Cloud Storage

Nowadays people are rarely carrying their files physically. The trend now is moving towards to the cloud and by storing the files on the cloud, you will get the fastest access to your files anywhere. We can keep almost everything on the cloud either documents, photo or music but off course depending on what plan of storage you are using. There are many cloud storage providers but the different is based on services, capabilities and pricing.

PERSONAL CLOUD STORAGE OVERVIEW
Descriptions	Google Drive	OneDrive	Dropbox	Box
Free Storage Given	15 GB	5 GB	2 GB	10 GB
Max Size Upload Per File	5 TB	100 GB	50 GB uploaded through dropbox.com	250 MB for free plan and up to 5G B for paid plan
Platform Supported	Windows, Mac, Android and iOS	Windows, Mac, Android and iOS	Windows, Mac, Android and iOS	Windows, Mac, Android and iOS
Earn Extra Storage	None	None	Yes. Extra 500 MB per referral	None
Pricing	USD$2/Month for 100GB	USD$2/Month for 100GB OR USD$7 for 1TB with Office 365 Apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)	USD$10/Month for 2TB	USD$12/Month for 100GB

Why Cloud: -
Cloud storage is a great platform for all type of usage. Imagine if you lost all your files because of a faulty drive or gone missing and you don't have any backup? Disaster right! Maybe you should give a try on cloud storage so it might become as your life saver!

Point to take into consideration to use cloud storage:-

• Cloud storage will be as your backup medium instead of storing locally
• All the files in one location and can be accessed anywhere
• The files are kept secure in the cloud without worrying losing files
• Easy Collaboration and editing files through online cloud storage
• Cloud storage space can be easily upgrade based on need

1. Google Drive

When you sign up with GMAIL, you will get 15 GB of cloud storage space. This storage is shared between your Gmail, Google Drive and Google Photos. This free storage plan can be upgrade from 15 GB to 30 TB based on your need as low from USD$2 per month. Even though Google just give 15 GB of storage, you can store as much of photos you have without worrying the space count by upload it with Google high quality image format instead of the original size. This setting can be done via Google Photos on your devices or from Google Backup and Sync Settings. Google drive storage is good for storing and organize photos.

2. OneDrive

OneDrive is offering 5 GB plan upon signup with Microsoft Outlook account and can be upgraded to 100 GB. If you want more, they offer to sign up with 1 TB plan come with Office 365 inclusive Word, Excel and PowerPoint. If you are using Windows 10, even better because OneDrive is integrated with it and you can access all the files in your pc.

3. Dropbox

Dropbox is quite popular among others cloud storage because of the reliability and easy to use but it offers less storage space for free plan but the pricing for subscription plan is quite reasonable with 2 TB for less than USD$10 per month.

4. Box

Box was designed more for business users rather than for personal use because of the features and capabilities more for businesses purposes including collaboration and file privacy control. Box lets you share files with teams, assign tasks, leave comments and get notifications for any changes of your files. As for Box, their pricing is quite expensive compared to others. For personal plan is free with 10 GB of storage with a maximum of 250 MB single file upload. Box sync only support one account in one device unlike Google, it supports multiple account syncing in one device.

These are few cloud storage provider that i use and there are others that might interest you. So which one is your favorite. Let me know in the comment.

Image by Mudassar Iqbal from Pixabay