1. Home
  2. › Technology

Exceptional Cloud Services and Software

By

Likely you have some familiarity with cloud storage services offered by Apple (iCloud), Google (Drive), and Microsoft (OneDrive), but there are other players in the field that have much to offer as well.  This article covers some additional cloud services in addition to the "big three" mentioned above.  For more in depth reviews of cloud storage companies, you will many good reviews and other information on cloudwards.net.

The "big three" mentioned above have both free and paid plans:

1)  Apple (5gb free for those with an Apple ID; in respect to their paid plans, they have 200gb for $2.99 per month and 2tb for $9.99 per month).

2)  Google (15gb free for those with a Google account; in respect to their paid plans they also have 200gb for $2.99 per month and 2tb for $9.99 per month--both plans can be billed annually to achieve a savings).

3)  Microsoft OneDrive (5gb free for those with a Microsoft email or OneDrive account, Microsoft's paid plans are a little cheaper than Apple or Google, but they come with less storage space but they do include a subscription to Microsoft 365).

Beyond that, here are some good cloud storage options with free or lifetime plans: 

1) pCloud based in Switzerland offers 10gb of free storage and is a top of the list cloud storage provider.  The service works equal to or better than most all others for streaming; also, the service works well for sharing links and for backups as well.  Another great thing about pCloud is that they have lifetime subscription plans.  If you wait for black Friday, you can pick up a pCloud 2tb lifetime subscription for less than the regular price of $399 for 2TB.  Even at $399 for 2tb lifetime, the service is cost effective if you plan to have the account for several years.  Lifetime storage plans carry a risk that the provider might become solvent at some future point in time, but pCloud has been in business for over ten year and appears to be a stable company.

2) Koofr, which is a made up word but originates from the German word Koffer (suitcase), French coffre (chest) and English coffer (small money box), is cloud storage provider based in Slovenia that offers a generous 10gb free.  A feature I like about Koofr, in addition to their cloud storage, is that their desktop client allows you to set up access to local storage across devices without uploading the files to the cloud (or without the files counting against your storage limit).  Koofr has a great lifetime storage specials like this one that give you 1tb lifetime for $128, 250gb lifetime for $59.99, and 100gb lifetime for $29.99.  Also Koofr works pretty well for streaming.  On mobile devices it allows you to launch a browser or other media player from which you can play media files 

3) Icedrive  is a good storage provider based in Wales in the United Kingdom.  They give a reasonable 10gb free for signing up.  Icedrive no longer has lifetime storage plans. Icedrive cloud service is handy for quick uploads and quick downloads.  Also, Icedrive has good desktop and mobile apps and the service works fairly well to stream media from your mobile phone because it has an integrated media player.  

4) Internxt based out of Spain is relative a newcomer on the scene that emphasizes privacy.  They also give a reasonable 10gb free for signing up. They have reasonable lifetime plans as well that get even better when Black Friday specials are running.   

5) Filen is one of the newest services on this list but perhaps the most secure because of its end to end encryption.  Filen will start you off with a free 10gb account(see bottom of webpage), they no longer have lifetime plans.

6) MobiDrive provides 20gb free cloud storage and is fully featured.  Their premium services includes an option to subscribe to their office suite, which is competitive with office 365 on mobile devices (and the desktop). 

7) iBroadcast, a start up out of Renton in Washington State, has come to the rescue to Google Play Music lovers who are dissatisfied with YouTube (YTM) music.  The downside of YouTube Music in comparison of Google Play Music is that 1) it's harder to navigate your library (the free YTM seems to be designed as a gateway to premium YTM, 2) it's now harder to keep your local music library in sync with the cloud copy of your music and 3), YTM downgraded the streaming quality to 128kbs on free accounts.  iBroadcast limits streaming to 128kbs as well on free accounts, which is only equally as good as YTM, but their pay service is much cheaper than YTM, 4) iBroadcast accommodates unlimited lossless music file uploads and YTM is limited to 100,000 uploads.  Finally, the User Interface (UI) for iBroadcast is much cleaner much cleaner than YTM.  Also, syncing music to the cloud is a breeze with iBroadcast once you get the hang of it.  Clicking on the down arrow on the desktop sync app lets you sync with any of your local directories that you wish to sync to iBroadcast in the cloud.  iBroadcast also handles many file formats.

8) Zoho.com is a great email and productivity app provider that is private and they start you out with 5gb of cloud storage free.  Zoho competes directly with Google but unlike Google they don't use your data to enhance revenue.  Zoho relies on paid plans to provide revenue to their company.  Zoho has proven to be reliable through the years and many businesses use Zoho's suite of apps/services.  (Note: Zoho email lets you activate Gmail keyboard shortcuts in their settings menu.)  Zoho is definitely top notch.

Honorable mentions:  These providers have notable limitations to their free plans:  

  • Sync.com (free storage limit is a little small at 5gb, but this secure cloud storage provider is rock solid).
  • iDrive (good mostly for backups rather than using it as a workspace and using it for file sharing, this California based provider gives 5gb free and 5tb for $7.95 for the first year). 
  • Box (easily let's you prevent downloading of files that you share; free accounts have a file size limit of 250mb).
  • Dropbox (only has 2gb free but you can increase storage if you refer friends and family to the service; as of March 2019 free accounts are limited to 3 devices):
  • Zoolz (no free account options, but here is a special that gives you 5tb for $49.92 per year). 

Cloud Software

If you are a Windows user, you might want to check out Air Live Drive which is a software product sourced from Spain which allows you to mount cloud services on your computer either as a local drive (with a drive letter) or as a network drive (with a drive letter).  The software is free for up to three cloud services mounted.  To run more than three cloud services, the cost is $25 per device for a lifetime license.  The free version of Air Live Drive is fully featured and tests favorably against NetDrive, Cloudmounter, ExpanDrive, Mountain Duck, and oDrive.  Also, Air Live Drive has a companion software called Air Explorer which allows you to transfer files from one cloud to another and to do automatic file transfers and backups.  Air Live Drive is a personal favorite of mine.