Whether for personal or business use, the best cloud storage allows you to easily, quickly, and securely back up, store, and share important files, images, videos, and more. While many still compare cloud storage vs local storage, the cloud's advances in military-grade security tools, beginner-friendly platforms' ease of use, and very competitive pricing plans make it the most attractive option.
You might find the wide range of services overwhelming, but it's worth remembering that the best premium providers of cloud data storage also offer business storage and free cloud storage. This means that choosing the right service now can provide benefits later, should your needs and circumstances change.
When you look for cloud storage, your chosen service should provide the adequate level of storage for your needs, industry-leading security, and customer support that's both professional and responsive.
Our guide to the best cloud storage ranks top providers based on their performance against the aforementioned elements; their file size limits; each service's ease of use and ability to provide access to files anywhere, anytime, and from any device; their free and paid plans; and any collaborative tools. Read on to see who we ranked top.
What is cloud storage?
How to choose and use cloud storage
The top 3 best cloud storage services
Which is the best cloud storage service?
IDrive is our choice for the best cloud storage provider of premium plans. It offers an extensive, great-value series of features via a high-quality, secure solution, available across an impressive range of competitively-priced plans. IDrive is also ideal for those with smaller storage needs, and is unmatched in terms of features relative to cost.
Google Drive is the go-to cloud storage solution for Google users, thanks to seamless integration and versatility across well-priced subscriptions. Nextcloud's free, open-source self-hosted file sync and content collaboration platform meanwhile can be installed and administered on your own server, with paid add-ons available.
Other services we highly recommend include pCloud, Box, Microsoft OneDrive, SpiderOak, iCloud, and Mega. Consider these when researching purchasing premium cloud storage, as they offer high-level features and tools that make them stand out.
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| Cloud storage platforms | Lowest-price plan | Storage capacity | Number of devices | Encryption |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IDrive | $79.50 a year (IDrive Personal) | Up to 10TB (up to 50TB for business plans) | Unlimited | End-to-end |
| Google Drive | $1.99 a month (Google One) | Up to 2TB | Unlimited | Encrypted transfer |
| Nextcloud | $42.60 per user a year (Basic) | Potentially unlimited | Potentially unlimited | Fully customizable |
| pCloud | $4.99 a month (Premium) | Up to 2TB | Unspecified | In transit and at rest |
| Box | $11.50 a month (Personal Pro) | Up to 100GB (unlimited for business plans) | Unlimited (for business plans) | End-to-end |
| Microsoft OneDrive | $1.99 a month (OneDrive Standard) | Up to 6TB | 30 | AES 256-bit |
| SpiderOak One | $6 a month (150GB Plan) | Up to 5TB | Unlimited | End-to-end |
| iCloud | $0.99 a month (50GB plan) | Up to 2TB | 10 | 2FA |
| MEGA | $5.88 a month (Pro Lite) | Up to 16TB | Unlimited | Zero-knowledge |
The best cloud storage providers available
IDrive is, in our opinion, the best cloud storage service available for premium users, offering great value for money as well as highly secure storage. Arguably the biggest advantage is that it applies to network drives too, meaning everything from servers to mobile devices is covered. Users can share files via email, Facebook and Twitter, and restore up to 30 previous versions of back-ups.
When it comes to cloud storage for backups, IDrive Express provides a physical hard disk drive in case you lose all of your data, making a backup quick and painless (disk image backup is also covered). The service doesn’t automatically delete cloud files if you delete something on your hardware, so there’s no risk in completely erasing valuable data by accident.
IDrive also ranks first among the best cloud storage for photos, and photo-minded users will be happy to hear there’s a facial recognition feature that automatically organizes and syncs images across all linked devices. Plans start at $79.50 a year for one user, unlimited devices and 5TB of storage (IDrive Personal), while IDrive Team offers five users, five computers and 5TB for $99.50 a year.
Read our comprehensive IDrive review; our interview with CEO Raghu Kulkarni; and our comparisons pitting IDrive vs Backblaze and IDrive vs OneDrive.
For personal and professional projects, Google Drive is the natural go-to for Google Workspace and Android users, due to seamless integration and versatility. You can use the office suite to create and store documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and more; and store mobile-based high-quality photos via Google Photos.
While the web interface is somewhat poorly executed and not as user-friendly as elsewhere, native clients allow Windows and Mac users easier file storage through drag-and-drop. There's a 15GB free storage plan, and you can buy more via Google One, starting at $1.99 a month or $19.99 a year for 100GB (when paid annually).
Each subscription can be shared for free with up to five others, but everyone will have to share the same amount of storage. Upgrading to 200GB costs $2.99 a month or $29.99 a year, with 3% cashback in store credit from the Google Store; 2TB of storage and 10% cashback costs $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year.
While this isn’t always clear online, additional storage is also available through Google Workspace. 30GB is available for $6 per user a month, while unlimited storage for teams of five or more users costs $12 per user a month. For $25 per user a month, you’ll also get priority support, data loss prevention, and other perks.
Read our Google Drive review, and our comparisons pitting Google Drive vs OneDrive and Google Drive vs Dropbox.
Technically speaking, Nextcloud is not an online cloud storage provider. Rather, it's a self-hosted file sync and content collaboration platform, which provides free software you can install on your own server, and administer cloud storage yourself.
The benefit of a self-hosted product is that you get to keep your data on your servers, offering complete control and faster performance. While this might seem intimidating for beginners, or futile for serverless users, the service offers preconfigured hardware that runs Nextcloud out of the box.
As free open-source software, you can download and install it at no cost, but need to factor in the cost of setting up, running, and administering your own servers. However, if you already have infrastructure in place, using Nextcloud instead of a commercial cloud storage solution could save you money.
There are three pricing plans as an alternative, namely the Basic, Standard, and Premium plans, which are pre-configured and ready to go. These are billed annually, with no monthly payment plans available: Basic costs $42.60 per user a year (based on 100 users) or $33.72 (based on 200 users); Standard costs $76.90 or $57.38; and Premium $112.99 or $88.14.
Third-party providers can deploy, optimize, and maintain your Nextcloud installation for you, and if you have at least 50 users, you can choose Nextcloud Enterprise, a pre-configured, production-ready version.
Read our detailed Nextcloud review.
Hailing from Switzerland, pCloud offers no file size limit, making it ideal for storing large media files, although there are some bandwidth limits. You can also send up to 5GB for free with pCloud Transfer, which covers all desktop and mobile platforms, and also has a web-based login. You can also spend more on a monthly, annual or lifetime basis for pCloud Crypto, which can encrypt individual files.
Its appealing, highly-functional interface store files easily via desktop and mobile apps, as well as pCloud’s website. Its simple file-sharing features also provide the ability to share files with non-pCloud users, while built-in streaming features mean you can simply watch or listen to videos or music within the platform.
It’s worth noting that pricing plans include lifetime subscriptions, a fairly unusual sight when it comes to cloud services. Each comes with unlimited remote upload traffic and 30 days trash history, with the difference being the amount of storage and download link traffic: 500GB for Premium, and 2TB for Premium Plus, which cost $4.99 or $9.99 a month, or $47.88 or $95.88 a year respectively.
Read our pCloud review, and our interview with Digital Marketing Manager Ivan Dimitrov.
One quick look at pricing, and it’s clear Box is prioritizing businesses as its key demographic. However, it offers both individual and business plans, and Box's pricing structure is very simple for the former.
You pay nothing for up to 10GB of storage, with a maximum file size of 250MB, or $10 a month for the Personal Pro plan, with up to 100GB of storage and a maximum file size of 5GB. The Box apps for desktop include the Box Drive client, which can be used on both Windows and Mac, while mobile users can use the official Android client.
With almost 15 years in the sector, Box is a mainstay in cloud content management and file sharing. Its strong points include broad management abilities and an emphasis on security, while its UI is easy to navigate, making you feel you at home immediately. It's supported by a variety of commonly used app packages, including Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.
Read our Box review and our Box for Business review.
Ever since the switch to Windows 10, OneDrive has been the Microsoft cloud storage solution of choice. It's directly integrated into the file explorer, providing immediate access for users who want to jumpstart their online backup. There are also Android and iOS apps for mobile uploads, as well as an improved app for Mac users.
As a Microsoft platform, OneDrive works closely with Microsoft 365, which is helpful if you're looking to boost productivity. The Photos app can sync images across all your devices, and you can selectively sync files stored on your hard drive. The mobile app offers interesting features, such as multi-page scanning that allows you to save them as a single document, and access anywhere from any device.
The basic paid plan offers 50GB, and it's worth noting that if you're already a Microsoft 365 subscriber, you get 1TB of space off the bat. Its interaction with Microsoft Office apps is OneDrive’s biggest appeal, and its collaborative functions aren't limited to OneDrive users.
OneDrive has plans for home and business use, with four for home: two of these are OneDrive only, while the others incorporate Microsoft 365. Prices range from the free Basic plan offering 5GB of storage, up to $9.99 a month ($99.99 a year), to 6TB with the Microsoft 365 Family plan, which accommodates up to six people (1TB per person). Microsoft 365 plans offer Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Skype. The most expensive plans also come with a one-month free trial.
Read our Microsoft OneDrive review, our explainer discussing what OneDrive is, and our comparison pitting OneDrive vs Dropbox.
Zero knowledge cloud storage pertains to encryption, which, according to SpiderOak, takes place before syncing, so it has no idea what you're storing. You're the only one who knows what's being encrypted and saved, which makes your data utterly private. The source code isn’t public though, so you’ll just have to take SpiderOak’s word for it.
There's a 21-day free trial available, so you can see how the service works and test it before buying, and considering the focus is on security and privacy, it has a simple and straightforward interface, which utilizes a convenient drag-and-drop feature to help with quick and efficient file organization.
There is native support for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS, although the mobile apps are read-only and don’t allow you to upload files. SpiderOak One has four pricing plans, with the cheapest at $6 a month including 150GB of storage and support for unlimited devices.
For $11 a month, you get 400GB of storage, and 2TB for $14 a month, while $29 a month gets you 5TB, with a small discount of around 5% if you pay annually.
Read our SpiderOak review.
Right on the heels of Microsoft, Apple’s own cloud storage delivers a sound service. Even if 5GB of free storage won’t back up your iPhone or iPad entirely, the paid subscriptions are competitively priced.
The standout feature is how easily accessible the service is across Apple’s platforms. For instance, you can store anything through the Mac Finder app, which integrates with iCloud Drive, and also sync iWork documents across all your devices, which are saved to iCloud.
If you’re a Windows user with an iPhone, you can also sync files with iCloud Drive via the official client, as well as use the iCloud website to access iWork apps. iCloud's 5GB for free is better than other providers, but significantly less than the 15GB available with Google Drive.
Additional storage is available at different prices, with 50GB for $0.99 a month, 200GB for $2.99 a month, or 2TB for $9.99 a month. Unfortunately, there aren’t any long-term subscriptions, which could be a significant disadvantage for some users.
Read our full iCloud review.
A 50GB free plan is a real rarity in cloud storage, so MEGA delivers right from the start. Add in an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop interface, and you have one of the best cloud storage solutions. A mobile app allows uploading of files and photos, while desktop users have sync clients at their disposal.
The invention of the infamous Kim Dotcom, MEGA allows you to upload files via an encrypted connection, and maintain control over your encryption key. That effectively prevents others, including MEGA, from scanning your content. In addition, its sync client is open-source and open to vulnerability checks.
For those seeking a paid option, there are four tiers ranging from Pro Lite to Pro III: the only main difference being storage and transfer amounts (all four maintain the same additional features). There's also a Business plan with 15TB of storage, unlimited data transfer, and other features, starting at $5.89 per user.
Pro Lite has 400GB of storage and a 1TB transfer limit per month for $5.88, with the others offering 2TB storage and transfer (Pro I at $11.78 a month), 8TB storage and transfer (Pro II at $23.56 a month) and 16TB storage and transfer (Pro III at $35.35 a month).
Read our full MEGA review.
Cloud storage FAQs
How secure is cloud storage?
How we review the best cloud storage platforms
How to choose the best cloud storage for business
What you need to know about free cloud storage
Further reading on cloud storage
If you're set on purchasing cloud storage, but need to cut costs, read our feature exploring reducing cloud storage costs and what you need to know. We've also got a series of other cloud computing buying guides, including the best cloud computing services, the best cloud management software, and the best cloud HCM software.
