12 Jun 7 Great Mobile Apps for Cloud Storage
Do you use online storage to backup your photos, videos and documents?
Cloud storage is an ever changing topic, with the big cloud players offering constant updates to plans, and new players offering competitive plans.
Why Use Cloud Storage?
The advantage of storing files in the cloud is all about convenience, security and access.
Convenience
Automatically upload files to the cloud and sync files across multiple devices.
Security
Uses encryption when storing files online in the cloud.
Access
Access files across multiple devices wherever there is an internet connection.
While backups of your devices may be done manually both on your local computer and in the cloud, it is important to also have an automatic backup solution.
The seven services below are cloud based storage solutions that can automatically sync and backup files (usually photos and videos). They come with varying backup allowances and are offered both for free or with paid subscriptions.
Google Drive
A favourite for those who already have a Google account, Google Drive works well on Android and also is available for Apple products. Google offers 15GB of free storage, file change history, file sharing and support for a large range of file types. Various storage can be purchased up to 30TB with 1TB costing $9.99USD/month. Google Drive is available on Mac and PC, Android, iPhone and iPad.
One Drive
Microsoft’s online storage service One Drive, offers 15GB of free storage, and up to 1TB for $6.99USD/month (which also includes a subscription to Office 365). Available on Mac and PC, Android, iOS and Windows Phones. The advantage of using this solution is access to the Office suite. Automatic photo uploads is also supported.
Dropbox
Storage starts at 2GB for free subscriptions and goes up to 1TB for $12.99/month. Dropbox is available on Android, iOS, Windows phones and Blackberry. Dropbox works well across all operating systems and has clean, easy to use desktop and mobile versions.
iCloud
iCloud offers 5GB for free and varied subscriptions up to 1TB for $24.99/month. iCloud is native to the iPhone and the iPad so Apple users will find many advantages of using this. For those using devices across multiple operating systems iCloud may not be the best choice.
Box
Offering 10GB of storage for free, or 25GB for $10 USD per year, Box is an excellent cloud storage solution for collaboration. You can specify files and folders to share, and edit permissions for reading and editing. Assigning tasks is straightforward and notifications can be sent after others have edited files. For business or project collaboration this is a great option.
Media Fire
Starts at 10GB for free and $4.99USD/month for 1TB (at time of this article Media Fire is offering 1TB for $2.49USD/month).
Mega
Provides 50GB of free storage. Mega is a simple solution though does offer most of what is needed including syncronisation and auto-upload from your phone.
Which Cloud Storage Solution Is For You?
If you are using purely Windows devices then One Drive is a standout, whereas iCloud is tailored towards Apple products. Google Drive is a very good choice for Google account holders and those who work on shared Google documents. Box, Media Fire and Mega offer large free storage options and low fees for larger allowances. Dropbox is a well known choice due to its ease of use and reliability.
Please let us know what online cloud storage service you use.