When comparing Google Drive vs Roam Research, the Slant community recommends Roam Research for most people. In the question“What is the best cross-platform note-taking app?” Roam Research is ranked 27th while Google Drive is ranked 39th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro File sharing & collaborative editing
Google account holders and non-holders can be set to access and/or collaborate on files/folders in real-time. Additionally, you can find files you've shared not only by filename but by person you've shared the files with.
Pro 15GB free
This space is shared across Drive, Gmail & Google Photos.
Pro Built-in office suite
Includes tools for writing, presentations and spreadsheets.
Pro Integrates with other Google services
For example, you can use search to search through both Drive and Gmail.
Pro Extended functionality via apps
Third party Drive applications running in Chrome or Android can add functionality such as image/video editing, project management, flowchart creation, etc.
Pro Mobile integration
You can work from any device, especially mobile.
Pro Save files to drive directly from Gmail
Drive lets you save any file from your email.
Pro Cheap for extra storage
$1.99 per 100GB, for up to 16TB.
Pro Revision control
By clicking Ctrl + Alt + G in Windows or Command + Alt + Shift + G is OS X you can access previous version of the file.
Pro Indexes images
You can search images by object, place, or face when they've been added to your google photos collection. Google Assistant also helps you find screenshots that could be archived, images that aren't in the correct orientation and pictures that would work well as animations or albums.
Pro In place page creation / linking with brackets or hashtags
Pro Rename a page and all everything that references it renames as well
No broken links!
Pro Each bullet point can be either linked to, or included in full in any page (including the page it originated on. Yay transclusion!)
Pro Shift click on a link pulls up the link in a side panel without navigating you away
Pro Each bullet point on a page is zoomable as it's own 'wiki page'
Pro Helpful slash (/) commands while editing for autocomplete, TODOs and more
Pro Easy page merging.
Pro Explicit linked references included on every page at the bottom
Pro Supports markdown
Pro Bi-directional links
Pro Graph overview allows you to easily see how nodes relate
Pro Supports in place datalog queries
Pro In place editing
Pro Supports hiccup syntax for HTML snippets
Pro A default place for "Daily Notes" means not having to worry where a new note *should* go.
Cons
Con No official client for Linux
Google as of yet has a client for Linux, leaving many who use the service forced to use third party apps or the webpage.
Con Data privacy not guaranteed
Data privacy is widely known as one of Google's weaknesses. Data shared through Google is most likely matched up with the user's profile inside other Alphabet inc. subsidiaries, and, due to the business model, used commercially.
Con Terms and Conditions allow Google to own anything on Google Drive
They can create derivative works, they can perform it, they can modify it, and they can publish it at will. There are many other specific rights they take over your product. Read the Terms carefully and compare with ANY others.
Con Very unreliable
Desktop client constantly crashes.
Con No WebDAV, FTP or SFTP
It supports none of these common protocols used for access to network storage, which severely limits OS integration. You are forced to use the browser or a standalone client, which isn't possible on all systems.
Con Low bandwidth
Can't even upload all my files to this
Con Low sync speed
Con No universal Windows app
Con Doesn't integrate well with OS
Con No mobile app
You can port Roam to Hermit, but there is no offline capacity.
Con No established pricing model, this could get expensive later
Rumored to be upwards of $30/month
Con No offline mode
The information can be accessed on the browser offline, but you cannot edit it.
Con Very expensive pricing model, no 'free' tier
For what still feels like beta-software, it's pricing model is very expensive in comparison with competitors that generally offer free tiers for example.
Con Forces you to edit with markdown, rather than wysiwyg
This issue is made worse by super basic formatting bugs, like if you want to for example unbold some text with control/cmd-b, it rather double-bolds it (e.g. it becomes bolded text), making the non-wysiwygness even more messy.