Top 10 Free Cloud Storage

Before starting to list our top 10 favourite free cloud storage solutions (which is just below if you want to jump straight there), here are a few quick tips and things to look out for when choosing free cloud storage for yourself:

What Features are Included for Free

One of the most important things to look for with any free cloud storage is what features are actually included in the free offering and which ones might be missing. In many cases, cloud providers will temp customers to sign-up to free cloud storage accounts using a headline grabbing rate of free storage, but just as important as this storage quota is what features might be missing from the free service and which ones might only be available on the premium plans!

In many cases, in addition to providing much higher allocations of cloud storage, premium cloud plans often also include additional features such as secure link sharing, encrypted folders (“vaults”), enhanced historic file versioning, additional desktop software features and additional business / collaboration tools amongst many others.

In addition to taking note of what features might be available in the free version of a cloud storage service versus the premium plans, it is also worth checking out the upgrade path before committing to a free cloud storage account. In the case that your storage or feature requirements might grow in the future, it is always worth knowing what costs will be involved in upgrading the account before becoming too reliant on it and then finding out that upgrading storage is particularly expensive at your chosen provider!

Desktop Software and Apps Included

Almost all free cloud storage will come with some additional device software or apps to help enhance the free offering, in many cases providing useful functionality such as file synchronisation, device backup or automatic photo uploads form a smartphone device!

When assessing free cloud storage providers, always be sure to check out what complimentary software and apps are also provided by the service and how much of the functionality within these apps extends to the free service. In some cases, cloud storage providers might limit the usefulness of these applications to free account holders with the full set of functionalities only being available to premium plan subscribers (e.g., in some cases, free account might not be able to take advantage of full end-to-end encryption when using desktop synchronisation on a free account).

Security and Privacy Features

Security and privacy both become much more important concepts to consider when trusting your important data to a cloud storage provider! Not only does this extend to trusting who might be holding and have access to your files (and possibly even be able to read them), but also to the data the provider themselves might be holding about individual users as a part of providing the service!

As a general rule, if your data is in any way private or sensitive then try to steer more towards established cloud providers with good track records for security, privacy and keeping their customers data safe. It I also a very good idea to seek out any providers offering full end-to-end encrypted cloud storage which is enabled by default on all accounts (including any free account offerings).

Other notable things which might help in identifying a secure cloud operator include the provider themselves and their datacentres being based in privacy friendly countries, adhering to well documented privacy standards (such as GDPR) and also the provider themselves requesting the minimal of personal information in order to maintain an account (usually an email and password is sufficient to provide such a service).

Other Features to Look out for

Whilst some cloud storage providers can have many additional features available to help enhance their offering, others tend to focus more on the core concept of their offering, this being the cloud storage itself. Despite this, there are often many additional features to keep lookout for when choosing a free to use cloud storage service.

Additional services found alongside free cloud storage can often include desktop software (with built-in file synchronisation and backup functionality), WebDAV access (for connecting 3^rd party software such as backup software), business / collaboration features for working in teams and the option to set-up password or automatically expiring sharing links amongst any others (just be sure to check such features are included in the free account offerings when comparing).

* Remember, this is just a quick guide to choosing free cloud storage! For more information on this topic, be sure to check out our in-depth guide to choosing the best free cloud storage!