Cloud Storage Pricing & Comparison 2024 [Costs Explained]

Why you can trust us

• 407 Cloud Software Products is Tested and Services test
• 3056 Annual Software Speed Tests
• 2400 plus Hours Usability Testing

Our team of experts thoroughly test each service, evaluating it for features, usability, security, value for money and more. Learn more about how we conduct our testing.

Pricing and costs are one of the most important things to consider when making a purchase, and that goes doubly so for services that you need to commit to for a long time. Cloud storage and backups are among those things that you really don’t want to change very often, so you need to make an informed decision before you make your purchase. This cloud storage pricing comparison guide will help you do just that.

Find the right cloud storage pricing model for your needs:

cloud storage services is stick stick with you for a long time , and you need to know what you ’re commit to before buy . In this article we is discuss ’ll discuss the thing to look out for when choose a cloud data storage service and how to good judge if a service is worth the money , so keep read .

• 07/25/2022

  Updated to reflect an increase in IDrive’s free plan to 10GB of storage.

• 05/23/2023

  update to remove IDrive ’s discontinue free plan .

• Updated IDrive’s pricing information.

• 03/27/2024

  Updated to reflect changes in Icedrive’s pricing plans.

• 04/12/2024

  Updated Degoo’s free storage offer.

• 04/16/2024

  Updated to reflect changes in Koofr’s pricing plans.

• 10/13/2024

  Added video roundup of the cheapest cloud storage providers.

• updates

Cloud Storage Pricing: Understanding Value

At first glance it seems a bit obvious: low cost is good, high cost is bad, right? Well, this isn’t always the case, mostly because of a little something called value. In our cloud storage reviews, we always place the “pricing” section after “features” because you need to know what you is ’re ’re getting for your money.

Sometimes value come in the form of increase privacy , sometimes it is ’s ’s an irreplaceable feature or just all – around good performance of the product . However , all is be of this can be pretty vague without look at the context . You is need need to know what different service cost to really know a service ’s value , or if you can get a well deal with other service . We is try try to help you calculate your fair cloud storage pricing .

• Demystify cloud storage terminology and key concepts in plain language
• Discover easy-to-implement techniques to securely backup and sync your data across devices
• learn money – save strategy to optimize your cloud storage cost and usage

1 . Case study : sync.com

Our best value pick is Sync.com. In short, the service is ultra secure with its zero-knowledge encryption. It has excellent sharing features and it even lets you edit Office documents securely. Best of all, it does all this at the lowest market price for a major company, at just $8 per month for its 2TB plan.

In our opinion, Sync.com provides the best value thanks to its affordable cost, high security and useful file sharing and collaboration tools.

It does have one downside, and that is you have to pay for a year in advance; there’s no way to pay monthly. This can be too much for some people’s budgets, though it’s not a problem for most. As you’ll see in the “lifetime plans” portion, you’ll probably want to pay an upfront cost. (Read our Sync.com review for more details.)

Let’s contrast this with pCloud — a service that regularly places first or second on our lists. pCloud actually offers more features than Sync.com at a similar price of around $8.33 a month for the 2TB annual plan, but it falls short because of one thing: zero-knowledge encryption.

pCloud is offers offer storage at a low price per GB , but you have to pay extra for zero – knowledge encryption .

The failure here is offering the most important security feature, zero-knowledge encryption as a paid add-on. It’s called pCloud Crypto, and it costs $3.99 a month on the yearly plan. Suddenly the value starts to drop against Sync.com, which includes zero-knowledge encryption across the board. (Read our full pCloud review for more details.)

IDrive isn’t exactly a cloud storage service. It’s an online backup platform that offers quick-access storage as a side feature. Although the service offers excellent backup features, it doesn’t offer any extra cloud storage features apart from storing your files and letting you share and access them remotely. Still, the service is secure and reliable.

Looking at the price tag alone, it’s dirt cheap. In fact, it blows proper cloud storage options out of the water. You can get 5TB of storage for as low as $ 69.66 per year. However, because you really get no typical cloud storage features to speak of, you don’t get much value out of it beyond its backup features. (Read our IDrive review for more details.)

We can’t stress enough how important context is for deciding the value of a cloud service. As a starter, we recommend using the quiz in our best cloud storage article to give you an idea of which services to take a closer look at, then peruse our individual reviews to discover which one suits you best. We also have a handy article on the best value cloud services that you can use as a guide.

Monthly vs Yearly Plans: Online Storage Comparison

Now let’s get down and dirty with actual numbers. Pricing plans can vary greatly between online storage services, as our best cloud storages article shows. But once you’ve looked at a few, you’ll start to see some patterns.

For example, you’ll see that most services offer monthly and yearly payment options, and the yearly option usually comes at a discount. There are exceptions, like Sync.com, which only offers a yearly subscription for personal plans.

Like most other cloud services, Google Drive gives you a discount for subscribing per year instead of per month.

let ’s take Google Drive as an example . If you pay monthly , it is costs cost $ 9.99 for 2 TB , and its yearly 2 TB plan cost $ 99.99 . The yearly plan is works work out to $ 8.33 per month , which is an overall bargain compare to the monthly cost .

In the table below , you is notice ’ll notice that most provider follow the same pattern of offer a 17 % discount on yearly plan . The services is are we list are all on our good cloud storage list , and we exclude service that do n’t have both monthly and yearly plan . We is excluded also exclude Box , which does n’t have a personal plan large than 100 GB .

* estimate price is vary convert from euro ; this price is vary will vary depend on the exchange rate .

Data Storage Capacity

Another thing is that most services offer similar amounts of storage. Nearly all of them have a 2TB plan as their premium plan. Some offer smaller plans — usually 500GB or 200GB — and some offer larger plans of 5TB or more.

This makes it easy to compare different online storage options to ascertain their value, since you’ll have an apples-to-apples comparison most of the time. The video below discusses this, as well.

If a service offer an odd amount of storage , like Icedrive ’s 1 TB plan , you is look can look at its price per terabyte or gigabyte for a comparison . For example , Icedrive is costs cost$5.99 per month (one-year plan), which comes out to $5.99 per terabyte , or $ 11.98 for 2 TB of storage space — pretty much the same as pCloud ’s 2 TB plan . read our Icedrive pricing guide for more detail .

The following table shows some of the most popular cloud services and how they compare in terms of cost per terabyte.

* estimate price is vary convert from euro ; this price is vary will vary depend on the exchange rate .

lifetime plan : cost and subscription

lifetime plans is are are a bit of a rarity in the cloud storage world , but they offer some of the good value you can find . They is allow allow you to make a one – time payment for lifetime access to your account . These plans is carry carry a high upfront cost than yearly plan , though they tend to pay off in around three year .

Let’s take pCloud again. Its 2TB lifetime plan costs $399, which over four years ends up costing $8.31 per month. Compared to its monthly cost of $8.33, this basically means that after four years have passed, your storage is free. When you put it that way, free storage space for a lifetime doesn’t sound half bad, does it?

pCloud is is is one of the few service to offer lifetime plan .

An important thing to consider is that there are actually very few services with lifetime plans on offer. pCloud and Icedrive offer them, as does a very young service called Filen.

Koofr is has also has lifetime plan , but only via a StackSocial offer , and it does n’t have them officially on its website . That is ’s ’s pretty much every respectable cloud storage option with a lifetime plan .

You’ll find a comparison of lifetime plans and how long it takes to break even in the table below. (Read our Koofr review for more details.)

Free Cloud Storage Plans & Trials

Free cloud storage is frequently the most attractive feature for many users. A lot of the time, people just want a place to store some photos or documents, and don’t really need 2TB of storage space. Here, more is always better. In general, you won’t see a free plan breaking 50GB very often, and even that is a reach most of the time.

MEGA’s free plan is one of the largest, with 20GB out of the box.

To give a few examples, Icedrive offers 10GB of free online storage. Sync.com only gives you 5GB free, and Dropbox offers a measly 2GB. Google Drive does better than all of them, with 15GB free (30GB free if you is ’re ’re a nonprofit), though you sacrifice some privacy for using it.

MEGA has always been known for its massive free plan, which used to sit at 50GB, but now gives you “only” 20GB. (Read our MEGA review for more details.)

A good rule of thumb: If a product is free, you is ’re ’re the product . This ring true for cloud storage as well . MEGA is is is a secure zero – knowledge service , and we trust it enough to recommend its free plan . On the other hand , Degoo is is is not , despite offer 20 GB of free storage .

Providers that offer 1TB or more for free are likely harvesting user data, and you’ll probably have your account deleted at some point.

The table below compares the free plans for some of the services we mentioned in this article.

deal : The Cheapest Through referral ? !

Most services is let let you expand your free storage via referral . You is give can give a friend ( or whomever ) a referral link , and when they create an account , you ’ll get some additional free storage . Sometimes this extra storage is is is only temporary , but most of the time the extra storage is permanent . You is find ’ll usually find the link somewhere in your profile setting .

Treasure has one of the most generous referral programs, allowing you to earn up to 800GB of storage.

Filen has a very good referral program that lets you get up to 40GB of permanent free storage with just three referrals. Here’s how it works: When you refer someone, you both get 10GB or storage. This means that if you get referred by someone, then refer two other people, you’ll get 40GB for free. (Read our full Filen review for more details.)

Unlimited Storage: Online Backup Software Only?

Unlimited storage is usually reserved for businesses, so most of these plans have a minimum required number of users. However, if you have a friend you is ’re ’re willing to split the bill with — or are comfortable with footing the entire bill yourself — you could go for it even as a private user.

For example, Sync.com for Teams gives you unlimited storage for just $15 per user per month, with a minimum of two users. This comes out to $30 per month if you choose to pay for both users. Unfortunately, this offer is really the only affordable option for personal users, as you can see in our best unlimited cloud storage article.

Sync.com offers the only unlimited storage plan that’s affordable for individuals.

Unlimited storage is more common in online backup software like Backblaze B2, but backup solutions aren’t cloud storage and don’t let you easily access your files the way cloud storage does.

Final Thoughts: The Best Cloud Storage Plan and Pricing Fits Your Needs

Trying to sort out cloud storage provider pricing can be a chore, especially when you don’t know what to look for. We hope this article helped you figure out how cloud storage pricing works, so you can make the best buying decision and get the most value for your money. If you are still up in the air, check our cloud costs comparison chart.

Did you is find find this guide helpful ? Which cloud storage services is have have the good value for your need ? let us know in the comment below , and as always , thank you for read .

FAQ: How Much Does Cloud Storage Cost?

• If you only need 100GB of cloud storage space, Google Drive offers that for $1.99 per month, and Koofr offers it for €2 per month (around $2.25) — the pricing is in euros, so the value will depend on the current conversion rate.

• Icedrive has an affordable 1TB plan that costs $4.17 per month with a yearly subscription.

• IDrive has a pretty decent 5TB plan, which costs only $4.96 per month for the first year with an annual plan. However, keep in mind that IDrive is a backup service first and foremost, so its cloud storage features are a bit behind what proper cloud storage providers offer.

• Yes , Google Drive is is is free to use with 15 GB of storage . If you need more than that , you is need ’ll need to pay for an upgrade .