8 Best Free and Paid Cloud Storage (2017).
Cloud storage has helped immensely to reduce storage costs and made it possible to access your data anywhere. Whether you are an individual or run a business, cloud storage is essential for storing data on the Internet. There are many cloud storage services out there that will save you TB of data for a small fee, and even offer free GB of storage that’s perfect for personal use.
Related: 10 Ways to Share Files Between Two Computers
1. Google Drive
If you use any of the Google services and have a Google account, then you are already using Google Drive. Google Drive offers its users 15 GB of free space without any restrictions. You can also back up unlimited high quality photos and videos to Google Photos for free without any damage to your Google Drive storage.
Google Drive allows you to provide apps for both desktop and mobile devices so you can easily sync and access your data. Some people have reported problems with Google Drive bandwidth, but I haven’t encountered it yet.
Price: 15GB free, $ 1.99 / month for 100GB, $ 9.99 / month for 1TB of storage.
2. Dropbox
Dropbox is another major player in the cloud storage industry with great security and collaboration tools. 256-bit AES encryption for data storage, SSL / TLS connection, 2-step verification are some of the security measures Dropbox takes to protect your account. It also offers unlimited history recovery and application security testing to ensure your data is never lost or stolen.
It only offers 2GB of free storage, but you can earn up to 16GB by referring friends and connecting social media accounts.
Price: Free 16GB storage, $ 8.25 / month for 1TB, $ 12.50 / month for 2TB storage.
3-mega
As its name suggests, MEGA offers 50GB mega free storage with no strings attached or referral requirements. 50GB of free storage should be enough for most people, but you can also get 4TB for $ 29.99. MEGA pays great attention to the privacy of its users and ensures that all data uploaded to MEGA is first encrypted on the client side and then uploaded to MEGA. Thus, MEGA cannot know what data is being loaded.
To prove their privacy, they even made the source code publicly auditable. Any expert can check the code to make sure it is not invulnerable.
Price: Free 50GB storage, $ 9.99 / month for 1TB, $ 29.99 / month for 4TB storage.
4. Microsoft OneDrive
Like Google Drive, OneDrive is also directly linked to many of Microsoft’s apps and services. It even integrates directly into Windows 10, so all Windows 10 users are already using it. OneDrive offers 5GB of free storage, or you can get 50GB for $ 1.99.
With a $ 6.99 Microsoft Office subscription, you get 1 TB of OneDrive storage, which is one of the best packages you can get if you’re also interested in Microsoft Office products.
Price: 5GB free storage, $ 1.99 for 50GB, 1TB for $ 6.99 / month.
5. Box
Box is more focused on business and teams, but it can work for individuals as well. You get 10GB of storage for free with a 250MB file size limit, which is not very attractive compared to others on this list. However, its paid plans for teams offer great collaboration tools with robust application integration. You can securely share and collaborate on files, maintain a complete file change history, built-in file previews, customizable notifications, task management, and more.
Box integrates with many other popular services such as Microsoft products, Facebook, IFTTT, Asana, etc. So you can easily collaborate with teams using these popular services.
Price: 10 GB free, 100 GB for $ 6 a month, the business plan offers unlimited storage per user for $ 17 a month.
6. SpiderOak
SpiderOak also cares about user privacy and actively promotes itself as a cloud storage and data backup service for users who crave privacy. Following the principles of zero knowledge, SpiderOak ensures that all data, passwords and metadata are encrypted on the client side and then loaded into SpiderOak. Although they do not provide free source code, unlike MEGA.
SpiderOak also has a dedicated chat 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 download than collaboration or security. It offers 10GB of free space up front, but you can upgrade to 50GB by inviting friends. If needed, you can also get up to 100 TB of storage for as little as $ 40 per month.
With more emphasis on sharing files with others, Mediafire allows you to open links to your files for anyone to download. There is no limit to the number of people who can download it, and they will not face bandwidth congestion. It can also download files for you from websites and automatically share them when needed. All in all Mediafire is a great and cheap solution for sharing files with other people.
Price: Up to 50GB can be earned 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 the best upload and download speeds that are only limited by your ISP. If conditions permit, he can download a 1 GB file in 59 seconds and download the same in 36 seconds. There is no limit on the size of the file you can share on pCloud. And you also get 20GB of storage for free.
It also stores your files on multiple servers (at least 3), and the data centers and transfer connection are encrypted as well. Optionally, you can also get the pCloud Crypto service, which allows you to encrypt individual files on the client side with a password and then upload them to pCLoud. While pCloud Crypto costs $ 3.99 per month, MEGA and SpiderOak offer it for free. Like other cloud services, pCloud also has robust file sharing, management and security features.
Price: 20GB free, 500GB for $ 3.99 / month, 2TB for $ 7.99 / month.
Packaging
Dropbox is by far one of the oldest and most comprehensive cloud storage services for individuals and businesses. Although Google Drive is ahead of all, thanks to the dominant Google apps and users’ dependence on its services. The free 15GB Google Drive storage and unlimited photo and video backups also appeal to most regular users.
I also really liked Mediafire for its cheap packages and free 50GB storage, but it’s best if you need to host your downloads. Let us know in the comments which cloud service you are using and how it works for you.
Read also: 7 ways to access your computer files from anywhere in the world