It has a free plan with 2GB of storage, as well as two other personal plans (opens in new tab). Accounts can also be secured with two-factor authentication (2FA). Security is impressive without being exceptional, with all files are encrypted at rest and in transit, though there is no end-to-end encryption. This isn’t a major issue, but differentiates it from competitors like IDrive. It is a leader in file sharing, with several features helping to make it easy to share large files with others, whether they use Dropbox or not. However, one limitation we found is that you can’t back up external or network drives - Dropbox only stores what you transfer to the Dropbox folder on your device. Plans are affordable, the user interface is impressive, and it integrates well with many third-party platforms. ĭropbox is a fantastic choice for personal cloud storage.

Read our full Google Drive review (opens in new tab), our Drive Enterprise review (opens in new tab), and our Google Cloud review (opens in new tab). This file explorer-based drag-and-drop system is not dissimilar to Microsoft OneDrive, which lets you back up, store, modify, and delete files directly from your desktop. This problem is easily solved however by downloading the Google Drive desktop application for Windows and macOS. The web interface, while very attractive, isn’t the easiest to use. From there, you can upgrade storage to a maximum of 30TB for $299.99 a month.

The paid plans, offered under the banner of Google One (opens in new tab), start at $1.99 a month for 100GB.

This plan is yours to keep forever, and if you wish to upgrade to a higher storage plan down the road, you can do so. When you open a new account, Google offers you free storage of up to 15GB on Google Drive. It comes with companion apps including Google Photos (opens in new tab), Docs, Sheets, and Slides-together known as Google Workspace-meaning you can create, edit, store, view, and synchronize files via this unified, web-based interface. It is worth remembering, however, that it's more than cloud storage.

While not as barebones as some of the other options listed, we found Google Drive’s UI to be clean and intuitive. If these platforms are already a part of your workflow, Google Drive offers a feature-rich, affordable native backup-and-sync solution. Google’s cloud storage walks hand in hand with Android and Google Workspace.

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