Filen and OneDrive are both cloud storage services but they're built on opposite philosophies. Filen is a zero-knowledge encrypted storage service — your files are encrypted client-side before upload and Filen cannot read your data. It offers 10GB free and 100GB for $2.99/month. OneDrive is Microsoft's cloud, deeply integrated with Office 365, with 5GB free and 1TB included in Microsoft 365 Personal at $69.99/year. For privacy-conscious users, journalists, lawyers, or anyone storing sensitive files who needs a provider that genuinely cannot access their data, Filen is the clear choice. For anyone already in the Microsoft ecosystem who needs seamless Office integration and collaborative document editing, OneDrive is the obvious fit. The privacy-vs-features trade-off is stark and real.
Quick comparison
| Feature | Filen | OneDrive |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free plan | Free plan |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | No |
| Self-hostable | No | No |
| G2 rating | Not listed | Not listed |
| Best for | privacy-conscious individuals and professionals who need zero-knowledge encrypted cloud storage and don't require deep Office integration | Microsoft 365 users who need seamless Office document editing, SharePoint integration, and large storage bundled with their existing subscription |
| Starting price | Free 10GB; 100GB at $2.99/month; 200GB at $4.99/month | Free 5GB; 100GB at $1.99/month; 1TB included with Microsoft 365 Personal at $69.99/year |
| Free plan | Yes — 10GB free | Yes — 5GB free |
| Open source | Yes — client code is open source on GitHub | No |
| Self-hostable | No — hosted service with open-source clients | No |
| Encryption model | Zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption — Filen cannot read your files | Server-side encryption — Microsoft can access files and does for compliance purposes |
| Best for | Privacy-first users, journalists, lawyers, and those storing sensitive personal data | Microsoft 365 subscribers who use Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams regularly |
Privacy and encryption model
Filen's zero-knowledge encryption is the product's defining characteristic and primary reason to choose it over any mainstream cloud storage provider. Files are encrypted locally on your device before upload using AES-256 encryption with keys derived from your password. Filen's servers receive only ciphertext — they cannot read filenames, metadata, or contents even under legal compulsion. The client code is open source, so the encryption implementation can be audited independently rather than taken on trust. OneDrive uses server-side encryption, which protects against external attackers but means Microsoft itself can access your data. This matters for Microsoft's scanning of files for content policy violations, compliance with government data requests, and Microsoft's broad data processing rights outlined in its service agreement. For users storing legally privileged documents, journalistic sources, medical records, or personal content they want to remain private, Filen's zero-knowledge model is meaningfully stronger. For users who want their storage provider to be able to help recover files or comply with business compliance requirements, OneDrive's model is more practical.
Storage capacity and pricing
OneDrive wins on storage value when you factor in Microsoft 365. At $69.99/year, Microsoft 365 Personal includes 1TB of OneDrive storage plus full desktop Office apps — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. If you use any of those apps, you're essentially getting 1TB of cloud storage for free as part of the suite. Filen's pricing is competitive in isolation: 10GB free, 100GB for $2.99/month ($35.88/year), 200GB for $4.99/month. The 200GB Filen plan at $59.88/year is cheaper than Microsoft 365, but you don't get Office apps and 1TB versus 200GB is a large capacity gap. For users who don't need Office apps and prioritize privacy, Filen is cost-competitive. For users who already pay for Microsoft 365, OneDrive's 1TB is essentially free, making the storage cost comparison moot.
Office integration and document editing
OneDrive's integration with the Microsoft Office suite is seamless in a way that no competitor matches. Opening a Word document from OneDrive brings it into the full Office app with real-time collaboration. Saving from Office automatically updates the OneDrive version. SharePoint integration means business teams can use OneDrive as the file layer for their intranet. Co-authoring in Excel, Word, and PowerPoint over OneDrive works reliably and is the standard workflow for millions of organizations. Filen offers no document editing capabilities — it's pure storage. You can store Office files in Filen, but opening them requires downloading locally and editing in a local app. For workflows centered around creating and editing Office documents collaboratively, OneDrive's native integration removes an entire category of friction that Filen cannot address.
Sync speed and client quality
OneDrive's desktop sync client is mature, stable, and deeply integrated with Windows — it's part of the operating system on Windows 10 and 11, which means files show up in File Explorer and sync in the background with minimal overhead. The Mac client has improved significantly and handles large libraries reliably. Mobile apps on iOS and Android are polished and maintained by Microsoft. Filen's desktop and mobile clients are functional but newer and less battle-tested at scale. The open-source desktop clients for Windows, Mac, and Linux work well for most users, and the company actively maintains them. For users with very large libraries (hundreds of thousands of files or terabytes of data), OneDrive's sync client has more proven reliability. For typical use cases with a few thousand files, Filen's clients handle the job without notable issues.
Sharing and collaboration features
OneDrive supports granular sharing: share links with view-only or edit permissions, set expiration dates on shared links, require passwords to access shared content, and restrict downloads on shared files. Business accounts add SharePoint-level permission management. Filen supports file sharing through encrypted links, and shared content maintains end-to-end encryption — shared recipients get a decryption key embedded in the share URL, meaning only people with the link can access the content. However, Filen doesn't support real-time collaborative editing, comments on files, or the kind of active collaboration that OneDrive enables through Office integration. For individual file sharing and backup, Filen's sharing model is adequate and more private. For team collaboration on documents where multiple people need to edit simultaneously, OneDrive's sharing and collaboration layer is substantially more capable.
Platform coverage and third-party integrations
OneDrive has native integration with Windows (built into the OS), strong iOS and Android apps, a reliable Mac client, and deep web app support. It integrates with thousands of third-party tools that support the Microsoft ecosystem — Slack, Zoom, Salesforce, Adobe, and many others connect to OneDrive natively. Filen has apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android, plus a web interface. Its open-source clients give it Linux support that OneDrive lacks natively (OneDrive's Linux client is community-maintained and less reliable). Third-party integrations are minimal — Filen is not widely integrated into productivity tool ecosystems. For users who need files accessible from any third-party app through OAuth or API connections, OneDrive's broader platform integrations make it more versatile in a connected workflow.
Pricing deep-dive
Filen
- Free: 10GB storage — more generous than OneDrive's 5GB free tier
- 100GB: $2.99/month ($35.88/year) — zero-knowledge encrypted
- 200GB: $4.99/month ($59.88/year)
- 2TB: $13.99/month — for power users or families needing large encrypted storage
OneDrive
- Free: 5GB storage
- Microsoft 365 Basic: $1.99/month — 100GB storage, web Office apps only
- Microsoft 365 Personal: $69.99/year — 1TB storage, full desktop Office apps (best value)
- Microsoft 365 Family: $99.99/year — 6TB total (1TB each for up to 6 users), full Office apps
Pricing verdict: OneDrive is cheaper per GB when purchased as part of Microsoft 365 Personal — 1TB for $69.99/year works out to about 7 cents per GB/year, which is hard to beat. Filen at $2.99/month for 100GB is $35.88/year — more expensive per GB but includes zero-knowledge encryption that OneDrive doesn't offer. If you already pay for Microsoft 365, OneDrive's storage is essentially included. If you're paying for storage standalone and privacy matters, Filen's pricing is reasonable for what it delivers.
How to migrate from Filen to OneDrive
What real users say
Filen: Filen users consistently cite the zero-knowledge encryption as the reason they chose it over mainstream alternatives, often describing it as the first cloud storage they actually trust. Common complaints focus on the smaller storage capacity at the free tier, limited third-party integrations, and the client apps being less polished than Google Drive or OneDrive. Some users express concern about Filen's long-term viability as a smaller company.
OneDrive: OneDrive users praise seamless Office integration and how naturally it fits into a Windows or Microsoft 365 workflow. Common complaints include sync issues on Mac (historically unreliable, though improved), file path length limitations on Windows, and a sense that Microsoft's privacy practices are less transparent than marketed. Business users occasionally cite unexpected file scanning or content policy enforcement.
Sources: Synthesized from G2, Reddit communities (r/privacy, r/cloudStorage), Trustpilot, and public review patterns.
Final verdict
Choose Filen if...
- Choose Filen if you're storing sensitive personal or professional files — legal documents, financial records, private photos, or journalistic sources — and need a provider that provably cannot access your content.
- Choose Filen if you use Linux as your primary desktop OS and need a reliable sync client, since OneDrive's Linux support is community-maintained and unreliable.
- Choose Filen if you want to support privacy-respecting infrastructure and are willing to accept fewer integrations and collaboration features in exchange for genuine zero-knowledge encryption.
Choose OneDrive if...
- Choose OneDrive if you already pay for Microsoft 365 — the 1TB of storage is included and the Office integration makes it the obvious default for document-heavy workflows.
- Choose OneDrive if your team collaborates on Word, Excel, or PowerPoint documents and needs real-time co-editing with reliable sync across Windows and Mac devices.
- Choose OneDrive if you need deep integration with the Microsoft ecosystem — Teams, SharePoint, Outlook — where OneDrive is the file layer and switching would require rebuilding your entire file access workflow.
Consider neither if: Consider neither if you need a self-hosted solution with full data sovereignty (Nextcloud), primarily need document collaboration without Office commitment (Google Drive), or want open-source end-to-end encryption with a larger feature set (Proton Drive is worth comparing to Filen directly).