Keeping your important files, photos, videos, music, and notes in the cloud is a great way to ensure that you always have easy access everything you need without filling up storage on your device.

With so many different services now available, it can be hard deciding which one is the best for your particular needs.

Here, we take a look at the top cloud storage solutions for you and your business to keep your content safe…

GOOGLE DRIVE

If you have a Google account, which includes Gmail and YouTube, then you already have 15GB of free storage available to you in Google Drive.

You can upgrade this for additional features and storage from just £1.99 per month with plans to suit your business needs.

This can be used to backup documents, photos, videos, and anything else you want to keep safe, as well as creating documents from scratch and the ability to share files with other users.

There are a variety of apps that can be accessed from Google Drive, including Google Photos with unlimited space for photos and videos so long as they are under 16MP or up to 1080p quality.

 

ONEDRIVE

One Drive is a free storage service with upgrade options available from just £1.99, and also comes with added benefits of Microsoft’s OneDrive.

Features include automatic photo backups, advanced search facilities, mobile and web access to OneDrive, plus the Files On-Demand settings that can keep files stored solely online rather than taking up space on your device.

If you sign up for Office 365 with a monthly subscription starting from £5.99, you get access to a number of premium features such as restoring the entire drive back to any point in the past 30 days, Ransomeware detection, password protection on shared files, expiration dates on shared links, offline folders on mobile devices, and ten times the allowed amount of content that can be shared each day.

 

BOX

While Box offers personal storage options, it’s primarily aimed at businesses.

The free package offers 10GB of space, with a limit of 250MB for file sizes. The free account doesn’t support versioning, but upgrading to the Personal Pro plan that costs £8 allows this to happen, along with giving you 100GB of storage and a file size limit of 5GB.

It has separately designed interfaces for both desktop and mobile apps with plenty of options for creating, uploading and sorting files.

 

PCLOUD

Swiss offering pCloud is a traditional cloud storage service can keep your files safe, secure and available across all your devices.

The free tier comes with 10GB of storage, although 3GB needs to be unlocked by completing tasks such as downloading the mobile app, uploading a file, or sharing the service with friends.

Upgrades are available from £4.49 per month, and there are no file size restrictions so you can upload anything that your storage space allows.

 

AMAZON DRIVE

Amazon Drive offers 5GB of free storage, with unlimited full-resolution photo storage included with Prime.

If you need additional space, then there’s a 100GB tier that costs £16.99 per year and multiple higher capacity options that max out at 30TB.

It can be combined with other subscription services to be personalised for your own needs, with access to Amazon music, film and TV streaming content for entertainment.

 

DROPBOX

Dropbox helped popularise the concept of cloud storage in its early days, and it’s still a popular choice for those storing files.

As well as 2GB free and additional storage available from £7.99, DropBox includes powerful tools such being able to collaborate on PowerPoint and Photoshop files in real-time, create mood boards and team-based plans on its own Paper platform, plus the usual online file storage options.

Massive third-party app support, plus integration with Windows and macOS, means that if you’re looking for a service you can rely on and know that works with pretty much everything, DropBox is the answer.

 

APPLE ICLOUD

Available on Apple products, the iCloud not only holds files that you drag to the drive or automatically sync photos and videos from your iPhone or iPad, but also backs up your messages, calendars, contacts, and various other data.

You never need to fiddle with the service once it’s up and running – everything is saved automatically.

5FB comes free with iCloud, but you can upgrade this with a variety of different packages starting from just 79p per month for 50GB.

 

MEGA

New Zealand based company Mega offers 15GB of storage to new users, with additional capacity awarded for achievements met while using it.

These include validating your account, installing the Mega apps, and inviting friends to the service.

Premium tariffs start from £4.29 per month, topping out at 8TB for £25.79 per month.
Mega’s main selling point is security, with end-to-end encryption protecting your files even when in transit between your device and its servers. The key to the encryption is your password, meaning even Mega can’t access your data.

 

 

TRESORIT

Tresorit boasts end-to-end encryption and zero-knowledge authentication to keep your privacy upheld.

It also keeps multiple copies of files on servers for backups so you can rest assured that your files are always kept secure.

Tresorit offers a 14-day free trial to new users, with prices for the storage starting from £8 a month for 200GB. There’s also the Solo platform aimed at freelancers and professionals that costs £20 per month and includes 2TB of storage plus password protected files sharing, granular permissions, Outlook integration, and unlimited file versions

 

MEDIAFIRE

Mediafire is an easy-to-use service that offers 10GB of free storage to users that can be expanded to 50GB by completing bonus tasks.

The storage solution allows files to be directly shared to social media sites like Facebook or Twitter and is not subject to bandwidth or download restrictions.

Should you prefer that to not be the case, or just want to boost your storage capabilities, then there’s the Pro tier that includes 1TB of space, the ability to upload files directly from a website by pasting in the link, bulk downloads, and One-Time Links to prevent people sharing files you’ve made available to them.