The 5 Best Unlimited Cloud Storage Services and How to Decide

Cloud storage has become the biggest lifesaver in the current working environment. With workforces going remote, the fact that it’s affordable, secure, and incredibly user-friendly has worked out for hundreds of businesses around the world. What’s more, bigshots like Google and Amazon are also offering excellent cloud storage solutions, so you can be sure this technology isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Considering how important storage is for everyone, unlimited cloud storage can be very beneficial for users. The only challenge is to correctly identify the best cloud storage service based on your needs and requirements.

Below, you’ll find a list of the best unlimited cloud storage providers that are versatile, safe, and user-friendly.

Let’s dive right in.

pCloud

With the ever-increasing reports of data breaches and cyberattacks, top-notch security and safety are everyone’s top priority, and pCloud assures you just that.

The platform offers the highest level of encryption available to ensure absolutely no one can get unauthorized access to your private and confidential information. Precisely why over 10 million people trust this unlimited cloud storage service to carry on with their daily business.

You can choose between services that are designed for families and business owners respectively. If you opt for the Business plan, you can coordinate with your team members and co-workers to make sure everyone has access to the same files and data. This can work well for companies who offer work from home and telecommute options to their employees.

On the other hand, the Family plan lets you share your cloud storage with up to four family members. So whether it’s sharing photos of your latest culinary invention or that funny video of Uncle Sam, storage won’t ever be an issue.

The other option is to choose premium packages with 500GB to 2TB storage. Both plans use a fair share and have no cap on the download traffic.

The fact that you can customize your links to include title tags, meta descriptions, and other crucial information is another plus. This way, whenever anyone sees your link, they’ll see your brand.

The only flaw we found with pCloud is that its free version lacks useful features. So if you want to enjoy the top-level encryption and document integration facility, you’ll have to choose the premium plans.

Pricing

Currently, pCloud offers four subscription plans:

Premium 500 GB – $175 one-time payment
Premium Plus 2 TB – $350 one-time payment
pCloud for Family – Request for a customized quote
pCloud for Business – Request for a customized quote

If you don’t prefer the lifetime plan, you can always choose to make yearly payments.

Dropbox Business

Dropbox is the first name that pops into people’s minds when they think about cloud storage, and while it may not be the first company to introduce cloud tech to the world, it certainly is responsible for making it popular.

Created back in 2007, the platform has gained massive popularity because of its excellent file hosting and cloud storage solutions. It also doesn’t matter what device you have since Dropbox is compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux, as well as mobile applications like Android and iOS.

You can avail yourself of some pretty fantastic tools like admin dashboard and Dropbox Paper too. While the former lets you monitor and track your team’s file-sharing activity, the latter gives your team an adequate workspace to share and upload files. This, of course, is in addition to its base storage and file sharing features.

You get unlimited online storage space with any of the Dropbox Business plans, although the features will vary. The good thing about the unlimited plans is they combine different services into one, making corporate life easier and more organized.

Full Disclosure: Dropbox did have a major security breach early on. But they have since strengthened their infrastructure. Currently, the platform uses multiple forms of encryption to keep unauthorized eyes away from your business.

Pricing

Dropbox Business offers three plans:

Standard – $12.5 per user, per month, starting at three users
Advanced – $20 per user, per month, starting at three users
Enterprise – Request for a customized quote

The above figures are applicable only if you choose the annual plans. The monthly-payable plans are slightly higher, though.

Backblaze B2

Backblaze isn’t your traditional cloud storage service provider.

Instead, it’s an Infrastructure-as-a-service provider, which means they sell resources you can use for your business. As you may have guessed, this option is the most unique alternative that offers you tons of flexibility and scalability options.

A perfect solution for both individuals and businesses, this platform backs up all your files on your computers automatically. You can create backups, host large files, and do anything else you want without having to worry about file types and file sizes. Plus, it’s super affordable!

But there’s a catch: Backblaze B2 doesn’t actually have an unlimited plan, but you can still get as much space as you want. In hindsight, this is actually an advantage as you only have to pay for the storage you really use.

Talking about its shortcomings, Backblaze B2 doesn’t have a mobile backup feature for Android or iOS devices. Also, customer support via email isn’t as efficient and swift if you’re using the free plan.

Despite the cons, this unlimited cloud storage solution still provides you the best bang for your buck.

Pricing

Backblaze B2 offers unique pricing plans based on the number of GB consumed by you. You can have two options:

Storage – $0.005 per GB, per month
Download – $0.01 per GB

You can also get 1GB download for free. But after that, you’ll have to be $0.004 for every 10,000 downloads. Still pretty cheap, no?

iDrive

If you’re a large company with several employees, opting for unlimited storage space with unlimited users would be more affordable and wise. iDrive gives you the flexibility to add as many users as you want, thanks to their carefully thought-out plans that depend on the amount of space you need.

While the Personal plan is affordable, the Business plans are where iDrive really shines.

These plans are optimized for team collaboration with 24/7 priority support for unlimited users and come with a host of features like continuous and automatic data backups, user and group management, server backups, and external hard drive backups.

Precisely why it’s the top option for companies looking for backups and affordable cloud storage space.

To shed more light on its backup features, you can back up all the devices across one single account, which is a bonus to their online file sync feature. Another innovative functionality of iDrive is its iDrive Express, which backs up all of your data sent to you on a physical device — something that can be useful in case of emergencies or accidents.

What’s more, this unlimited cloud storage service has cleared all the GDPR compliance checkpoints, including HIPAA, GLBA, SOX, and the SSAE 16 standard compliance.

Pricing

iDrive offers four subscription plans to its users:

Basic (5GB) – Free
iDrive Personal (5TB) – $52.12 per user for unlimited computers
iDrive Team (5TB) – $74.62 for five computers and five users
iDrive Business (500GB) – $149.62 for unlimited users, servers, and computers

Box

According to Box, 70% of the fastest-growing Fortune 500 companies use their storage service. The fact that it offers unlimited cloud storage is one of the biggest contributing reasons.

You can easily collaborate with your team members and give access to files from any device, anywhere. The platform offers a wide selection of unlimited business plans with no cap on the number of files you can upload to the cloud server.

That said, there are restrictions on file sizes. You can only upload files that are 5GB in size or smaller. This can make things tricky at times, but it isn’t a major deal-breaker.

Moreover, Box can integrate with over 1500 applications that include popular office productivity and collaboration tools like Google Workspace, Slack, Salesforce, and Office 365. You can easily open, edit, and save files from all these apps as well.

The Cloud Content Management of the platform also deserves a special mention. Trust us, it can be very useful to declutter and organize your digital world. So no more alt-tabbing every other minute!

Pricing

Box offers four plans to suit your needs and requirements:

Personal Starter – Free
Business Starter – $5 per user, per month
Business – $15 per user, per month
Enterprise – Request for a customized quote

How to Pick Your Unlimited Cloud Storage Services

All the above five options have their own set of advantages, disadvantages, features, and benefits. But none of them is a one-size-fits-all solution, which is why you should know how to choose the right cloud storage solution for you.

Let’s take a quick look to see how.

Step 1: Consider How You Want to Share Your Cloud

If you’re in a business environment and have multiple employees, you’ll obviously want to share files and other data.

What you need to pay careful attention to is how the storage is distributed. pCloud, for example, charges per user, which means it gives a set amount of space for you to work with.

While this can be good if still hiring more employees and scaling, it won’t be cost-efficient in the long run. You see, some users require more space than others, so you may end up paying for a large volume of unused storage to prevent anyone from maxing out their assignment.

Want an alternative? Opt for iDrive’s unlimited user connection plans.

The platform pricing is based on the total amount of storage you use. It’s the best way to do things if you only want your team to only have access to a static shared directory and no other personal files.

Step 2: Determine How Many People Will Be Using the Unlimited Cloud Storage Service

You must think about the number of users who will be using the cloud storage service. This is an even more important consideration if you’re a company with a large number of users.

Typically, many companies offer plans that are payable per month, per user. So not only is this consideration important for operation, but it’ll also affect your budget.

For instance, if you’re just starting out, have a very tight budget, and don’t really know how much storage you’ll need, Backblaze B2, with its flexible pricing, would be better suited to your needs since you pay per GB consumed.

On the other hand, iDrive would be a better solution for larger businesses since it offers unlimited plans and device backups.

Step 3: Check Where and How Your Data is Stored

Cloud storage has a very straightforward process. You transfer your data to a data center – or a network of data centers – each of which has a real-world address. It’s why you should always find out what this address is before you place your personal information here.

Avoid any cloud storage or backup platform that stores your files far from your operation or customer base. This is because a distant cloud network usually causes slow transfer times when uploading, accessing, or downloading files and other data.

A few countries are also strict about how and where their businesses can store data, so this is an important consideration if you want to stay out of trouble with the law.

Step 4: Find Out Whether the Prospect Offers the Features You Need

The other important consideration is your personal use-cases.

Do you want multiple app integrations? Device backups? Or maybe business compliance?

Create a list of features you think are necessary to ensure the smooth functioning of your business. Then ask the prospective service’s developer whether they offer the listed features. After all, it makes no use to pay for a service that doesn’t meet your crucial requirements to the T.

Box can integrate with over 1500 applications, making it one of the most versatile platforms you can get your hands on. In terms of compliance, iDrive clearly has an edge over its rivals since it has cleared major GDPR compliance checkpoints.

Similarly, if having mobile backups is important for your business, you should choose Dropbox Business over Backblaze B2 since the latter doesn’t have a mobile backup feature. Contrarily, it doesn’t matter which device you use with Dropbox Business since it’s compatible with most mobile applications and operating systems alike.

Other than these, base features like top-level security, advanced encryption, and an excellent support team should also be on offer. Don’t compromise on them – ever.