Google Cloud vs Synology Drive
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Google Cloud
Manage your Google Cloud services on your iPhone or iPad. Monitor billing, status, and critical issues. Create custom dashboards, access Cloud Shell, and SSH into VMs for direct control.
- Cloud service management
- Billing and status monitoring
- Customizable dashboards
- Compute Engine/App Engine monitoring
- SSH access to VMs
- Cloud Shell access
- Incident and error response
Read full descriptionHide full description
The app helps you manage your services running on Google Cloud directly from your Apple iPhone or iPad: • Stay connected to the cloud and check billing, status, and critical issues. • Create your own custom dashboard to produce an overview of your Google Cloud services. • Monitor the state of your Compute Engine and App Engine resources with the ability to SSH into your VMs. • Access to Cloud Shell to perform any Google Cloud (gcloud) operation. • View and respond to incidents, errors, and logging. We plan to ship new features regularly and continually improve your user experience. Please give us your feedback in the app by tapping the menu button in the upper-left corner, selecting Help & Feedback, and then Send feedback.
Synology Drive
Access and manage files stored on your Synology NAS from your mobile device. This app allows you to view various file types, including office documents, and offers convenient file management features like syncing, searching, and sharing on the go.
- Access Synology NAS files on the go
- View documents, spreadsheets, and slides
- Sync files
- Search files
- Share files
- Move and label files
Read full descriptionHide full description
**To use this app and enjoy its features, you must own Synology NAS and install the latest Synology Drive Server.** Synology Drive iOS mobile app allows you to easily access and manage files in your Synology Drive on the go. In addition to common file types, such as documents, images, videos, and music, the app's user-friendly in-app viewer can open Synology Office documents, spreadsheets, and slides. Convenient management features, such as syncing, searching, sharing, moving, and applying labels to files, are all available in the app, allowing users to complete tasks efficiently anytime, anywhere.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Synology Drive at 4.5 against Google Cloud's 3.4. Synology Drive also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and ratings volume (4.2K vs 100). Google Cloud's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 3 months). On price, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Synology Drive holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Synology Drive has 4.2K ratings behind it against 100, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 29% of Google Cloud's written reviews are positive against 33% of Synology Drive's.
Google Cloud ships an update weekly, Synology Drive every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on September 17, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Google Cloud | Synology Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.4 (100 ratings) | 4.5 (4.2K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 29.4% of reviews | 33.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 100 | 4.2K — better |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 118 MB | 279 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Synology Inc. | |
Customer experience
Google Cloud
Synology Drive
User reviews
Google Cloud
From 100 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Quick access to cloud resources on mobile
- 👍 Good UI/UX design with Material Design
- 🔐 Useful SSH functionality for VM management
- 📊 Helpful for quick monitoring and status checks
- ⚡ Cloud Shell access for command-line operations
Room to improve
- 🐛 Cloud Shell frequently disconnects
- ❌ Missing critical features (Cloud Run, Cloud Tasks, Cloud Build)
- 🔒 Persistent permission errors and access issues
- 💸 Confusing billing display and hidden charges
- 📉 Limited dashboard and monitoring capabilities
Synology Drive
From 4.2K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Fast and responsive
- 🔒 Secure private cloud
- 👍 Convenient remote access
- 🚀 Excellent integration with iOS Files app
- 👍 Great for photographers and mobile workers
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and stability issues
- 🔋 High battery drain
- 👎 Unreliable sync and offline access
- 👎 Confusing and unintuitive user interface
- 🔍 Lacking search and organization features
Bugs and requests
Google Cloud
Reported bugs
24 issues- Cloud Shell stuck on 'preparing to connect' screen
- Cloud Shell disconnects when switching apps
- SSH authentication failures
- App crashes when viewing error console details
- Logs page continuously refreshing
Show 19 moreShow fewer
- Cannot view saved dashboards from web
- Saved queries not displaying correctly
- Permission errors blocking access to projects
- Billing section shows incorrect date ranges
- Incident notifications not working
- Device registration process failing
- Cloud Shell input issues with special keys (Ctrl+A, Ctrl+E)
- Cannot select or copy text in Cloud Shell
- SSH return key not working properly in some contexts
- App crashes after updates
- 2-factor authentication sign-in broken
- Incidents marked resolved still show as new
- Logs missing with applied filters
- App crashes when viewing log entry details in dark mode
- External keyboard support broken on iPad
- Notification permissions not requested on iOS
- Cannot change logged-in account
- Project switching broken
- Scrolling issues in logs and traces
Requested features
20 requests- Cloud Run service support
- Cloud Tasks management
- Cloud Build integration
- Custom dashboard access from mobile
- Dark mode for iPad
Show 15 moreShow fewer
- Cloud Shell full-screen mode
- Better keyboard support for external keyboards
- Account switching capability
- Notification management improvements
- GKE (Google Kubernetes Engine) support
- Cloud Functions monitoring
- Datalab integration
- API quota viewing
- Cloud Storage bucket upload/replace functionality
- Instance group management
- HTTP Load Balancing controls
- Password protection for app
- Font size adjustment in console
- Improved SSH/terminal UX
- BigQuery support
Synology Drive
Reported bugs
5 issues- Unable to log in with 2FA
- Sync tasks get stuck or fail
- Folders not showing content
- Incompatibility with latest iOS versions
- Duplicated files and folders after sync
Requested features
5 requests- Add support for offline folder sync
- Improve integration with iOS Files app
- Implement document editing capabilities
- Add option to customize file/folder naming
- Enhance audio/video playback features
In-app purchases
Google Cloud
No in-app purchases
Synology Drive
No in-app purchases
