We know Dropbox, Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive. The disadvantage of the cloud services is the limited storage space of a free account. Would you like more capacity to store data and would you rather not pay for it? Then take a look at the free mega storage services we offer.
Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive offer 15 GB and 5 GB of free storage space, respectively. Dropbox gives away even less space with 2 GB of storage capacity. For the storage of some photos and documents, the free accounts of these services are fine. Also read: The 9 best free cloud services under the microscope.
Want to keep a copy of your entire photo collection, private movies, and music files in the cloud? In that case, you cannot avoid an account with more capacity. You can choose to pay an amount every month for more storage, but with years of use, the costs increase significantly.
For example, you pay for 1 TB of storage with Dropbox and Google Drive respectively 9.99 euros and 9.99 dollars per month. It is more lucrative to switch to a free provider with higher limits, although they are not readily available. However, if you search carefully, you can store 25, 50, 100 or 250 GB of data in the cloud for free. There is even a provider from Dutch soil that is giving away 1000 GB of storage space!
Entry Accounts
Server space is expensive, so the question is, of course, why companies just give away free storage space. Reputable services such as Dropbox, Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive are entry-level accounts where the owners hope that users will eventually switch to a paid account.
Google and Microsoft have other interests in this, as their storage services are woven into their (mobile) operating systems. So it is also a bit of service to their customers. The providers of free mega storage also provide free entry-level accounts in the hope that users will eventually need more storage space. The paid accounts often accommodate 2, 4, 8 or even 10 TB of online storage space. In addition, advertisements are sometimes visible to cover part of the costs.
Test justification
In this test, we test eight online storage services that give away quite a few GBs of online storage space for nothing. We are curious about how fast the services work and what functions they offer. We compare the services with each other in terms of functionality and performance, but we also look at reliability with a slanted eye. After all, you want to give your valuable files a safe place to stay.
flickr
If you only want to store a backup of photos in the cloud, you can do just fine with Flickr. This reliable service dates from 2004 and is part of Yahoo. Over the past twelve years, Flickr has evolved into a very interesting tool for storing your entire photo collection online. The free storage capacity is no less than 1000 GB, where advertisements are regularly visible. In addition to snapshots, you can also put short video fragments online, if desired, which includes support for MP4 files.
A Yahoo account is required to use this service. Once you are logged in, you can immediately upload photos. You only use the browser for this. It is true that you will always receive recommendations to install a client, but unfortunately that only works for paid accounts. Flickr stands out from other services because of its excellent photo management tools. The cloud tool recognizes objects on its own and groups snapshots showing, for example, an animal, boat or car. Handy, because you don't have to add tags manually. There is even a full-fledged photo editor available.
In addition to an online storage service, Flickr also functions as a social network, so sharing snapshots with other people is no problem at all. All photo files belong to your private domain by default, although you can also choose to make them public. The mobile apps are nicely designed and are especially useful for those who want to save snapshots from their smartphone online.
