Many people want to find the cheapest cloud storage. In this article, we take a closer look at online storage with more than 1 TB of space. They can replace a real physical hard disk, while still offering the advantages of cloud storage.
In short, for those in a hurry, here’s a summary of the 4 high-quality online storage solutions that are also the cheapest.
The first, kDrive, offers monthly or annual subscriptions at least half the price of the rest of the market. So it’s far ahead of the pack as the cheapest online storage for anyone looking for a monthly or yearly subscription.
2 TB for €59.88 / year
kDrive. The cheapest monthly or annual subscription on the market
A monthly or annual subscription at very low prices for excellent European service. KDrive subscriptions are around half the price of its main competitors, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Mega, …
The next three are Internxt, pCloud, and Icedrive. They offer lifetime cloud storage (a one-off payment rather than a monthly or annual subscription) which are both excellent long-term investments, since their purchase pays for itself in just around 2 to 4 years. You’ll prefer them if your aim isn’t to pay the lowest possible subscription fee, but to invest for huge savings over the years to come.
2Tb for life for 199€
5Tb for life for 299€
10Tb for life for 499€ Internxt
Internxt. The cheapest long-term investment
The cheapest long-term cloud storage, with a massive 2, 5 or even 10TB of space! The prices are an investment that pays for itself after just 2 years, compared with annual subscriptions.
The other advantage is that Internxt is built entirely around the security and confidentiality of your data.
2Tb for €399 lifetime
10Tb for €1190 lifetime
The other option for a long-term investment
A slightly more comprehensive service than Internxt or Icedrive, but for a slightly higher price and 2TB (or even 10TB) of storage space. As with its two competitors, it’s a one-off payment that quickly saves you money without paying a subscription for years.
Although more expensive, pCloud has the advantage of being ranked as the best cloud storage today, and of being an older, established competitor with more features.
pCloud is currently offering a -65% discount on all its lifetime family plans, for sharing cloud storage space as a family.
2Tb for €479 lifetime
10Tb for €1199 lifetime
Icedrive. Another economical option
Like Internxt, Icedrive is a recent service that offers very economical online storage thanks to its lifetime offers. Still, it’s a little more expensive than Internxt for similar features.
See Icedrive prices and offers
Icedrive is currently on special offer for the summer, at prices well below its usual rates.
Whether you’re looking for the cheapest possible subscription or an investment that will save you money over the long term, you’ll find what you’re looking for among these 4 solutions.
| Storage and price | Summary | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | kDrive | 2 TB for €59.88 / year | The cheapest monthly or annual subscription on the market A monthly or annual subscription at very low prices for an excellent service. KDrive’s subscriptions are about half the price of its main competitors, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Mega, … | |
| 2 | Internxt | 2Tb for life for 199€ 5Tb lifetime for €299 10Tb lifetime for €499 | The most economical long-term investment The cheapest cloud storage over the long term, with a very large space of 2, 5 or even 10 TB! At €499, the investment pays for itself in just 2 years. The other advantage is that Internxt is built around the security and confidentiality of your data. | Try Internxt with 10 GB free or 30 days money back guarantee |
| 3 | pCloud | 2TB lifetime for €399 10Tb lifetime for €1190 | The best online storage of all criteria A slightly more comprehensive service than Internxt and Icedrive, but at a higher overall price than Internxt. As with its two competitors, it’s a one-off payment that quickly saves you money without paying a subscription for years. pCloud also has 500 GB lifetime storage for €199. | |
| 4 | Icedrive | 2TB lifetime for €479 10TB lifetime for €1199 | Another more expensive option Like Internxt, Icedrive is a recent service offering very economical online storage thanks to its lifetime offers. Still, it’s a little more expensive than Internxt for similar features. It also offers smaller 500 GB lifetime storage spaces for €299. | Try Icedrive with 10 GB free or 14 days money-back guarantee |
You’re not interested in this storage category, because you’re looking for cloud storage under 1 TB? We’ve also covered the cheapest cloud storage for the 200 to 500 GB category.
1st. kDrive from Infomaniak: An excellent service at less than half the price of its competitors!
kDrive is a cloud storage solution created by Swiss cloud services provider Infomaniak (hosting, servers, online tools, etc.). As an online storage solution, kDrive is perfectly suited to both private and corporate users.
ADVANTAGES
- Subscriptions generally half the price of competitors for the same cloud space
- Suitable for professionals and businesses
- 30-day free trial of the entire service
- Data hosted in Switzerland
- Price reductions (up to -20%) based on 1, 2 or 3-year commitment
DISADVANTAGES
- No Zero-Knowledge safe yet to protect your files (but available soon, according to kDrive)
The offer we’re interested in here is kDrive Solo, which gives access to 2TB of data. In terms of features, kDrive is very complete and has almost nothing to envy from other options on the market.
The only major drawback is itslack of digital safe functionality (a place where your files are privately encrypted, so even kDrive can’t read them). Both Icedrive and pCloud offer this functionality, unlike kDrive (for pCloud, it’s a paying option). kDrive promises, however, to work on this feature and make it available soon. As for Sync.com,
Unlike Icedrive and pCloud, kDrive does not offer “lifetime” plans, but only more traditional subscriptions. However, the price of these subscriptions is so low in relation to the qualities that kDrive possesses, that it has a rightful place in this ranking.
KDrive subscriptions half the price of competitors
Let’s talk about kDrive’s prices. It’s simple: overall, kDrive offers subscriptions at least half the price of its competitors for equivalent storage space!
Let’s take a look at the prices for the Solo 2TB offer:
- 5.54 € / month for monthly billing with no commitment.
- 59.88 / year with a 1-year commitment, or €4.99/month (-10%).
- 56.52 / year with a 2-year commitment, or €4.71/month (-15%).
- 53.16 € / year with a 3-year commitment, i.e. 4.43€/month (-20%).
In comparison, pCloud or Icedrive subscriptions cost twice as much, at around €9.99/month for 2TB. It’s simple: kDrive’s subscriptions are at least half the price of all the competition (Google Drive, Mega, Dropbox, iCloud, etc.)! To see for yourself, take a look at our cloud storage comparison.
Another thing to note is that kDrive offers a lot of flexibility on its subscriptions, with monthly subscriptions, or commitment durations of 1, 2 or 3 years for annual subscriptions. This option offers even lower rates (up to -20%) if you’re prepared to make a medium-term commitment.
A 30-day free trial to convince us
To convince those who are hesitating about kDrive, Infomaniak has taken the excellent initiative of offering a 30-day free trial for all its paid offers (a payment card is required to register, but no debit will be made).
This is a very good idea, and even more reassuring than the periods with a promise of a full refund for Sync.com (30 days), pCloud (10 days) and Icedrive (14 days), since it is not necessary to pay to test the service in good conditions.
kDrive as an alternative to the Web giants
At a time when web giants Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft seem to have more and more sway, many are looking for effective alternatives.
kDrive and Infomaniak are positioned precisely in this niche. Indeed, this is a European (Swiss) service, which remains sovereign over the data it stores solely in its own data centers. Its entire policy is focused on this aspect, and on the respect for privacy that is so problematic with the American giants.
Also, kDrive and Infomaniak have good support in many languages, both by e-mail, chat, or telephone.
Infomaniak kDrive review
To sum up, kDrive is an excellent service, though still slightly inferior in terms of functionality to pCloud, for example. In particular, the absence of a digital safe is regrettable.
If you’re not keen on paying for cloud storage for life, but prefer a more traditional monthly or annual subscription approach, then kDrive is undoubtedly the most interesting option, not only for its very attractive price, but also for its other qualities detailed above.
2nd. Internxt: simple, confidential online storage for long-term investors
Interxt is a newcomer to the online storage market. Founded in 2019 in Spain, it has established itself thanks to its commitment to security and confidentiality, as well as its very attractive rates.
BENEFITS
- Enhanced security and confidentiality thanks to Zero-Knowledge encryption
- Data hosted in Europe and RGPD compliance
- The most economical lifetime plans on the cloud storage market
- Various storage spaces of 20 GB, 200 GB and 2 TB in monthly or annual subscriptions, and 2 TB, 5 TB or 10 TB in lifetime offers.
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- Website and applications available in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese and Russian
DISADVANTAGES
- Some features missing for collaborative working
- No file versions (possibility of going back to previous versions of a file)
Internxt’s lifetime offers are the most economical on the market
Internxt offers online storage for life. You pay once and get cloud storage that you can use for as long as the business exists. No subscriptions or recurring payments to manage.
These offers are very attractive for their long-term savings potential. Internxt offers three lifetime plans: 2TB for €199, 5TB for €299 and 10TB for €499. These prices may seem high, but when you compare them with their value over the medium and long term, they’re actually very competitive.
To illustrate, the 2TB offer at €199 is cheaper than a two-year annual subscription at over €100 a year! In other words, after just two years, you’ll start saving over €100 a year.
The 5TB and 10TB offers are even cheaper, and pay for themselves even faster.
Bear in mind that these particularly attractive lifetime offers are designed to attract new customers. They may disappear and be replaced by conventional subscriptions in the future. Indeed, subscriptions remain the most profitable offers for cloud storage providers.
Take advantage of Internxt discounts
Is Internxt a good online storage solution?
Internxt, despite being a newcomer to the world of cloud storage (created in 2019), already has a lot going for it. Admittedly, it doesn’t yet have all the advanced features of some of its more established competitors, such as pCloud, including file versioning.
However, Internxt stands out for its commitment to security and confidentiality. Its Zero-Knowledge encryption system guarantees users that only they can access the content of their files. What’s more, as a European service storing all its data in the European Union, Internxt offers additional peace of mind as it complies with European regulations (RGPD).
Although it doesn’t have all the features of a better-established competitor like pCloud, Internxt offers all the basic options expected of online storage today: Android and iOS mobile apps, file synchronization between your devices, file sharing, photo backup, etc.
When should you choose Internxt?
If you’re looking for a cloud storage solution that combines security, privacy, generous storage space and long-term savings, Internxt is a great option to consider.
See Internxt's lifetime offers
3rd. pCloud: top online storage
overall, pCloud is the best cloud for storage. With a very attractive pricing policy, it is high up in this ranking of the cheapest cloud storage. Its offer in this category is 2TB for €9.99 a month, or €99.99 a year (17% savings on annual payments). But as with Internxt and Icedrive, the real saving with pCloud is the lifetime online storage offer.
ADVANTAGES
- Uncompromising security
- Service and data hosted in your choice of Europe (Switzerland) or USA
- Configurable personal encryption
- 10-day money-back guarantee
- 10 GB free space
- Cost-effective lifetime packages (one-off payment)
DISADVANTAGES
- PCloud Crypto personal encryption available at extra cost
- Collaboration tools to be improved
LIFETIME ONLINE STORAGE: long-term savings
This formula allows you to pay once for online storage space for life. It involves a one-off payment of €399 to use the 2TB in the cloud, with no time limit.
Let’s do the same calculation as for Icedrive. At its current price, the offer pays for itself rather quickly. A quick calculation shows that the lifetime payment pays for itself :
- in just over 3 years when compared with the monthly subscription.
- in 4 years when compared with an annual subscription.
So it’s an easy plan to make if you plan to use such a cloud storage service for at least a few years. It is, however, a little more expensive than what Icedrive offers (price per TB of storage).
It’s worth pointing out, however, that the pCloud website advertised this price as a temporary 33% promotion, the actual price being €599 for 2TB. It’s unclear whether this promotion is set to last or not.
For those who want more: 10TB online storage for life!
For those looking for even more online storage, pCloud recently launched a 10TB lifetime cloud storage offer! The price is €1190 (or €119/TB). This price of €1190 is shown as a 37% promotion on the actual price of €1890.
See the features of 10TB cloud storage for life
Monthly and annual payments
pCloud is also among the best prices for monthly and annual payments. Although in this category the competitors are very close to each other, apart from kDrive (1st in this ranking), which is still much cheaper.
In the form of monthly payments with no time commitment, the 2TB offer costs €9.99 per month.
That works out at 200 GB per euro invested, twice as much as the best prices for lightweight online storage from 200 to 500 GB.
For annual payments (one payment to use pCloud services for 12 months), the price is €99.99 per year. That’s 17% lower than the monthly price.
Conclusion on pCloud
pCloud is already number one in the overall ranking of the best online storage solutions.
For those looking for foolproof cloud storage, the savings offered by a one-off payment to buy 2TB or 10TB of storage space for life will be a capital argument.
What’s more, pCloud has a 10-day money-back guarantee. This reinforces our view that this is a very inexpensive online storage solution, and the best overall (see our pCloud review).
4th. Icedrive: online storage
Icedrive is a recent entrant to the cloud storage space. Founded in 2019 in the UK (Wales), it’s coming onto the market with a vengeance, aiming to be a modern, low-cost player. Like Internxt and pCloud, it’s its very economical lifetime offers over a long period that make it an interesting alternative (although Internxt is cheaper, and pCloud more comprehensive in features).
ADVANTAGES
- Very low prices, especially for lifetime payments
- Excellent security and privacy (private encryption included)
- 14-day money-back guarantee
- 10 GB free cloud space
DISADVANTAGES
- Website and applications in English only
Icedrive offers its users three storage spaces: 150 GB, 1 TB and 5 TB. In this article, we’re interested in the 1TB and 5TB offers.
What makes Icedrive the cheapest cloud storage is its “for life” offers at €479 for 2TB and €1199 for 10TB.
If you’re not familiar with the notion of “lifetime” online storage, this price may seem excessive. However, to evaluate it, you need to consider its medium- or long-term interest. In this case, it’s an unbeatable offer.
Is Icedrive a good online storage solution?
Apart from its price, are there any other qualities that would prompt you to use Icedrive rather than another cloud storage service?
Overall, Icedrive hasa very good service, with a good position in our ranking of the best cloud storage. Still young though (created in 2019), it unfortunately doesn’t yet excel in the area of real-time file collaboration, as detailed in our review of d’Icedrive. It does, however, have a very good interface, and the all-too-rare quality of offering private encryption, very important for the confidentiality and security of your data.
A digital safe for sensitive data
This client-side private encryption is offered in the form of a digital safe: a folder in which you can put your most confidential files to ensure that no-one but you (including Icedrive) can read their contents. This feature is included in Icedrive’s service, unlike pCloud (2nd in this ranking), for example, which makes it a paid option.
As far as available applications are concerned, no problem: Icedrive has applications for all common systems(Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, iOS) and is also usable via a simple web browser.
On the other hand, some will regret that both the website and the application interface are only available in English, or that the collaborative working options are not as comprehensive as those of its main competitors.
Another drawback is that, although Icedrive has servers in Europe and the USA, you can’t choose where your data will be stored (unlike pCloud, which lets you choose, or kDrive, where all data is stored in Switzerland).
When should you choose Icedrive?
Icedrive is a very good online storage solution, whose price makes it an excellent bargain.
It’s ideal for those looking for a large storage space at a very reasonable price, thanks to its one-time payment. The 5TB offer at €499 is extremely attractive indeed. If you’re not sure, don’t forget that Icedrive promises a full refund within 14 days of purchase if you’re not satisfied.
If you have more complex needs in terms of synchronization and sharing features that Icedrive doesn’t have, and you’re willing to pay a little more but still with a one-off payment, then look at pCloud, detailed below.
Hard disk” cloud storage: from 1 TB to 5 TB
The benefits of “hard disk” cloud storage
With this amount of storage (from 1TB or 1000GB), many people can synchronize all their important data. It’s really theequivalent of a reasonably-sized physicalhard disk.
As you can imagine, this brings real added convenience compared with lightweight online storage (200 to 500 GB).
First and foremost, these offers offer the benefits of online backup to secure your data in the event of hardware failure. The larger storage space means you can consider synchronizing all your data, rather than just a selection.
What’s more, the synchronization and data-sharing features of online storage promise you a level of convenience you didn’t have before: all your data is shared and available from all your devices (phones, tablets, work or laptop computers, etc.).
Sharing functions also take on a whole new dimension. The fact that you can send a link to any of your files at any time (assuming all your data is synchronized) sometimes makes life easier.
Conclusion on the cheapest cloud storages over 1 TB
kDrive, Internxt, Icedrive and pCloud are all excellent cloud services.
kDrive is a great solution for those who want a monthly or yearly subscription, with prices that are simply half those of the competition! What’s more, the 30-day free trial is the perfect incentive to give the service a try.
Internxt, Icedrive and pCloud come off potentially better on the savings front, thanks to their lifetime cloud storage offers: you pay a one-off fee giving access to the service for life. These offers are particularly easy to monetize, but require a significant investment.
