Bigby vs Google Drive: an honest comparison
One is a feature-rich storage product run by the world’s largest advertising company. The other is private, encrypted UK storage funded entirely by subscriptions. Which one suits you depends on what you are optimising for, so here is the comparison laid out plainly, including where Google wins.
Side by side
Pricing checked June 2026. Google One prices vary by region and change periodically, so treat theirs as approximate.
| Bigby | Google Drive | |
|---|---|---|
| Jurisdiction | UK company, UK servers, UK GDPR. No US parent, no CLOUD Act exposure. | US company. Data subject to US law wherever it is stored, including the CLOUD Act. |
| Content scanning | No scanning. Bigby does not open, scan or read stored files. | Files are scanned against Google’s policies and processed by platform features. |
| AI and your files | Stored content is never used for AI training or analysis. | Gemini AI features are integrated into Drive and process file contents. |
| Business model | Subscriptions only. No advertising, no data sales, no free tier. | Advertising-funded parent company. Storage is a small part of a data-driven business. |
| Encryption | Encrypted at rest on UK servers. | Encrypted at rest and in transit; Google holds the keys and can access content. |
| Price for 1TB | £9.99 per user per month (Storage plan, annual billing). | 2TB for around £7.99 per month. Cheaper per gigabyte. |
| Free tier | None. | 15GB free, shared with Gmail and Photos. |
| Documents | Collabora docs, spreadsheets and presentations on Office plans. | Google Docs, Sheets and Slides. More polished, more collaborators-tested. |
| Mobile apps | Web and desktop only at present. | Excellent iOS and Android apps. |
| Exporting your data | WebDAV, standard tools, no export fees. | Google Takeout. Works, though large exports arrive as batched archives. |
Choose Google Drive if
Price per gigabyte is the deciding factor
Google’s storage is cheaper, full stop. If you have terabytes of data you are not sensitive about, Google One is better value and we will not pretend otherwise.
You live on your phone
Google’s mobile apps, automatic photo backup and on-device integration are genuinely excellent. Bigby is web and desktop only for now, and that is a real limitation for mobile-first users.
You want the AI features
Some people want an assistant that can search, summarise and draft across their files. That requires the platform to read your content. Google offers it; Bigby deliberately does not.
Choose Bigby if
Privacy is the point
You do not want your files scanned, analysed or fed into AI features. Bigby’s subscription model means we have no commercial reason to touch your data, and our terms prohibit it.
Jurisdiction matters to you
Client records, patient notes, source material or anything else where “stored by a US company” is a problem. Bigby keeps data on UK servers under UK law, with no US parent company in the chain.
You want to pay with money, not data
A clean, honest arrangement: you pay a fee, you get private storage, and the incentives stop there. From £3.99 per user per month, billed annually, with WebDAV export whenever you want out.
Frequently asked questions
Does Google actually read my Drive files?
Google’s systems can access the contents of files stored in Drive, and its terms permit automated scanning against its policies. Google states that Drive content is not used to target advertising, and we are not claiming it is. The point is structural: your files sit readable with a company whose business is data, under terms that can change. With Bigby the structure is different. We do not open, scan or read stored files, and the subscription is the entire business.
Is Bigby end-to-end encrypted like some privacy services?
No, and we will not pretend it is. Bigby uses encryption at rest on UK servers, which protects your files from storage-level breaches. The stronger guarantee is the business model and the law: we do not scan or analyse content, our terms prohibit it, and UK GDPR governs everything. If you specifically need end-to-end encryption, providers such as Proton Drive offer it, with their own trade-offs.
Can I use Bigby and Google Drive together?
Plenty of people do. A common split is sensitive material on Bigby, where UK law and no scanning apply, and low-stakes convenience files on Google, where the free tier and mobile apps shine. WebDAV support means Bigby fits into existing tools and backup scripts without friction.
How do Bigby’s document tools compare to Google Docs?
The Office plans include Collabora, an open source suite covering documents, spreadsheets and presentations in the browser, with sharing and collaboration. For everyday writing, budgets and slide decks it does the job well. Google Docs is more polished and handles very large collaborative sessions better. If your work depends on advanced Docs features, test Collabora against your real documents first.
Storage that answers to you, not advertisers
Encrypted UK cloud storage from £3.99 per month. Pay with money, not with your files.
Annual billing · All prices in GBP · UK data residency · GDPR compliant