Difference between Apple iCloud and iCloud Drive

It is absolutely normal to confuse Apple iCloud with iCloud Drive, because they sound so similar after all with bad naming strategy! However, they don’t mean the same thing and are quite different below surface level. In layman’s terms, iCloud is a cloud storage service that is used for several services Apple offers whereas iCloud Drive works like OneDrive or Google Drive, and is a service that falls under iCloud.

Think of iCloud as a filing cabinet and iCloud drive as one of the cabinet’s drawers you can use to store things. It is designed to store files that don’t fit in any of the other drawers.

The main difference is:

iCloud offers a backup solution. It will back up everything like app settings, photos stored in the Photos app, contacts, emails, reminders, iMessage, Game Center information and backups from third-party apps. This makes it easy to restore everything to a new Apple device.
iCloud also allows you to sync or “link” your information together, so that if you have Contacts or Messages on your iPhone, you will be able to see that same information across your other Apple devices.

What happens if I turn off iCloud on my device?
If you turn off iCloud on your Apple devices, your information will sit locally on that device. For example, if you save a new Contact to your Contacts App, it will sit on your device, and you won’t see that same contact across your other Apple devices.
If you lose your device, then your information is also lost

On the other hand, iCloud Drive will store and save all files that you throw at it. It’s a space to store documents that don’t fit anywhere else on iCloud.
You can store: Word documents, PDF’s, screenshots and anything else that isn’t synced to iCloud.
That also includes music, photos, movies, podcasts, documents, and any other file. Just upload it to iCloud Drive and it will stay there forever. You can access these files from any compatible device with an iCloud app.

What happens if I turn off iCloud Drive on my device?
Again, your information will sit locally. If you choose to turn off iCloud Drive on your Apple Mac or Macbook, then your Documents will be stored locally on your actual device