These days, if you want to really make the best use of your laptops, tablets, and phones, you need a cloud storage service. The concept of storing files in the cloud may have started as a way for consumers to back up their data in case of disaster, but today’s best services offer so much more. A good cloud storage solution backs up your important documents, photos, and videos, but it also helps keep all your devices in sync. It’s a great way to make sure your laptop, phone, and tablet all have instant access to all your digital content. Plus, you can access and edit documents from a web browser and easily share files and folders with others. If you use Apple products—whether that’s just a single iPhone or you’re all-in with tons of Apple gear—we think these are the best cloud storage solutions to subscribe to.
For $99-per-year, Carbonite Plus provides everything on the basic plan, plus the ability to connect to external hard drives, so you can sync the data that’s too big to fit on your PC or Mac. The Benefits of Cloud Storage for External Hard Drives. Just about any competent cloud storage service is going to provide a web app, accompanied by desktop and mobile software as well.
Best cloud storage overall: Google One/Drive This gets a little confusing. Google offers upgrades to its cloud storage, currently just called Google Drive (though the storage space is used for lots of Google products). Over the course of 2018, Google will transition that storage subscription to a new service named Google One, but the, used for managing your files, will remain. So, Google One will be the service, while Google Drive will be one of several products that taps into it, along with Google Photos, Gmail, Google Docs, and more. IDG Google Photos is fast, smart, and maybe a better place to back up all your digital memories than Apple’s Photos app. For now, your free Google account gets you 15GB of Google Drive space.
You can boost that to 100GB for $1.99 a month or 1TB for $9.99, and there are even bigger plans available for real data hogs. When Google One launches, the $9.99 tier will double to 2TB and Google will add a new 200GB/$2.99 tier. If you have a paid Google Drive plan today, you’ll automatically be switched over to Google One. Google’s cloud service simply does a lot of things very well. The is better then Apple’s in a lot of ways and the web experience is way better. It’s a great place to back up your photos and videos., and have earned a great reputation as reliable, fast, and easy-to-use web-based collaborative productivity solutions and the iOS apps even support split-screen multitasking on iPad. Google Drive provides access to all your stuff via web, and integrates very well with the iOS share menu.
For your Mac or Windows PC, is fantastic. It integrates your Google Drive into Finder or Explorer, keeps it in sync across devices, and can even back up your Documents, Desktop, Pictures (including your Photos library), or other folders of your choosing. It may feel strange choosing Google as your primary cloud storage solution when you use Apple products, but it really does work wonderfully. It’s a no-brainer if you regularly use a Windows PC or want to access your files from the web, and the price is reasonable. Best cloud storage if all your gear is Apple: iCloud Because it integrates so seamlessly with all of Apple’s products and services, iCloud really is the best cloud storage solution for someone who is all-in with Apple. And I do mean all-in: All your computers are Macs, your mobile devices are iOS, you work in Apple’s productivity software (Pages, Numbers, Notes), and so on.
IDG Apple has a full suite of web apps, but they’re not as robust or performant as Google’s. Frustratingly, Apple only provides a paltry 5GB of free iCloud storage, which isn’t so bad if all you want to do is store some Pages and Numbers documents, but is grossly inadequate for photos and videos. 5GB probably doesn’t even give you enough cloud storage to back up your iPhone, let alone an iPhone and iPad. Apple should stop counting iOS backups against your iCloud storage limits.
The main benefit of paying for more iCloud storage is that nearly all of Apple’s apps can seamlessly sync through it. Photos, productivity apps, Mail, Calendar, and anything you drop into your iCloud Drive folder in Finder on a Mac are immediately available across your whole Apple ecosystem. A significant number of iOS apps optionally back up and sync through iCloud, too. If you rely on non-Mac computers or non-iOS mobile devices from time to time, you’ll find iCloud’s limitations frustrating. Apple provides a full suite of web apps at, but they’re sort of mediocre. Apple provides an iCloud Windows app that syncs data and integrates your iCloud mail with common Windows apps like Outlook, but there are no native apps for Windows or Android.
If you want to edit a Pages document, you have to use the web interface. Best cloud storage for business: Microsoft OneDrive Microsoft OneDrive? For Apple users? You’d be surprised how well Microsoft’s products work with iOS devices and Macs.
OneDrive gives you 5GB for free, the same as iCloud. There’s a $1.99 per month subscription that nets you 50GB of storage, but that’s not really a good deal. Where OneDrive really shines is in its $9.99 per month (or $99.99 per year) level. This gives you 1TB of cloud storage for up to 5 users. That’s 1TB per user, not shared! Each user also gets Office 365 Home, with full versions of, and, and you can install them on up to five computers, five tablets, and five smartphones. IDG OneDrive on its own is just okay, but the $9.99/month tier is an Office 365 family plan with tons of storage space.
It’s a good deal if you’ve got a family full of people with different devices. OneDrive, and all those Office apps, work on Windows (of course), Mac, iOS, and Android. Most importantly, Office apps are actually quite good on iOS and Mac. OneDrive syncs neatly across devices and works well on the Mac, integrating neatly into Finder. The iOS apps support iPad multitasking, and you even get Apple Watch apps for OneNote and Outlook. Microsoft’s web-based apps are quite robust, too. So if you need to make some quick edits from a computer without Word or Excel installed, or just want to use a web-based email portal, you won’t get a half-baked experience.
If there’s a weak spot with OneDrive, it’s photos and videos. Yes, the OneDrive iOS app can automatically back up photos and videos from your iPhone or iPad (and OneNote has an awesome document scanner built-in), but the photo album experience online is lackluster and there’s no dedicated photo browser/editor app. We still think Google provides a better overall cloud solution for most users, especially since you get three times as much free storage and double the storage at the $1.99/month level.
But if you frequently use Microsoft’s productivity software, and especially if you have an iPhone or iPad but use a Windows 10 PC, you should give OneDrive a closer look. Price comparison Which cloud storage option you choose can depend largely on how much you’re willing to pay. If you want free space, Google crushes the competition with a generous 15GB. The 100GB for $1.99 level is a good deal for most people and doubles the capacity Microsoft gives you with OneDrive. Apple’s iCloud gives you 200GB for $2.99, which is the minimum you’re going to have to spend if you plan to back up iOS devices to the cloud along with photos and videos.
Google will add a tier to match this capacity and price when it transitions to Google One. If you want to spend ten bucks a month, you’ll get 2TB from either Google or Apple, but Microsoft will give you five accounts with 1TB each.
That’s a sweet deal. IDG. Google currently offers no $2.99/200GB tier, and the $9.99 tier is 1TB. This chart reflects the upgrade to Google One coming throughout 2018.
Well, it’s hard to recommend for most users. A free account nets you a paltry 2GB, and the only paid option is a $9.99 per month 1TB plan. Dropbox does a good job of syncing folders on computers and mobile devices, but that’s not enough anymore—the competition does a great job of that, too. Editing and creating productivity documents is done through Dropbox’s all-in-one, which is just okay.
Dropbox will back up your photos and videos if you want, but the photo management experience is lackluster. Dropbox was the go-to cloud storage and sync service eight years ago, but has since been surpassed by more robust, flexible, and affordable offerings from its competitors.
When it comes to cloud services and software-as-a-service (SaaS), we're all familiar with the usual players. But there's a huge world of opportunity and available resources beyond Google, Dropbox, Salesforce, Amazon, and Microsoft. In 2007, Drew Houston, 's CEO, got, so he created the first personal and small business cloud storage service. It was a radical one in its day. Today, everyone and their uncle seems to be offering cheap or free cloud storage.
Also: TechRepublic That's great! Except, well, how do you choose which one is right for you? It used to be that most people decided simply on the basis of how much free storage space they got. That's simple, but it only tells part of the story. The real value from a cloud storage service comes from how well it works for you. As you'll see, some work much better with some operating systems and business plans than others.
Amazon Drive. Amazon does a great job with its cloud storage service for developers and IT. But for personal and business users has never been a first-tier storage service.
On the plus side, Amazon moves files by using,' aka 'differential sync' or 'delta sync.' With this method, which Dropbox uses as well, when you sync a file you only send and receive the differences, the delta, between files. This makes syncing files much faster on these services than their rivals. Amazon Drive also includes features taskbar notifications. These enable you to keep an eye on your file transfers, It also enables you to throttle sync speeds when you're busy with say a bandwidth hungry video-conference in the foreground. This cloud storage service used to offer an unlimited plan. But Amazon dropped that plan in 2017.
Today, member get 5GB of torage for use with Amazon Drive and unlimited photo storage with Prime Photos. If you want more, Amazon's current annual storage plans start at 100GB) for $11.99 and 1TB for $59.99. At most, you can get 30TB for $1,799.70. My bottom line is, if you're an Amazon Prime member, Amazon Drive is worth it.
If you're not, keep looking. Box Sure, you can get a free cloud storage account with 10GB of storage, and for $10 a month with the, you get 100GB of space, but that's like using a Rolls-Royce to pull a U-Haul trailer.
Where Box really shines is as a groupware or work-flow application. Used that way, it enables you to share files with colleagues, assign tasks, leave comments on someone's work, and get notifications when a file changes. Also: The Box Business Plan for small and medium-sized businesses offers unlimited storage integrates with Google Docs and Office 365 and costs $15 per month per user. Besides unlimited storage, the Business Plan lets you have files as large as 5GB. It also works with Active Directory (AD) and single-sign on (SSO). Box excels at file privacy and data encryption.
You get full read/write permissions control over your files and directories. In addition, you can also such as Salesforce and NetSuite. This really is a cloud storage service for business users. Like the other services, you can use your files via Box's website and even create basic text documents.
To make it shine, you'll need the. It also comes with Android, iOS, and Windows Phone apps that will enable you to view, upload and share files. Or Chromebooks users.
Box is best suited for a business IT buy. Its real value comes if you deploy it in your company not just as a way to store and share files but to run team projects.
Dropbox Who doesn't use? Sure, its free storage is only 2GB, but you can use it on any platform. You can get to your files from Dropbox's website, desktop applications for Mac, Windows, and Linux, their native files systems, and the iOS, Android, BlackBerry, and Kindle Fire mobile apps. It's a snap to set up, and you don't need to worry about syncing files for a second.
It's also easy to add free storage for nothing. Take the tutorial, and you get 250MB more room.
Get a mobile app and turn on the automatic photo upload feature, and ta-da you get 3GB of extra space. You can also earn 500MB for each friend you get to sign up for Dropbox for up to 16GB in all. Also: If you need more storage - a lot more storage - starts at 3TB for $12.50 a month. If you need even more Dropbox offers unlimited storage starting at $20 per user per month. All these plans comes with a 30-day free trial. Where Dropbox shines the most is its sheer simplicity - and the simple fact that you can use it on almost any platform you care to name. If you value simple, fast, and easy, Dropbox should be your first choice.
I don't need to tell you that. You're probably already using it. Google Drive used to be just storage. But then Google took its online office suite, and pasted them together. Now, for simply having a Google account, you get 15GB of free storage and an excellent office suite. It's good enough that many businesses and every Chromebook user is now using it as their complete cloud-based office. Still wedded to Microsoft Office and not Google Docs?
With a Google Chrome extension, you can view and, Excel, and PowerPoint files with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Also: Need more storage? Starts at $1.99 per month for 100GB, or for $2.99 a month you get 200GB a month. For a 1TB, you pay $9.99 per month, and 10TB costs $99.99 per month. You can go all the way up to 30TB for $299.99 a month. With all these plans, you can share your storage with your family. In addition, if you.
With any Chromebook you'll now get a free 1TB of storage for two years. If you buy a high-end, you get free storage for three years. After the free deal expires, you still get to keep the storage you use. So, for example, if you use 500GB of your free 1TB, after a year and a day, you will still have 500GB of free storage. If you want to build your business around Google Drive, you can do that too. Includes unlimited storage for files, folders, and backups for $8 per user per month plus $0.04 per GB. With it, you can sync all your business files, including Microsoft Office files, across your computer, smartphone, and tablet to access your work whenever you need it.
There are apps for Google Drive for Android, iOS, Mac OS X, and Windows. Annoyingly, there is not a Linux app, even though Google Drive is built into Chrome OS,. There is a third-party app, which I highly recommend, but I still want a Google Drive native Linux app. This gives you the power to sync or backup almost any file or folder on your computer. For users, there's.
This storage service streams files to a machine from the cloud rather than syncing them between the device and the cloud. This service turns Google Drive into more of a hard-drive replacement than a cloud storage service add-on. If you're a Chromebook or Google power user, I don't need to sell you on Google Drive. It's the best cloud storage option for you. Personally, while I've use all these storage services, Google Drive is the one I use every day. ICloud Apple's cloud entry is awkward.
Shows to its best advantage when you use it with Apple's latest and greatest gear, but even there it's quirky. Apple's iCloud comes with 5GB of free storage, if you're using it from a Mac or an iDevice. If you're using it from Windows, you can get 1GB. For $2.99, you get 200GB, and 2TB costs $9.99 per month. Also: Like Google Drive, iCloud Drive is also integrated with an office suite, albeit it's only Apple's beginner's office applications: Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. Unlike the other services, there is no business version of iCloud Drive. While it supports Windows, it also, even now, doesn't support Android.
Perhaps, iCloud most annoying 'feature' is the confusion between iCloud and iCloud Drive. They're not the same thing.
For example, Contacts, Notes, Photos, and Reminders get backed up to iCloud, but TextEdit, iMovie, and Mail data lives in iCloud Drive. In addition, iCloud Drive, in my experience, is prone to be slow and quirky. I've had trouble syncing files between my Macs and iDevices. Eventually, I think iCloud Drive will be for Apple users what OneDrive already is for Windows, but it's still having teething problems. However, as a business solution? It's not there now, and I doubt it ever will be. Nextcloud is an.
Both are open-source programs that enable you to set up your own cloud storage service using your existing hard drives. In short, if don't trust your data to Apple, Google, Microsoft, or anyone else, this is the the do-it-yourself way: Also: You can use Nextcloud to set up your own cloud storage either on an office server or off your own external servers. NextCloud, while easy to set up for a Linux power-user, might prove a challenge for some. Still, if you want real control, it's hard to beat. Nextcloud comes in both a free and a business edition,. The code's all open source, so if you feel up to the challenge, you can run it all yourself. How much storage can you get with it?
How much do you want? I have a 4TB Nextcloud drive in my office and another terabyte off my co-hosted server rack. There are Nextcloud desktop clients for Linux, macOS, and Windows and mobile apps for Android and iOS. You can also use the protocol to into your local file system.
Nextcloud is more than just an easy way to set up a private Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) cloud. The Nextcloud suite of programs also include for private web-conferencing and, for e-mail, calendaring, and contacts This cloud storage solution is for anyone who wants the maximum amount of control over their cloud and doesn't mind doing some extra work to get it just right. OneDrive Formerly SkyDrive, is what Apple wants iCloud Drive to be when it grows up. Starting with Windows 8, OneDrive is baked into the operating system. As far as a Windows user is concerned, OneDrive is just another directory in the file explorer. Talk about it easy!
Anyone can use it on the web, with a desktop app for Mac and earlier versions of Windows, and with OneDrive apps for Android, iOS, Windows Phone,. Also: OneDrive comes with 5GB of free storage.
If you're an Office 365 user, this is a no brainer. You can also add 50GB to OneDrive for $1.99 per month. Like Google and Chromebooks, Microsoft also offers free storage if you buy a. OneDrive's real selling point is, besides working hand-in-glove with Windows, it also works closely with Microsoft Office programs.
With Office 365 you can also collaborate with others in documents and spreadsheets in real time with your partners. If you want to take OneDrive into your business, Microsoft stands ready to help with. This is not a storage plan, per se. But, like Google Drive has been merged into Google Docs,. With Office 365 Business, Business Essentials, or Business Premium plans, the prices start at $5 a user per month with an annual commitment. With any of these packages, you get 1TB of storage per user. There's no question who will get the most from OneDrive.
It's anyone who's wedded to Windows and Microsoft Office. If that's you, starting using it already. You'll be glad you did.
What's the best cloud storage for you? It depends on what you use and what you want to do with it. All of these services give you more than enough free or cheap service for small business purposes. In short, don't be distracted by how many free gigabytes of storage you get; it's not that important.
Personally, I prefer Google Drive and Nextcloud, but then those meet my needs best. For you, it may be a different story. To sum up:. All-in-one office/cloud/workflow: Box, Google Drive, or Nextcloud.
Apple users: Amazon, Dropbox, or Google Drive (until iCloud Drive matures). Ease of use and multiple devices: Dropbox.
Google users: Google Drive. Linux users: Nextcloud. Users who place high value on having data control: Box or Nextcloud. Windows users: OneDrive So, get out there, find a service and start saving and backing up your files to the cloud. It will make your life much easier.
1 - 5 of 24 Previous and related coverage: Apple's consumer cloud storage doesn't just make backing up your device inconvenient. It also makes for a very negative in-store experience. The company is rolling out an automatic image text recognition capability that performs optical character detection on photos of documents, including receipts and field reports. If you haven't checked out OneDrive lately, you're missing out. Over the past two years, Microsoft has methodically added a raft of new features that can help you back up personal files and photos. In this post, I show you some of the most useful options for saving and sharing files and folders.
The update, with some cheaper pricing and more perks, makes Google's consumer storage plans more competitive against options like Dropbox and Microsoft's OneDrive. Related Topics. By registering you become a member of the CBS Interactive family of sites and you have read and agree to the,.
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