pCloud is currently the best online storage available on the market. In particular, the quality of its features and its low prices earn it this 1st place. But pCloud also has a uniqueness: lifetime plans. This means making a one-time payment to enjoy online storage space for life. It is unusual for a market that usually offers monthly or annual subscriptions.
More details on the pCloud website
These plans deserve a thorough analysis to understand their relevance, so let’s go for it!
What is lifetime cloud storage according to pCloud?
pCloud defines the lifetime subscription (or pCloud Lifetime plan) as valid for the duration of its user’s life, with a maximum limit of 99 years.
The offer is unique and unlimited
pCloud is the first cloud storage provider to offer such a deal, so it’s quite revolutionary (Icedrive also offers such deals now). Moreover, there is no limitation on the use of the service. All features are exactly the same as if you take a temporary subscription (monthly or yearly).
Most other providers only allow monthly or yearly rental of storage space.
What pCloud offers is therefore close to a true purchase. You buy online storage space that you can use as you wish, without time limitation, and without having to reach for your wallet regularly.
What is the advantage of a lifetime purchase?
A one-time payment for lifetime access to storage space changes the way online storage is perceived.
Buy a cloud hard drive
Buying a lifetime plan is comparable to buying an external hard drive. Indeed, who would want to pay an amount every month or every year to continue using their hard drive?
The lifetime offer from pCloud provides the same thing on a cloud scale. The principle is to combine the benefits of a physical hard drive and those of cloud storage :
The main advantage is economic
From a financial point of view, the difference is colossal compared to traditional online storage services charged monthly or annually. As we detail below, the initial payment is quickly recouped.
The cheapest online storage?
Analysis of pCloud Lifetime rates
The idea of buying online storage space that can be used for years is interesting, but is it cost-effective?
The answer to this question obviously depends on the prices applied by pCloud. Let’s analyse these prices to find out how long it takes for the price of pCloud’s Lifetime offer to be recouped, or “amortised”.
This is of course a long-term investment, but it is surprising to see how quickly this investment pays off.
There are three Lifetime offers at pCloud, which differ according to the amount of storage. The first has 500 GB of lifetime storage, compared to 2 TB (2000 GB) for the second and 10 TB (10,000 GB) for the last. The 10 TB online storage is only available as a lifetime purchase (no monthly or annual subscription).
Current promotional rates
Currently, and due to a perpetual promotion, the purchase of 500 GB for life is available for €200 instead of €570 (-65%), while the 2 TB space costs €400 instead of €1140 (-65%). The 10 TB space benefits from a promotion of -80% at €1200 instead of €6000!
Profitable in 3 to 4 years
It seems expensive at first glance: paying more than a hundred euros for online storage is not the norm for an online storage customer. However, pCloud has chosen to make this purchase quick to recoup, undoubtedly to attract more customers. How long does it take for the lifetime purchase to pay off?
One might expect that a long period (5 years? 10 years?) of use would be necessary to recoup such a purchase, but it is actually shorter.
Profitable offers in 3 years at monthly rates
The calculation is simple: a lifetime purchase of online storage space (200 € for 500 GB or 400 € for 2 TB) costs the same as about 40 months at the monthly rate (4.99 € per month for 500 GB and 9.99 per month for 2 TB).
The lifetime offer pays off in 3 years and 4 months when compared to the monthly rates! The situation is the same for the two storage spaces available by subscription: 500 GB or 2 TB.
Moreover, the monthly and annual rates of pCloud are already among the lowest on the market. The price of lifetime plans is therefore also interesting when compared to all the online storage providers on the market.
Profitable offers in 4 years at annual rates
The annual rates for a storage space at pCloud are 17% cheaper than the monthly rates. What is the impact on the time required to “recoup” the purchase of a lifetime online storage space?
Let’s do the calculation: it takes about 4 months for the lifetime purchase to be reimbursed. In other words, 4 years in the form of annual payments cost as much as the lifetime purchase of the same storage space.
Once again, these durations are identical for the 500 GB space and for the 2 TB one.
We have calculated the precise savings made for the 500 GB and 2 TB offers in the tables below. The savings are calculated compared to the annual subscription (the savings are even greater compared to the monthly subscription).
Savings made on the 500 GB space for life
| Years | Cost of the 500 GB annual subscription | Saving with lifetime storage |
| 4 | 199.96 € | 0 € |
| 8 | 399.92 € | 199.92 € |
| 10 | 499.90 € | 299.90 € |
| 15 | 749.85 € | 549.85 € |
It takes 4 years to fully amortise the purchase of online storage.
But once this period is over, every year the savings increase significantly. Indeed, you use the space “for free”, whereas the subscription requires you to pay again each year. For example, after 8 years of use, the savings achieved is more than approximately €200 compared to the annual subscription over the same period, and €300 after 10 years.
Savings made on 2 TB space for life
| Years | Annual 2 TB subscription cost | Saving with lifetime storage |
| 4 | 399.96 € | 0 € |
| 8 | 799.92 € | 399.92 € |
| 10 | 999.90 € | 599.90 € |
| 15 | 1499.85 € | 1099.85 € |
As with the 500 GB space, purchasing an online space of 2 TB starts to yield savings after 4 years of use. From then on, the savings increase even more rapidly (€99.99 per year), with around €400 in savings after 8 years, and over €1000 after 15 years!
What about the 10 To space?
It is not possible to make the same calculations for the 10 TB cloud storage space (Custom Plan) as there is no subscription for it, which is only available through a one-time payment.
On the other hand, it is easy to see that the price is still well below that of the 500 GB and 2 TB plans when considering the cost per terabyte. Indeed, the 10 TB plan at €1200 works out to €120 per TB. For the 2 TB plan, for example, the price comes to €200 per TB.
The price of the 10 TB is therefore 40% cheaper on the 10 TB Custom Plan. This offer is therefore even more interesting in the long term, if you have the possibility to pay the price of €1200 of course.
The best value for money on the market
The time required to recoup the purchase of storage space at pCloud is therefore short. It is certain that a 2 TB storage space will always be useful in 3 or 4 years, when its purchase has been recouped. The same goes for the 10 TB offer, which will remain a storage space.
However, the current prices are the result of a huge promotion (-65% for 500 Go and 2 To, and -80% for 10 To) of which we do not know the end date. Without this promotion, the time required to recoup the purchase rises to over 10 years!
It is therefore noted that pCloud has chosen with this promotion to attract potential customers with an offer that is more than enticing. These lifetime offers undoubtedly make pCloud one of the cheapest cloud storage options on the market in the long term. Only Icedrive can match the same quality / price ratios as it also offers lifetime deals at similar rates.
pCloud’s services are generally very good (pCloud is top of our overall ranking of best online storage).
Investment is therefore more than interesting for those looking for excellent long-term cloud storage service.
Why is it so easy to monetise?
By taking the little time necessary to make a lifetime plan with pCloud profitable, it is natural to wonder why these offers exist and how they are beneficial to pCloud.
A temporary promotion
First of all, it should be noted that the current prices of pCloud lifetime plans are a temporary promotion. This is a 65% discount from the original price.
The current prices are therefore €200 instead of €570 for a lifetime plan of 500 GB, €400 instead of €1140 for 2 TB of storage, and €1200 instead of €6000 for 10 TB (see the screenshot above).
Needless to say, the time required to break even will explode if the promotion ends. Without the promotion, it will take more than 10 years to recoup the purchase. This information completely changes the appeal of these lifetime plans.
The problem is that the end date of this promotion has not been communicated. It is likely that pCloud reserves the right to stop the promotion at any time if the company believes it has attracted enough customers.
Moreover, these prices have already increased in the past (October 2022) and it is likely that further increases will occur in the future.
If the idea of investing in storage space for the long term interests you, it is therefore advisable to do so quickly.
Objective of these offers: to promote pCloud
It is clear that the lifetime offer and the price reduction of 65% to 80% have a promotional purpose. Although being a solid and reputable service, pCloud appeared later than its more well-known competitors (Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.).
It has been difficult for the company to carve out a place in the highly competitive cloud storage market. That is why the cheap lifetime offers are clearly a way to get pCloud talked about and attract customers who can themselves recommend pCloud to those around them.
Today, pCloud has over 9 million users and has therefore succeeded in its bet.
Lifetime storage as an original gift
One of the interesting consequences of these lifetime cloud storage offers is that they become an original gift idea.
Offering online storage space does not come to the minds of most people looking for a gift idea. One of the reasons for this is that it usually involves subscriptions. What is the point of giving a gift that will require renewal of payment after a few months or a year?
The arrival of pCloud’s Lifetime offer for online storage changes the game. It becomes possible to make a one-time payment and therefore make it a real gift!
Who is such a gift suitable for?
An unlimited storage space can be useful for many categories of people in reality. Anyone who has personal data and is likely to need it regularly will find such a gift practical.
Such a storage space is simply the promise of accessing your files from anywhere, from any computer, iPhone, iPad or Android smartphone.
It could well be an ideal gift for a teenager or a young adult, for example, who could then access their music, photos, films or other files from anywhere at any time.
A friend or a family member who navigates between computer, tablet and smartphone, or who is afraid of losing their data, or who would like to regularly share files will undoubtedly be receptive to a lifetime accessible storage space.
Which online storage space to choose: 500 GB, 2 TB or 10 TB?
If you are convinced of the benefits of purchasing online storage space with a one-time payment, you still need to decide which amount is the most suitable? 500 GB, 2 TB or 10 TB?
There is no definitive answer to this question, as it primarily depends on how you will use it and the available budget.
This said, let’s list some information that may prove useful.
On LeCloud.info, we consider that these three storage spaces fall into different usage categories called “light storage” and “hard drive storage”.
500 GB: a “light” online storage
A user with 500 GB of online storage will generally use it to sync only part of their data online.
The aim is therefore not to back up all of one’s personal data in the cloud. It is rather about managing a set of files that are likely to be used on multiple devices (computer, mobile phone, tablet).
The fact that the size of files that can be synced on pCloud is unlimited will make this task practical. You will be able to enjoy your largest files (HD videos for example) without any issues.
For such use, 500 GB is sufficient and you will have time on your hands before you need to clean up to make space. However, as lifetime online storage is designed for the long term, it should also be kept in mind that 500 GB may not be as useful in 5 or 10 years. Indeed, users’ storage needs tend to increase over time. Thus, a 2 GB USB stick is much less useful today than it was 10 years ago.
2 To or 10 To: online storage of “hard drive” type
With 2 TB or 10 TB of cloud space, we enter the category of “hard drive type” space. The purpose of such space is often to replace or back up a physical hard drive to enjoy the benefits of the cloud. Notably, the peace of mind offered by a storage medium that will not fail or be stolen like a physical hard drive can be.
Such a storage space is large enough to give the user the luxury of synchronising all their important data without having to worry about freeing up space regularly.
However, synchronising several terabytes of data in the cloud is a very lengthy task, usually longer than copying the same files to a new hard drive. But once this is done, accessing the data becomes much more convenient and reliable as you benefit from all the advantages of cloud storage.
Will such storage space still be useful in a few years?
As we saw earlier, purchasing a lifetime plan pays off quickly, in about 4 years.
However, such a purchase is aimed at the long term, so it is necessary to ask the question of how long such a storage space will remain useful.
Despite the evolution of storage spaces, I personally have no doubt that a 500 GB storage space will still be useful in 5 years, when the purchase will have long been paid off. That said, it makes sense that a 2 TB or 10 TB space will remain useful for longer. If you are aiming for the very long term, this will of course be the best option.
Upgrading from 500 GB to 2 TB is not possible
This is information that seems important to share here. The rules of pCloud are very clear, there is no advantage in upgrading from a 500 GB lifetime space to a 2 TB or 10 TB lifetime space :
We regret this policy, as it forces the potential customer to choose their offer carefully from the start. Buying a 500 GB plan and then switching to 2 TB or 10 TB means losing what you paid for the first plan.
This regrettable choice is partly offset by pCloud’s refund policy: once your payment is made, you will have 10 days to request a refund if you feel that the storage space does not meet your satisfaction.
pCloud for the family
If your goal when purchasing a lifetime cloud storage space is to share it with your family, you will undoubtedly be interested in pCloud’s Family plan.
This family package has the following features:
For more information, you can read our full review of pCloud Family.
Our opinion – Who are lifetime plans for?
The lifetime plans from pCloud are probably the most attractive offers on the market. The current promotion makes the investment easy. The risk taken is very low, with only 4 years needed to recoup the purchase.
pCloud being, in our opinion, the best online storage on the market, we have no doubt that it will suit the greatest number in a private or professional setting.
It could also turn out to be an interesting gift because once the purchase is made, it is a gift that the recipient will enjoy for life, at no additional cost.
