Find the best cloud storage so you can store your files, documents and images online safely, access them from anywhere and share them across devices.
Businesses, nonprofits, and individuals increasingly need a safe digital space to store and protect photos, videos, presentations, and documents. Cloud storage offers storage space on the Internet, aka the cloud. A provider operates and manages the storage for a fee, though there are some free plans out there. The best cloud storage options may have apps for easier uploading and downloading, access, and file sharing. Many providers have a free tier but provide more storage space for a fee. You can base your storage needs on what and how much you need to store. Photos eat up space, and some providers limit file sizes, creating problems for photographers and other creatives. Other storage services focus on documents rather than media. Still others are primarily for backing up computers. Check your file sizes, media, and connection speeds, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what you need. Keep an eye on your budget though, because services can get pricey if your file number and sizes keep growing. Best Overall: iDrive — Best for Photos: Amazon Photos — Best for Personal Use: Sync — Best for Business: Google Drive — Best Free Cloud Storage: Degoo The type of cloud storage you need depends a great deal on what you need to back up or store. We took that into consideration while evaluating the different options. Free Storage: We compared how much storage each service offered in its free tier, if it had a free tier. More storage space can give you more time to decide if it’s the right service for you. Security and Encryption: Sensitive information needs extra protection. We checked to see what kind of security and encryption each service included and the upgrades needed to access the best security (end-to-end encryption). Sharing and Collaboration: Some cloud storage services are designed for sharing and collaboration, while others are more bare-bones or lean toward backup services. However, most people and businesses will eventually need to share something they’ve got on the cloud, so we checked to see how easy that is. Third-party Integrations: Third-party integrations can make it easier to upload, download, and edit documents and photos in cloud storage. Upload and Download Speeds: All the storage in the world won’t mean much if it takes 10 minutes to upload a single photo. Related: The Best External Hard Drives for All the Jpegs You’ll Never Download Why It Made The Cut: This service made the cut for its ease of setup, disk image backup, and restore options, as well as the ability to connect unlimited devices to a single account. Specs: — File size limit: 2GB — Free storage: 5GB — Mobile app: Yes Pros: — Fast, simple setup — Ability for bulk uploads — Fast upload speeds — Unlimited devices on a single account — Security Cons: — Storage isn’t unlimited — Basic sharing The iDrive service offers the best cloud storage service with its reliable backup and access to stored information for personal, team, and business purposes. It has plans that cover these bases, as well as a photo plan that caters to creatives. You also get the option of a private inscription key or an iDrive management key. A private key offers the best security, but if you’re prone to losing passwords, stick with the latter. iDrive’s dashboard is fairly easy to navigate with self-explanatory tabs; the organization makes it easy for everyone to use. You can have an unlimited number of devices on each account. From the dashboard, you can select which files to back up or choose all your data. You can also set the backup frequency. iDrive has a mobile app for both iOS and Android, so you can back up mobile devices too. The downside is that storage isn’t unlimited, and you’ve got only basic sharing abilities. But overall, it’s a robust option that’s simple to use. Why It Made The Cut: Amazon offers automatic photo uploading, unlimited storage, and photo printing, along with no photo size restrictions. Specs: — File size limit: None — Free storage: Yes, with Prime membership — Mobile app: Yes Pros: — Free with Prime membership — No image size restrictions — Automatic uploads — Unlimited storage Cons: — Requires Amazon Drive desktop app to download photos over 2GB — Fee if you’re not a Prime member If you’ve got Amazon Prime, there is no reason not to use their photo storage to protect and print your pics, because it’s one of the best cloud storage for photos.
