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gDrive vs OneDrive vs iCloud vs pCloud vs Dropbox vs Mega


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).

Storage2FAEncryptedCryptomatorBoxcryptor
pCloud10 GBYesUSD 150YesNo
MEGA15 to 45 GBYesYesNoNo
gDrive15 GBYesNoYesYes
OneDrive5 to 15 GBYes3 files maxYesYes
iCloud5 GBYesYesNoYes
DropBox10 GBYesNoYesYes

Storage upgraded plans

Prices proposed for personal use (this does not compare family pack or enterprise pack):

100 GB200 GB400 GB500 GB1 TB2 TB
pCloud$47.88 / y
$175 / life
$95 / y
$350 / life
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
OneDrive$1.99 / m$6.99 / m
$69.99 / y
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.

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