It’s been more than 70 years since the first hard drives were developed. They had 5 MB of capacity. And they weighed more than a ton. Today we have unlimited cloud storage.
In the time of a lifetime, we have seen those megas multiply; and its weight and size were reduced. Currently, only in our pockets, we have several tens of gigs (each GB is 1,000 MB) in the form of a smartphone. And that’s without cloud storage; hundreds or even thousands of gigs floating on some distant server.
Thanks to free services like Google Drive, iCloud or One Drive, it’s becoming more common to have some kind of cloud storage. But it’s one thing to have five or 10 gigabytes to save photos and quite another to have unlimited storage. That’s where the options are reduced. We’ve looked for how much unlimited cloud storage costs and we have an answer.
From a freelancer who manages a multitude of cloud projects to a home user, to all kinds of freelancers, small and medium-sized enterprises, there are as many classes of users as cloud storage plans. We’ve already anticipated that unlimited options almost always correspond to business accounts. Although there are personal plans with quite a capacity.
Unlimited cloud storage
We’ve selected what we consider to be the top six cloud storage services. Some are exclusively personal, but most have special business accounts. However, we have already anticipated that only two of them have unlimited plans in personal accounts. So let’s start there.
OpenDrive: an unlimited cloud
Among the solutions analyzed, OpenDrive is the only personal service with unlimited bandwidth and storage. In addition, it has additional encryption and file management functions. Your plans range from basic personal, with 5GB of free storage, to bespoke options for large businesses.
The personal option of unlimited cloud storage costs $9.95 per month and can be shared by four users. Business plans are all with unlimited gigs and range from seven to nearly $5,000 per month, depending on the number of users needed.
LiveDrive: unlimited backups
The service provided by LiveDrive is not for any user. However, it is very useful for families or small businesses who want to use the cloud to save backups of their computers. For six euros per month, a single user has unlimited space to store backups. The Pro option, for up to five users, costs 17 euros per month and also includes 5,000 gigabytes (5 TB) of unrestricted storage.
Google One and G Suite, Alphabet’s options
Although popularly known as Google Drive, Alphabet’s cloud storage service is called Google One. Accessibility, good synchronization, and access to a multitude of cloud applications (such as Photos or Docs) are among its best-known advantages. However, personal accounts do not have unlimited cloud storage.
By default, users have 15 GB of free capacity. The rest of the personal plans range from 1.99 euros per month for 100 GB to 299.99 euros per month for 30 TB. To find unlimited storage options we have to go to business plans, what Google calls G Suite. Here, for 9.36 euros per month per user we have unlimited storage, although this is reduced to 1 TB per person if there are fewer than 10 registered users.
Dropbox: a classic in the cloud
It became popular with the average user, but today it is not the best option for personal use. However, Dropbox is a good cloud storage service for larger businesses and businesses. As a platform it is easy to use, it accepts all kinds of formats and its different applications are synchronized perfectly.
Thus, personal plans start from basic to professional, which costs 16.58 euros per month with 3 TB of storage and bandwidth limited to 20 GB. That is, we couldn’t go up to the cloud the 3 teras in a single day. Among the professional plans, however, there are two with unlimited storage and bandwidth. Advanced is available for 18 euros per month per user and the Enterprise has custom rates.
OneDrive for Microsoft fans
Microsoft’s cloud is also one that has only unlimited storage options for business. Its ease of use and synchronization are its strengths. But it’s very dependent on the Microsoft ecosystem. However, if you’re a regular user of Windows, Outlook, and the Office suite, everything will be easy.
The largest personal plan available is Office 365 Home. For 10 euros per month or 99 a year, the user has 6 TB of storage (one for each associated account) and access to their most popular Office tools: Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.
At the business level, OneDrive takes a leap in quality. For 8.40 euros per month per user, Microsoft delivers unlimited cloud storage capabilities. In addition, the premium option, for 10.50 euros per month per user, maintains unlimited storage and gives access to the entire Office suite, in addition to services such as Teams or SharePoint.
Mega: Kim Dotcom’s strong bet
The heiress of the mythical Megaupload has established itself as a reliable cloud storage alternative. Its big drawback is a bandwidth limited to 10 GB every half hour (enough, on the other hand, for most users).
Mega’s personal plans have up to 8 TB of storage, which for many users means virtually unlimited. Personal options range from 9.99 euros per month (1 TB) to 29.99 euros per month, which costs 8,000 GB.
With regard to business plans, Mega has a single option, but flexible. Transfer capacity between users and unlimited cloud storage for 10 euros per month per registered account. However, they must be a minimum of three users per service.
So, by way of recapitulation, OpenDrive has a personal option of unlimited storage at a very competitive price. At the business level, there are several options available, although the benefits of having the Microsoft or Google ecosystems make OneDrive and G Suite (respectively) cloud storage services very useful.
