1. Google Drive
If you are using any of Google services and have a Google account, then you are already taking advantage of Google Drive. Google Drive offers up front 15 GB of free space to its users without any limitations. You can also backup unlimited high-quality photos and videos to Google Photos for free without any impact on your Google Drive storage.
Google Drive lets provide applications for both desktop and mobile to let you easily syncs and access your data. Some people do report bandwidth issues with Google Drive, but I have yet to face it. Price: Free 15GB, $1.99/month for 100GB, $9.99/month for 1TB storage
2. Dropbox
Dropbox is another big player in cloud storage industry and offers great security and team collaboration tools. 256-bit AES encryption for data storage, SSL/TLS connection, two-step authentication is some of the security measures Dropbox takes to protect your account. It also offers unlimited history recover and app security testing to ensure your data is never lost or stolen.
It offers just 2GB free storage, but you can earn up to 16GB storage by referring friends and connecting social accounts. Price: Free earnable 16GB storage, $8.25/month for 1TB, $12.50/month for 2TB storage
3.MEGA
True to its name, MEGA offers a mega free storage of 50GB without any strings or requirement of referrals. 50GB free storage should be enough for most people, but you can also get 4TB of space for $29.99. MEGA has a huge focus on the privacy of its users and ensure that all the data uploaded to MEGA first gets encrypted on the client side and then uploaded to MEGA. So it is impossible for MEGA to know what data is being uploaded.
To prove their privacy, they have even made the source code available for anyone check. Any expert can check the code to ensure there is no invulnerability. Price: Free 50GB storage, $9.99/month for 1TB, $29.99/month for 4TB storage
4. Microsoft OneDrive
Similar to Google Drive, OneDrive is also directly connected with many of the Microsoft applications and services. It is even directly integrated into Windows 10, so all the Windows 10 users are already using it. OneDrive offers 5GB of free space or you can get 50GB space for $1.99.
With $6.99 Microsoft Office subscription, you will get 1TB of OneDrive storage, which is one the best package you can get if you are interested in Microsoft Office products as well. Price: Free 5GB storage, $1.99 for 50GB, 1TB for $6.99/month
5. Box
Box is more focused towards businesses and teams, but it may work for individuals as well. You will get 10GB of storage for free with 250MB limit on file size for free, which isn’t too attractive as compared to others in this list. However, its paid plans for teams offer great collaboration tools with reliable app integration. You can securely share files and collaborate on them, complete file changes history, built-in preview of files, customized notifications, task management and more.
Box integrates with many other popular services such as Microsoft products, Facebook, IFTTT, and Asana, etc. So you can easily collaborate with teams while using these popular services Price: Free 10GB storage, 100GB for $6/month, business plan offers unlimited storage per user for $17/month
6. SpiderOak
SpiderOak is also all about the privacy of the user and heavily promotes itself as a cloud storage and data backup service for privacy-hungry users. Following the zero-knowledge guidelines, SpiderOak ensures that all the data, passwords and metadata is encrypted on the client side and then uploaded to SpiderOak. Although they don’t make the source code available for free, unlike MEGA.
SpiderOak also has a dedicated chatting and file sharing service called “SpiderOak Semaphor” that offers end-to-end encryption for your private conversations. Price: 100GB for $5/month, 250GB for $9/month, 1TB for $12/month
7. Mediafire
Mediafire is a very cheap cloud storage service that focuses more on hosting your files for downloads than collaboration or protection. It offers 10GB of free space up front, but you can increase it to 50GB by referring friends. If needed you can also get up to 100TB of space just for $40/month.
With more focus on sharing files with others, Mediafire lets you public links to your files to let anyone download them. There is no restriction on how many people can download it, and they will not face any bandwidth hogging. It can also download files for your from online websites and automatically share them if needed. Overall Mediafire is a great and cheap solution for sharing your files with other people. Price: Up to 50GB earnable for free, 1TB storage for $3.75/month, 100TB storage for $40/month
8. pCloud
pCloud is another good cloud storage service that promises to offer best upload and download speeds that are only limited by your internet service provider. If conditions permit, it can upload a 1GB file in 59 seconds and download the same in 36 seconds. There is no limit on how big the file you can share on pCloud. And you will also get 20GB of space for free.
It also stores your files on multiple servers (at least 3) and the data centers and transfer connection are also encrypted. If needed, you can also get pCloud Crypto service that lets you encrypt individual files on the client side using a password and then upload to pCLoud. Although pCloud Crypto costs $3.99/month, where MEGA and SpiderOak offer this for free. Similar to other cloud services, pCloud also has reliable file sharing, management, and protection features. Price: Free 20GB storage, 500GB storage for $3.99/month, 2TB storage for $7.99/month
Wrapping Up
Dropbox is definitely one of the oldest and most comprehensive cloud storage services for both individuals and businesses. Although Google Drive gets ahead due to Google’s overall dominating apps and user dependency on its services. Google Drive’s free 15GB storage and unlimited photo and video backup also win most of the regular users. I also really liked Mediafire for its cheap packages and 50GB free storage, but it is best if you need to host downloadable files. Do let us know in the comments which cloud service you use and how it is working for you. Also Read: 7 Ways To Access Your Computer’s Files From Anywhere In The World
