If the disk space on your computer starts to fill up quickly, it may be time to move some files elsewhere. If you don't want to invest in a NAS, you can choose to store your files on one of the many cloud services. Looking for the best cloud service? Computer!Totaal compares the possibilities of the most popular services.
A few years ago, the range of free online cloud services was huge, and you could also use quite a few gigabytes without limits without having to pay extra. But precisely because of this popularity, those services have also seen that there is quite a bit to be earned. The result is that with most cloud services you get much less free gigabytes and soon have to pay extra if you want to be able to store more files.
Sync and backup
You can use a cloud storage service for multiple purposes. Is it mainly about sharing files with others or being able to collaborate on documents at the same time? Or do you mainly want to use a cloud service for permanent backups, which you can access from any computer? Each cloud service has different options. One service mainly focuses on synchronization, the other is purely focused on making backups. The table shows the backup and synchronization options for each service. The standard free storage space that you get with most services is limited, but often sufficient for your photos, for example. It is then important that you can easily connect to the cloud service, for example by means of a synchronization app that automatically uploads and downloads your files to and from the cloud service. It is also nice that you can access your files anywhere, for example from your smartphone or another computer.
Share files with others
With almost all cloud services it is possible to share files that you have stored in the cloud with others. This can be done, for example, by sharing a link to the file, directly via email or manually. When sharing a link manually, however, it often means that that link is general, and not linked to, for example, a recipient's email address. Some cloud services only offer the option to share folders or files with users who also have an account with the service. Collaboration options are also offered; you can then collaborate on a file or give other users permissions to access folders and upload to that folder.
Schedule backups
When you start using a cloud service for making backups, it is important that the process runs as smoothly as possible. A well-functioning app is therefore essential for cloud services that offer backup options. For example, you should be able to set how often a backup is made and which files should be included by default. Hardly any backup service can handle the backup of, for example, your system files or your Windows folder. There is only one cloud service in this overview that can make a complete backup of your system partition, and that is iDrive.
Price differences and subscriptions
Prices for cloud storage vary quite a bit. In our overview, we also cannot find a clear relationship between the price for a subscription, the number of GBs of storage offered and the extra options. Some services are quite expensive for the number of features offered, others are almost unbelievably cheap for the huge storage offered. For example, Jottacloud offers unlimited storage for 75 euros per year, while for Dropbox you pay 99 euros per year for 'only' 1 TB of storage. In the table we have shown the subscription costs per year for the cheapest subscription and the subscription with the most storage. Noteworthy are cloud services such as Stack (1 TB) and Mega (50 GB), which offer the most free storage.
