned to you (learn our Egnyte beginner’s guide to be taught extra about these areas). 

Beyond the primary space, admins can dig into the settings to generate reviews, set a company-wide safety coverage, add new customers and arrange customers into teams. 

Egnyte is surprisingly simple to make use of given how highly effective it’s. If you’re primarily engaged on paperwork in the workplace suites from Microsoft and Google, it’s simple to create, share and collaborate on recordsdata. With the fitting teams and consumer permissions, Egnyte generally is a well-oiled productiveness machine. 

SharePoint User Experience & Setup

It’s nothing like SharePoint, although. A well-made SharePoint website is much simpler to make use of than Egnyte is, providing an interface that even essentially the most tech-illiterate customers can perceive. 

That mentioned, SharePoint requires plenty of setup. You have to put the groundwork by constructing your website, creating pages and importing content material. It’s not tough making a SharePoint website, however as a result of the platform is so versatile, chances are you’ll end up scrolling previous dozens of choices that don’t make sense. 

Thankfully, Microsoft lets you get began shortly with a template. There are a number of templates for various web sites, so it’s simple for a consumer to get began on an inside workforce website, a consumer-facing content material internet hosting platform, and the whole lot in between. 

sharepoint template page

SharePoint requires plenty of setup, however you will get began shortly in case you use a template.

The first website is the toughest one, too. After you create your major website, it’s simple making use of that template and its related metadata to subsites. You might create subsites for particular departments inside your enterprise and even copy knowledge over to create a website for a particular venture. 

Between Egnyte and SharePoint, it’s not possible to say which is simpler to make use of. Both are completely different instruments. SharePoint is simpler in your workers to make use of, whereas Egnyte lets you rise up and operating in a matter of minutes. The finest answer, from our view, is to make use of each. 

You can add recordsdata saved with Egnyte to a SharePoint web site, providing the very best of each worlds. This is the best setup, and since Egnyte is doing the heavy lifting of storing your recordsdata, we’re giving it the win. 

Winner: Egnyte

4. File Syncing & Sharing

SharePoint is an extension of OneDrive in some ways, and file syncing and sharing comes primarily on the OneDrive finish of issues. 

First off, you’ll be able to sync recordsdata in your SharePoint website, in order that they present up regionally in your laptop. Using OneDrive, you even have entry to the “recordsdata on-demand” function, which lets you open recordsdata in your desktop with out taking on house in your exhausting drive, so long as you will have an lively web connection. 

best efss for file syncing onedrive business

OneDrive, included with a SharePoint subscription, routinely syncs your recordsdata in your desktop.

You don’t actually share something with a SharePoint website. Rather, you invite somebody to the positioning, and so they routinely have entry to the whole lot. If you wish to share a person file, you are able to do so in OneDrive. You can share recordsdata instantly by way of OneDrive or generate a sharing hyperlink and even request exterior recordsdata. 

Egnyte lets you share files internally or by way of a hyperlink, too. With hyperlink sharing, you’ll be able to set a password, set an expiration date and arrange notifications at any time when somebody clicks the hyperlink. 

best efss for file syncing egnyte connect

Egnyte lets you set a password and an expiration date everytime you generate a sharing hyperlink.

Additionally, you will have entry to “webedit.” This function lets you discover a file inside Egnyte and routinely open it in the related desktop app. That makes content material collaboration a breeze, as we’ll get to in the following part. 

Syncing

For syncing, Egnyte routinely syncs your recordsdata throughout units as you add them. You can see your recordsdata regionally, however they don’t take up house in your exhausting drive. Instead, Egnyte mounts a community drive in your laptop, giving the expertise of getting the whole lot saved on a bodily exhausting drive so long as you will have an lively web connection. 

Egnyte has “storage sync,” too. This function lets you join any native storage you will have — from a small NAS to a full business server — together with your Egnyte account. However, this is just one a part of Egnyte’s hybrid mannequin that lets you loop in native and public cloud storage together with your account.

This spherical is a matter of Egnyte vs OneDrive, not SharePoint. On that entrance, Egnyte simply wins. It gives glorious sharing capabilities however earns the win this spherical with its hybrid cloud mannequin and number of syncing choices.  

Winner: Egnyte

5. Productivity & Collaboration

Even although Egnyte and SharePoint are completely different software program instruments, each concentrate on productiveness and collaboration. For Egnyte, that reveals up by way of third-party integrations. You have the choice between two main workplace suites, permitting you to collaborate on content material with the instruments from Google or Microsoft. 

Egnyte gives just a few instruments to make collaboration simpler. “Webedit” can get you up and operating with an area software in a matter of seconds, and you may go away feedback on any file in your account to request edits or follow-up with different customers. Egnyte doesn’t encourage collaboration like Huddle does (learn our Huddle review), nevertheless it nonetheless comes with the instruments that permit your workers to work collectively. 

Still, Egnyte doesn’t have something on SharePoint in relation to collaboration. Company-wide collaboration is straightforward because of SharePoint’s website-centric method, however you may as well generate subsites to permit small groups to concentrate on a particular venture. It’s a content material collaboration platform first, whereas Egnyte is simply filling in the gaps. 

sharepoint website list

In addition to your major SharePoint website, you’ll be able to generate subsites for particular groups or initiatives. 

The worth of SharePoint reveals up in small methods, like the truth that you’ll be able to search a responsive web site in your telephone relatively than scrolling by way of a listing of recordsdata — like it’s important to with Egnyte. SharePoint comes with glorious enterprise search, too, making it simple to trace down recordsdata, bulletins and SharePoint websites throughout your enterprise. 

Combine that with Microsoft instruments like Flow that will let you create automated workflows, and SharePoint’s capabilities begin to grow to be clear. There isn’t one other device that makes it so seamless to share and work on recordsdata collectively. 

That mentioned, SharePoint works finest with Microsoft’s personal apps. Our conclusion right here is similar to the “usability” spherical. SharePoint is the higher collaboration device, however Egnyte is a greater storage device, so it’s finest simply to make use of each. Unlike the earlier spherical, although, we’re giving the win to SharePoint because it carries the majority of collaboration work. 

Winner: SharePoint

6. Security & Privacy

SharePoint Online makes use of the identical safety of OneDrive for Business. That means each certainly one of your recordsdata is protected with AES-256 encryption — learn our description of encryption to be taught extra about that — and the complete disk is encrypted by way of Microsoft’s BitLocker software.

Additionally, SharePoint gives customizable knowledge retention insurance policies, so you’ll be able to successfully handle the lifecycle of content in your website. That means by no means worrying about if an pointless file poses a safety threat, in addition to a brand-new file by accident slipping off of your web site. 

Egnyte makes use of glorious safety, too. In truth, it earned a spot amongst a number of zero-knowledge cloud storage suppliers in our most secure cloud storage roundup. It gives AES-256 encryption to guard your recordsdata, and encryption occurs server aspect — that means off of your laptop. Still, Egnyte protects your knowledge in transit with an SSL/TLS layer

Although Egnyte manages your encryption keys by default, Enterprise subscribers can handle their very own keys. That’s large for extremely delicate info, successfully taking the facility out of Egnyte’s arms to decrypt your recordsdata — not that it will in the primary place. Egnyte has an integration for Boxcryptor, too, so you’ll be able to encrypt your recordsdata earlier than importing them (learn our Boxcryptor review). 

Privacy

For privateness, neither service is nice. Microsoft collects a number of private info, as does Egnyte. That mentioned, Microsoft maintains a zero-standing entry coverage, that means it may well solely entry your account and knowledge if responding to a particular request. 

Security is the larger speaking level, although. Both providers can preserve your recordsdata protected in the cloud, however Egnyte gives extra security measures for extremely delicate info. Because of that, we’re giving Egnyte the win, however this spherical might go both approach. 

Winner: Egnyte

The Verdict

There isn’t a transparent reply between a comparability of Egnyte and SharePoint. Both are completely different instruments for companies with plenty of overlap, and in case you can afford each, that’s the most suitable choice. Between the providers, Egnyte is the better platform. It comes with a near-endless record of integrations, a number of helpful options and a number of the finest safety in the enterprise. 

Overall Winner: Egnyte Connect

On the opposite hand, SharePoint shines as a part of Microsoft’s larger ecosystem. If you don’t have already got cloud storage, you’ll be able to simply onboard your workforce on the Microsoft platform for a low month-to-month worth. It’s not as versatile as Egnyte, however SharePoint and OneDrive collectively nonetheless offer you a ton of choices. 

So, which service are you going to decide on? Are you in changing into a buyer for one or signing up for each? Let us know in the feedback beneath and, as all the time, thanks for studying. 

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