Ever since the first PC we have all stored our files directly on our PC, but the days of actually having those files on your PC are starting to become a thing of the past now with the introduction of cloud based storage. This is for a variety of reason ranging from freeing up space on your hard drives, keeping important documents safe and backed up and ease of access to your files as you can now access them online virtually anywhere all without the need to carry a USB stick. But it’s not all happy days when it comes to cloud based storage, as there are some disadvantage, some of which put a lot of people off the idea of having all their important documents stored in one place. For example when a security breach happen, some of the time all your information and files are up for grabs and vital information could be compromised, and if you store all your documents in one place, then thats a lot of personal information gone in an instance.
See Also: Best apps to back up your Android device to the cloud
So to help you choose which cloud based storage service best suits your needs and what you’re looking for in terms of file space, security and ease of use. this list has you covered.
Dropbox
Dropbox is a very easy to use and user friendly service. Setting up your Dropbox account only takes a few minutes and then thats it, you’re all ready to start uploading files to your account, you can even access all of your files from many different platforms including PC, Mac, iOS and Android. So if you’re new to cloud based storage than Dropbox is the way to go, its easy to use and upload too and in no time you’ll be a master, meaning you can then branch out to other services to spread your files to keep them safe. For users just signing up you are given 2GB of free space, but you’re able to increase it for free if you refer Dropbox to a friend. And for $10 a month you can get 100GB which is surely enough for all your files. ( Want to work at Dropbox? Here are 10 weird questions they will ask you at your job interview!)
Microsoft OneDrive
OneDrive is Microsoft’s cloud storage service and if you have their Windows 8 or 8.1 operating system then its built right in and ready for you to use, but if you can still download it for earlier versions of Windows. Again, OneDrive is available for you to download on all platforms except for Linux, so again you’re able to keep all of your files with you no matter where you go as you can access them straight from your smartphone. The biggest advantage of having OneDrive is that it comes with an online version of Microsoft Office, giving you access to Word, Powerpoint and Excel amongst many others. Which is much like Google Drive where you have access to Google Docs and others as well. The only downfall with OneDrive is the fact that Microsoft has clearly made better version of their service for PC and their Windows Phone, as on other platforms the functionality and tools are very limited. But the goods new’s is its free to everyone and you get access to 7GB of free storage space. Learn more about OneDrive
Google Drive
After the massive success Dropbox had, Google decided to have a go at a cloud based storage and entered the game with its own service called Google Drive, which when used with Google Docs makes it a very useful tool to have. And like OneDrive its completely free to use, along with Google Docs. All you need to use the service is a Gmail account, so if you do then Google Drive is already waiting for you to take advantage of it. And one thing everyone should take advantage of is the massive 15GB of free storage that Google gives you. One of the biggest advantages of Google Drive is, when you send an email using Gmail and say the attachment you’ve included exceeds 20MB then Gmail will allow you to attach the file using Google Drive and send it like that, making it exceptionally easy for you to share files and documents with your friends and colleagues.
Also worth checking out is Yunio which offers 1TB of Free cloud storage
