Online storage has become an important part of both personal and professional life; it is something that has become almost expected as a basic requirement.
This requirement has resulted in the market being swamped with different services vying for your business.
CBR wades through the market to pick out five of the best free cloud storage services to use.
1. Dropbox
Dropbox was launched in 2008 and has become one of the biggest names in online storage. By working with Microsoft, the company has integrated closely with Office so that it can be used seamlessly.
The company offers an account with 2GB free storage, up to 16GB via referrals, or £8 a month for 1TB.
Dropbox is available via apps that can be installed on your desktop or mobile device.
2. Box
Like Dropbox, Box has moved to closely integrate itself with Microsoft’s offerings so that it can offer a seamless integrated experience.
Customers get 10GB for free but this can be boosted by referring others to the service. For every person who signs up via a referral link, you’ll both get an extra 500MB, up to a maximum 16GB.
The service supports iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, OS X, and Windows.
3. Google Drive
Coming as part of a Google account, which is free to create, Google Drive allows Gmail users to sync Google Drive with the account to store and access files wherever the user is.
Users get 15GB of free storage that they can spread across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos.
If 15GB isn’t enough then a number of different plans are available to bump it up. For £1.35 a month users can get 100GB while £202 would pay for 30TB.
Apps are supported on iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows.
4. OneDrive
OneDrive, which was previously called SkyDrive, is Microsoft’s own free online storage offering. Users will need to have a Hotmail or Live mail account, but these are just free email services.
The service offers 5GB free, although students can get 1TB, and Office 365 subscribers also get 1TB ‘free’.
If the 5GB free account isn’t enough then this can be bumped up to 50GB for £1.99 a month.
Apps are supported on iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, OS X, and Windows.
5. Apple iCloud
Users of the iPhone or iPad are almost certainly already using the Apple iCloud service to backup a portion of their data.
A free 5GBs of storage is available but this can be hiked up to 50GB for just 79pence a month, showing just how cheap cloud storage can be.
If 50GB isn’t enough then that can be upgraded to 200GB for £2.49 a month or 1TB for £6.99 a month.
The apps are integrated into iOS and OS X and it is available on Windows.
