Which Cloud Subscription Service Offers The Best Value?

Choosing a cloud service for storage and other productivity can be confusing, as it can be hard to determine which one — of the many different options — is the best bang for your buck, whether that be in terms of how much storage per dollar you get or the host of tools it offers. Now, you might think that the big-name services like Microsoft, Google, and Apple would win this battle by default, but with so many options out there, let's look at what services are available and provide the best value.

When it comes down to strictly talking about storage, currently that's won out by a smaller company, called IDrive. No, this company isn't associated with Apple or BMW, but where it stands out is cloud storage plans ranging $6.99 per month for 5TB up to $69.99 per month for 100TB. This pricing for those amounts is unmatched by other players offering cloud storage, including competitors like pCloud, an iCloud+ alternative that users swear by. IDrive can also be used across multiple devices at the same time for cloud backups, including the entire PC itself. It can also be scaled up for multiple users with other subscription options.

A majority of the cloud services out there just provide storage, unlike Google or Microsoft, which have a full cloud-enabled suite to use. In this case, there's no tie; Google is offering 2TB of storage, a free VPN, and direct integration with your PC via the Google Drive app for either $99.99 a year or $9.99 a month, amongst other perks. In comparison, Microsoft's OneDrive loads on tons of features and extras, mostly surrounding its AI offerings with Copilot, for $99.99 a year or $9.99 a month but only with 1TB of storage. Unless you're truly married to Microsoft Office, there's no reason to give up the additional terabyte of storage that Google is offering for the same price.

All of these options should work just fine on macOS, but Apple's own cloud storage option is pretty much vital for people within its ecosystem. Priced fairly reasonably, iCloud is functionally useless if you've no Apple devices to use it with. iCloud's feature set includes integrating directly with iOS, iPadOS and macOS, and automatically backs up files in the background when not in use. If you're someone who swaps between Apple and Microsoft or Google, it might be better to use one of the options above, rather than Apple's. Again, once you begin to take it outside of the Apple ecosystem, things like sharing with other users or even just accessing files can be a genuine pain.