Cloud Storage service, as the name suggests, is a cloud backup service to share files across desvices. File storage can be any like pictures, documents, videos and much more. From individual to small businesses, and large enterprises, we all require cloud storage providers.
Cloud storage was once a paid service, now, its free. Well, almost every online storage service out there offers free storage in cloud backup. Here in this article, we are going to be talking about the best cloud based storage services which are free, easy to use, work on Windows 10, have mobile apps, and are not limited to just file sharing.
We’re listing all the famous and best cloud storage options. They all have a free plan and paid versions, but as a general rule, if a cloud storage solution is giving only 2GB free space, its considered less. If you’re getting 5GB of free storage or over, its good. And, if you are getting free 10GB, then that’s actually great.
Best Cloud Storage Services
Let’s dive into the list of best cloud storage services and see what kind of pro features are they offering.
Dropbox
We all know about Dropbox?
It offers a tiny 2GB free cloud storage space with encryption. This can however be expanded to 16GB of free storage if you manage to link your social media to your Dropbox account and refer your friends to use the service.
And, if you are looking to find some place for easy syncing and claiming an unlimited storage, Dropbox is what you are looking for. It offers advanced features allowing you to recover older versions of files. But all this is in paid plans.
The cloud storage provider offers desktop app, along with a dedicated app for iOS, Android, and other operating systems.
Microsoft OneDrive
Microsoft OneDrive cloud storage seems to be a great option for those using Windows 10.
With free signup you get 5GB of free storage space. The apps on iOS and Android make it super useful to sync between devices. And, if you’re looking to upgrade, it starts from $1.99/Month. Pretty cheap eh?
The file size for upload can be any. Generally my Windows laptop just syncs everything from personal files of Word and Excel, to large files between my iPhone and Surface machine easily.
Mega
Mega offers 50GB of free cloud storage service. Brilliant, right?
It has end-to-end encryption, the chat/audio/video messaging within a document collaboration is secure, and the iOS, Android and Windows Phone app all have file syncing turned on to automatically backup files with the web interface seamlessly.
If you’re looking to start the paid plan, Mega’s pricing begins from €4.99/Month.
Apple iCloud
Apple iCloud is something no one actually gets it for themselves till they become Apple users and then you get the free version of iCloud of 5GB of free storage service automatically.
If however you are interested in buying cloud backup on iCloud, simply signup with Apple and stay secure. The paid plan begin from $0.99/Month for 50GB.
The sync is simply amazing and the cross platform security and backup is quite flawless. The file sharing in instant and in real-time. If you have zero-knowledge of cloud backup or what security features should you have, leave it all to Apple to keep you safe in its iCloud Drive.
Box
Box offers a whopping 10GB of free cloud storage service at signup. We think its best and quite frankly, an ideal size to store data.
The service helps improve productivity by great leaps. Your upload files stay synced across unlimited devices.
Apart from the free cloud storage, they have several other products that work very well if you’re looking for a full feature rich solution of work and business cloud storage.
Paid plans begin from $10/Month for individuals offering 100 GB cloud storage.
NextCloud
If you don’t want to rely on external servers to help you with your cloud storage, NextCloud is best. Even though this is not an online cloud storage solution, it offers a free software that you can use to download any cloud storage service and use it on your own server.
Using a personal server is often faster as you also have the power to enable end-to end encryption to enhance the safety of your files. For those who don’t have any experience on servers, you can also use a NextCloud Box which has already been configured from the website.
The box will come with a storage hard drive that has 1TB storage which works with a Raspberry Pi board just to ensure the safety of your data. As stated earlier, the NextCloud is free of charge but the NextCloud Box goes for around $79.
Google Drive
Everyone know Google Drive. It needs no intro as its already famous because Google, Gmail and Android devices, all are linked with it. It is also a great choice for the G-suite and Google fans.
Signup with Google Drive is free and you get 15GB free storage straight away. The paid services ranges from $1.99 per month for 100GB cloud storage.
There are several other storage spaces which are available on cloud and have many benefits. SugarSync is a great service for cloud backup but its not free at all. Then there is Carbonite, iDrive, BackBlaze, Tresorit, pCloud, and IceDrive.
Backing up data on hardware is good, getting an external storage drive is better, but having stuff saved on cloud is next level experience. So, if you’re still behind everyone and don’t have cloud storage, get yourself a viable solution today.