From relatively new companies such as Box and DropBox, to heavyweights Google, Apple and Microsoft, many vendors use free cloud storage as a way to entice users into their clouds in hopes that they will pay more for additional volumes and services.
Below, in alphabetical order, are 19 free cloud services – but a word of caution: The cloud is a volatile place and offers from these vendors change frequently.
- ADrive
The deal: 50GB of free cloud storage. Details: ADrive may not be very well known, but it offers a compelling deal. The catch is it’s an advertiser-supported platform, so you get a lot of storage space, but a lot of ads too. For 100GB, plans start at $2.50 per month or $25 per year. ADrive has some basic features, such as sharing and backup, but its business and enterprise account offer encryption and multi-user access.
More information
- Amazon Cloud Drive
Details: Amazon Cloud Drive no longer offers a completely free consumer-oriented cloud storage service, but Amazon Prime members get free unlimited cloud storage for photos with their subscription, which costs $99 per year and includes free two-day shipping on eligible Amazon.com products. For non Amazon-prime members, unlimited photos can be stored for $12 per year after a free three-month trial. For $60 per year, Amazon offers an “Unlimited Everything” plan, which allows any file or document to be stored.
Amazon’s business-oriented cloud storage service named the Simple Storage Service (S3) has a free tier of up to 5GB.
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- Apple iCloud Drive
Details: Apple iCloud Drive comes with 5GB of free storage. Users looking to bump up their storage can do so for 99 cents month for 20GB, $4 per month for 200GB and $20 per month for 1TB. ICloud is meant for Apple users, but there is an iCloud app for the Windows. Android users would have to use a third-party app to access their iCloud storage.
More information: Apple iCloud.
- Bitcasa
Details: Beyond the 5GB of free cloud storage, Bitcasa offers 1TB of storage for $10 per month or 10TB for $99 per month or $999 per year.
More information: Bitcasa Personal.
- Box
Details: Box offers a number of plans, but the basic, single-user free plan comes with 10GB of storage, with a 250MB file upload size limit. The company’s other plans are targeted at teams and businesses and include more stringent security measures. A “starter” package for $5 per month comes with 100GB of storage and a 2GB file size limit for up to 10 users. A Business account for $15 per month includes unlimited storage with a 5GB file size limit. Custom-priced enterprise plans are also available.
More information: Box
- Copy
Details: Copy is a cloud service by Barracuda Networks, an IT company specializing in security and storage. For $5 per month or $49 per year users can get 250GB of storage. There’s also an EFSS product named Copy for Companies that starts at $699 for 500GB on a dedicated virtual appliance.
More information: Copy and Copy for Companies.
- Cubby
Details: Made by LogMeIn, Cubby offers additional plans starting at $4 for 100GB of storage. Users can choose many other amounts, including more than 2TBs for $100 per month. There are also business plans that come with additional security and sharing capabilities.
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- Dropbox
Details: One of the original and most popular cloud storage products, DropBox used to offer 5GB free, now it only offers 2GB. For $10 per month users can upgrade to DropBox Pro, which comes with 1TB of space. DropBox for business, for $15 per user/month provides unlimited storage.
More information: DropBox
- DumpTruck
Details: Users can get up to 21GB by referring friends to Dump Truck – beyond that additional storage starts at $5 per 50GBs or $50 per month for 500GB (there are other options of plans in between those). VPN provider Golden Frog hosts it.
More information: Dump Truck.
- Google Drive
Details: If you need more than the 15GB, for $2 per month customers get 100GB of storage, and for $10 per month customers receive 1TB of storage. Any data associated with your Google email account counts against your Drive storage limit, but anything stored in Google Docs, Sheets or Slides does not count against the 15GB limit. Small photos are stored for free in Google, but those larger than 2048x2048 count against your storage.
More information: Google Drive