Almost all cloud providers offer both free and upgraded plans. Here is a comparison to help you find the best deal.
Cloud data encryption review
Each cloud service provider (CSP) offers free plan, which is great to test them, and even to use them if you don’t plan to store too many documents.
Some CSPs protect your data with encryption, and/or can be used i conjunction with the free Cryptomator app.
pCloud (10 GB free)
pCloud offer a USD 150 option to encrypt file, but it is also full compatible with Cryptomator.
More info: pCloud
MEGA (15 GB free)
MEGA is fully encrypted by default.
More info: MEGA
Google Drive (15GB free)
Google Drive offer no default encryption for data at rest, but is compatible with Cryptomator.
Documents, spreadsheets, etc… won’t be accessible though Google apps once in Cryptomator.
More info: gDrive
OneDrive (5 to 15 GB free)
OneDrive provides an encrypted vault, where you can upload only up to 3 documents in the free version, and is fully compatible with Cryptomator.
Documents, spreadsheets, etc… won’t be accessible though MS Online Office once in Cryptomator.
Please note it is possible to extend to 15 GB free
More info: OneDrive
iCloud (5 GB free)
iDrive offer a proprietary encryption by Apple.
More info: iCloud
DropBox (10 GB free)
DropBox offer no default encryption for data at rest, but is compatible with Cryptomator.
More info: DropBox
Encryption recap
In the recap, we also mentioned Boxcryptor, which is a paid solution equivalent to Cryptomator, to create encrypted vaults (see our review comparing Boxcryptor and Cryptomator).
| Storage | 2FA | Encrypted | Cryptomator | Boxcryptor | |
| pCloud | 10 GB | Yes | USD 150 | Yes | No |
| MEGA | 15 to 45 GB | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| gDrive | 15 GB | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| OneDrive | 5 to 15 GB | Yes | 3 files max | Yes | Yes |
| iCloud | 5 GB | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| DropBox | 10 GB | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Storage upgraded plans
Prices proposed for personal use (this does not compare family pack or enterprise pack):
| 100 GB | 200 GB | 400 GB | 500 GB | 1 TB | 2 TB | |
| pCloud | $47.88 / y $175 / life |
$95 / y $350 / life |
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| MEGA | $6.07 / m | $10.77 / m | ||||
| gDrive | $1.99 / m $19.99 / y |
$2.99 / m $29.99 / m |
$9.99 / m $99.99/y |
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| OneDrive | $1.99 / m | $6.99 / m $69.99 / y |
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| iCloud | $2.99 / m | $9.99 / m | ||||
| DropBox | $9.99 / m |
Pro & Con
If you keep your subscription more than 3.5 years, pCloud is a better deal than any other cloud providers for 500 MB and 2 TB.
However, pCloud does not offer any Office apps like gDrive or OneDrive.
Each Cloud providers also has its own functionalities like versioning, auto-backup, end-to-end encryption (MEGA or pCloud), extra-storage up to 16 TB (MEGA), etc…
Encrypting your data
Don’t forget to read our article comparing Boxcryptor and Cryptomator to encrypt your data once in the cloud.
Conclusion
Mixing offers seems actually a pretty good solution; using pCloud for backup and sharing big files (photos, videos, music), combined with gDrive or OneDrive for managing office documents (Word, Excel, etc…) seems a clever option.
And if you hesitate between OneDrive and gDrive… they are pretty similar except Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides doesn’t count toward storage (even a document full of pictures).
And iCloud is only relevant for those who want to stick to the Apple eco-system.