What are the ways to identify difference between Onedrive for business site and SPO site as both looks same but something is different when they are synced locally on devices?

Question

What are the ways to identify difference between OneDrive for business site and SPO site as both looks same but something is different when they are synced locally on devices?

Answer 1

Hi @Vinod Survase,

Thank you for posting in this community.

Just to check with you first, is this the OneDrive for business site you are referring to? Please correct me if I am wrong.

From the URL we can distinguish between OneDrive for business site and SPO site:

OneDrive for business site URL: https://YourTenantName-my.sharepoint.com/personal/YourUserName_YourTenantName_onmicrosoft_com/_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx

SPO site URL: https://YourTenantName.sharepoint.com/sites/YourSiteName

Here is a list of some of the differences between OneDrive for business site and SPO site:

1.OneDrive is the Microsoft cloud service that connects you to all your files. It lets you store and protect your files, share them with others, and get to them from anywhere on all your devices. While SharePoint is a web-based collaborative platform.

2.SharePoint Site Libraries are for collaboration between people. Files inherit the permissions of the site automatically. OneDrive uploads the files and gives them access only to you unless you share them with someone else.

3.Users access the OneDrive for Business site to manage files and not much more, while SharePoint Sites have more advanced features like news, calendars, or branding.

4.SharePoint Sites can be Microsoft Teams Sites, powering the file management in SharePoint’s Sites Libraries.

5.OneDrive has one Library (Files) where SharePoint Sites can have multiple (default “Documents”).

6.OneDrive is private to a person, while a SharePoint Site is public or shared with multiple people.

In short, you can think of OneDrive for Business site as the storage for my files in your cloud. SharePoint, on the other hand, is more inclined to work with documents and can be used with other apps such as Power BI, Power Automate, Outlook, etc. in addition to document management for richer functionality.

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.