It doesn’t matter if you are looking for cloud storage to sync files across devices, or simply because you don’t have enough storage on your computer. You should look for the best cloud storage available. It’s not fair to pay more than you need.
Let’s take an in-depth look at the most affordable online cloud storage solutions. We will compare pricing per gigabyte (per month), and absolute cost to help you choose the best option for you.
-
The Most Generous Cloud Storage Free of Charge: Google Drive
You can’t find cheaper online storage than free. Google Drive is the best option for storage if you don’t have the budget or are unable to pay. It offers a generous 15 GB of storage.
You should also note that this storage is shared between your Google accounts. You may notice that your storage is disappearing faster if you also use Gmail, Google Photos, or both. This is why you may want to set up a separate Google Drive account.
PCloud offers another option for those who only need a free plan. After signing up, you will get 10GB of free space. However, you can easily increase this to 15GB with simple tasks. These include verifying your email addresses, downloading software on your phone and computer, and enabling the automatic upload of photos.
-
The Cheapest 500GB Cloud Storage:
We already gave pCloud a shoutout for its free plan, but it is also the only major cloud service provider to offer a 500GB plan. This is the first storage level where prices are below $0.01 per gigabyte. This makes it more cost-effective.
pCloud restricts you to 500GB of download traffic. This refers to people downloading content from your links. It shouldn’t matter if you don’t use your cloud storage primarily to host files for other people to access.
We’ve discussed pCloud in detail once before. You can upgrade to a 500GB lifetime plan for $175 if you love it.
-
MediaFire The cheapest 1TB Cloud Storage
MediaFire is primarily used for file sharing with others. But, it also works well as a personal cloud backup solution. Its 1TB pricing rate is the most affordable you’ll find. The “50% Off” message on the pricing page seems to be permanent. Don’t worry if you miss out on a special-time deal.
The service has some problems that could make you reconsider. MediaFire doesn’t have desktop apps so you will need to sync everything via the website or through mobile apps. It lacks the security and privacy features of other providers and skips many power features that make cloud storage so useful.
It’s worth a look if your goal is to get the best cloud storage available. The 1TB level offers a far better value for most people.
-
The Best 1TB Cloud Storage: Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 Personal is the best option for cloud storage if you are a Microsoft Office user. The Microsoft 365 Personal plan includes a terabyte cloud storage in OneDrive and a fully-featured Office for your Mac, PC, or mobile device. Word, Excel PowerPoint and Outlook are included. Access and Publisher on Windows are not included.
Microsoft 365 subscriptions come with 60 minutes of Skype calling per month. This is in addition to Microsoft tech support. This subscription is perfect if you’re already interested in Office.
Family subscribers to Microsoft 365 Family can receive even more value. The above benefits are available for as little as $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year. This includes up to six users. For $9.99/month or $99.99/year, 1TB per person is available for six people. That’s about the most affordable cloud-storage option you can find.
-
Sync.com offers the lowest 2TB cloud storage price
Google Drive and Dropbox all offer a 2TB plan. While they’re all similar in terms of pricing, sync.com offers a slightly better option. Prices for both services start at $8 per month if you pay annually.
We’ve talked about pCloud before, so let us focus on Sync which offers large amounts of cloud storage at a low price.
Sync is similar to pCloud in that it focuses on privacy, but has many great features that are worth a look. This plan has no limit on how much data you share per calendar month and offers a remarkable 180-day file recoverability, in comparison to only 30 days with pCloud.
The two options are comparable so it’s worth registering for both accounts and seeing which one you prefer before upgrading. Sync also offers a 6TB plan at $240/year. This works out to $0.0033/GB.
iDrive, which is not associated with Apple, offers a 5TB plan starting at $79.50/year. A 10TB plan starts at $99.50/year. This is a much lower price. However, iDrive focuses more on cloud backup than cloud storage. It is not included in this category, so we haven’t included it.
