How To Get Free Cloud Storage
Most if not all cloud storage providers offer some kind of free version of their service. That’s obviously an investment from their side to try and drag a customer towards their service and eventually get them to sign up for premium plans. And even though we all know it’s a marketing move, we welcome it and happily use their free programs. Overall I believe that you and I both like the fact they’re reaching out to costumers in this way. After all, who doesn’t like free cloud storage which you can access from anywhere on the planet at any time? As long as you have internet access, of course, I don’t think you’ll be able to review your photo collection on top of Mount Everest.
Anyways, enough of chit-chatting. In this article, I’ll try to simplify the methods and explain to you how to get free cloud storage with various top-notch cloud vendors.
How To Get Free Cloud Storage With pCloud
While pCloud doesn’t necessarily offer the biggest amount of free cloud storage, it’s easily one of my favourite cloud storages. You receive 10 GB of free storage when you sign up and then complete various tasks like referring a friend, sharing pCloud on social media etc. to get yourself to a 20 GB mark. If you never heard of pCloud before, it’s a company from Switzerland that provides you with a fast and secure cloud service solution. It’s without a doubt one of the best cloud storages available on the market. It also offers client-side encryption and is the first cloud storage that started with lifetime cloud storage plans.
The registration is straightforward. You simply provide email, a password and wait for a confirmation email. You can also sign up with Facebook.
Once logged in click on the profile picture in the top right corner. From there go to Settings -> Account and click on the “Invite friends” button. Something like this should pop up.
Feel free to share the link with your friends through social media or e-mail. Feel free to read my full review of pCloud here.
How To Get Free Cloud Storage With Sync.com
Sync.com is cloud storage based on “Zero-knowledge” principle. If your primary concern is the safety of your files, you can’t miss if you go with Sync.com. When starting you receive 5 GB of free cloud storage which isn’t that much. However, I am sure you’ll be glad to hear that they have an unlimited referral system. You can invite up to 20 friends per month and receive 1 GB of storage for each of them. It’s also possible to send their support a message and have that limit removed. Technically, you can have unlimited cloud storage if you refer enough friends.
Once on their website simply register and log in. Enable email-based password reset if you want to be able to reset your account’s password through email (this is a security feature).
Once logged in click on the arrow in the top right corner:
From there go to Account Settings -> Rewards. You should then see something like this.
Just copy the referral link and share it with your friends.
Feel free to read my full review of Sync.com here.
How To Get Free Cloud Storage With Dropbox
I don’t believe there’s a single soul that hasn’t heard of Dropbox yet, at least in the “computer world”. It’s known for its simplicity and usefulness with various features such as collaboration. Dropbox gives you the least of free cloud storage between the available options. You start off with 2 GB and can get to about 18 GB by referring friends & doing some small tasks. Each friend referral will bring you 500 MB.
When on the website, fill out the sign-up form and register. You can also use your Google account for that.
When logged in, click on the profile picture in the top right corner. From there go to Settings -> Plan. You’ll then find the button “Invite a friend” so just click on it and it should bring you to something like this:
Send your invites through email, sharing on social media or by referral link.
Feel free to read my full review of Dropbox here.
How To Get Free Cloud Storage With Google Drive
Google Drive is also a popular choice for cloud storage users. Why? Because it’s so easy to start with and you are probably using it already without even knowing it. Every time you send an attachment with Gmail, you are actually using Google Drive. 15 GB is the amount of storage you get for free and there’s no way of increasing that. There are or were certain circumvents to get more free storage but they got rid of them.
If you already own a Google account you just have to enter Google Drive and you’re good to go.
Feel free to read my full review of Google Drive here.
How To Get Free Cloud Storage With Tresorit
Tresorit is an unknown cloud storage amongst the people as it focuses more on the business side of things. None the less it’s still a quality cloud storage if you’re willing to pay for it. They offer 3 GB of free storage. The plan is quite limited in terms of features but hey, it’s free storage.
Feel free to read my full review of Tresorit here.
How To Get Free Cloud Storage With Box
Box is a cloud storage that is more commonly used in the business world. It has good integration with Google Docs and most of the Office programs. You can get up to 10 GB of free storage that you can use as you will. There are certain limitations like no version history and a 250 MB file size limit, but if that doesn’t bother you feel free to use it. Unfortunately, there are no ways to increase your free storage.
Simply register on the website and you are good to go.
Feel free to read my full review of Box here.
How To Get Free Cloud Storage With Mega
Mega.nz is a viable cloud storage solution that gives its focus on security. They are based on zero-knowledge privacy and are quite popular due to their free 15 GB plan. They used to offer 50 GB of storage for free but have downgraded that to the previously mentioned 15 GB. Still, there are other ways to increase free storage for a limited time period.
Just register on their website and claim your free 50 GB storage. Make sure to save the “Recovery key” they give you upon registration. That’s the only way you can recover your account in case you forget your password. Mega will never store your password – or hold your recovery keys.
There is one other feature, that differentiates MEGA from all the other cloud services, and that is “User Controlled Encryption”. Users hold the encryption keys – so they control who has access to their files. Not even MEGA can see your files!
Feel free to read my full review of Mega here.
How To Get Free Cloud Storage With OneDrive
OneDrive is a Microsoft service and is as such strongly connected with all the Microsoft applications or programs such as Office. Their free version provides you with 5 GB of free cloud storage. You can increase that to 15 GB by inviting up to 20 friends, each of them earning you 0,5 GB.
The best part is yet to come. If you’re a student or a teacher, you are entitled to a 1 TB free cloud storage and Office 365 Personal which includes all-new versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote, Outlook and more.
Register an account at Microsoft and log in to OneDrive.
Click on the “Gear” icon in the top right corner which represents “Options”. From there find the “Your additional storage” chapter and click on the “Earn more” button. You should come up with this:
Simply share the link with your friends or social media to increase your free storage limit up to 15 GB. If you are a student or a teacher and would like to get a free 1 TB version click on this link.
Feel free to read my full review of OneDrive here.
How To Get Free Cloud Storage With SugarSync
SugarSync is the last on my list today. The reason for that is very simple. They don’t offer any long-term free cloud storage. Instead, you are given a 90-day free trial with 5 GB of free storage. You can also go for a 90-day trial of 100,250 or 500 GB but you will have to provide your bank or PayPal details. After that is over they will close your account if you decide to not pay for their service.
You can also refer up to 4 friends, each of them bringing you 10 GB of additional storage if they decide to purchase a plan with SugarSync.
Simply register an account on their website and begin your 90-day trial.
Feel free to read my full review of SugarSync here.
Do you know any secret ways on how to get free cloud storage? Let me know in the comments section down below!
Unfortunatelly we are more and more forced into paid subscriptions. Some months ago, there was a myriad of free storage services like Copy, Surdoc, MEOCloud, LG Storage, and so on… Then, one by one, these services started to stop its activities (MEOCloud didn’t stop, but limited the use for Portuguese users). I Still use Mega, Dropbox, pCloud, Yandex, Degoo (to backup a folder of my PC), Hubic, BOX, MediaFire, Amazon Cloud Drive and Asus Webstorage for free. But as I can’t neither complain nor get surprised if the above mentioned companies shut down their free storage services, I had to sign up for a 100 GB Google Drive account for USD 1.99/mo and I got a 1-year-free 1 TB account at MS Onedrive because I bought an Office 360 subscription. P.S.: I felt particularly upset about LG Cloud Drive because it was the one cloud software available in my smart tv. But, life goes on. Now, I must focus on my Google Drive and OneDrive. I still use the other existing services, but only in rare cases.
Wow! This are all great ways to get cloud storage for free. I wish there is one that didn’t eventually lead to premium version.lol.
At the moment I use Dropbox on my Samsung noble but the free version is already full and it’s either time for an upgrade or no further syncs.
I was just wondering if it is possible for one to sign up with more than one at the same time and utilise their free versions?
It’s most certainly possible to sign up with the same cloud storage multiple times though you will be forced to just use the website dashboard. You won’t be able to have multiple desktop clients on the same desktop. That is unless you create another Windows account for example and then switch between them to access various Dropbox accounts. But that is quite time-consuming. So the short answer is yes you can find ways to make use of multiple accounts but then you’re slowly destroying the advantage of cloud storage which is to have your files accessible everywhere and not going through a whole procedure to access them.
These are good apps! Thank you so much for writing this article. I never knew there are a lot of free cloud storage options. I’ve read your reviews on Sync.com and Dropbox. I’ve since then moved to Sync.com from Dropbox and am really satisfied with it. Thank you again for your opinions and great work!
Glad you found the reviews useful!
great article… btw Box has no official linux app or support and setting it up yourself is a hassel.
Hi Dejan,
I already use some of these cloud storage services but a lot of them I wasn’t aware of. And the fact that by referring friends can get extra free storage is especially interesting.
The reason I have many cloud storage services is to share files and photos with others. If we collaborate and refer each other to different clouds rather than just share, we can increase each other’s available limits.
Thanks for the great information.
Ed
Hello Dejan,
Thank you so much for the detailed and amazing information! I’m currently a full time student is I always have to look for places to store my files. It’s frustrating at times because I would have to go through and delete stuff to make room for new ones. Sometimes the deletion process is a difficult choice. This helped me a lot! I never knew there are so many cloud storage.
Hi Dejan,
This is a great detailed and informative comparison of different cloud solutions. I have been using Google Drive for a while and did not know most of the options you have mentioned in your post. Great to see there are so many different options out there. One of the competitive advantages for me is the usability and stability of the Google Drive app, therefore I can access data from different portable devices. What are your thoughts on the apps for these cloud storage solutions?
Thanks
JL
Hello JL,
Most if not all of these cloud services provide applications for mobiles & clients for Windows & Linux. Check each review to see if that specific cloud storage is offering an application and for which platform. The mobile applications mostly allow you to preview, share and delete files from the cloud. Some of them also give you the ability to backup your photo&video; collection from your smartphone which is quite useful. I couldn’t recommend you a cloud storage based on how good their application for smartphones is as they’re quite similar in that aspect. IÂ would suggest you take a look at their main features and decide based on that.
Dejan
The cloud storage industry is pretty useful for the new age tech and everyone that are lacking in local storage.
I’ve not really actively tried to use cloud storage but I do know that it’ll be a very useful tool especially when trying to share images or videos between friends and family.
I have one question, although I know that it’s possible to store images and videos on the cloud, I was wondering if it is also possible to store rom files that you can use on emulators in the cloud too?
I would appreciate any answer you can give.
Thanks
Amhil
Hello Amhil,
I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to do so. Certain cloud storages do limit the type of files you can upload so you would have to check that with your cloud service provider. If you’re looking for a new cloud storage provider I would suggest you find one here and then try uploading the file. Although, I see what you’re aiming at. Here’s a post about it that should explain more on that topic –Â link.
Dejan
Wow, I never knew there were so many free cloud storage service out there.
I just use Google Drive, Dropbox and iCloud at the moment.
I’ll be checking some of these other services. I am looking for something that will give me, even more, space for free but will also have an increased security.
Looks like pCloud and Sync are the best ones. I also like the referral aspect to get more gigabytes for free. I’ll be sure to make use of that.
Thanks
Hello Greg,
You get 5GB more with the pCloud right of the bat, but you are able to increase it beyond 20GB with Sync with referrals. Both are very secure options that provide quality service. You can just use both of them for free and see which one you prefer.
Dejan
Cloud storage was one of the world’s finest accomplishments for the content curators of the world.
I’ve been using Google Cloud for years and about to fill up my free cloud storage there, but this article reminds me I can always move some of those Google cloud files to another free site and save my space on my most used storage platform.
I’m Bookmarking this post just for that day I decide to start moving things. Thanks for all the research you have done on this topic…great stuff!
I have been a Google Drive user myself for quite some time and it has its pros and cons to be honest. Syncdotcom is pretty new to me though and with it being one of the highest ratings it is probably good to explore and possibly start off with a free account to test drive it. Do you know if they may their own built-in tool to help migrate existing files/folders say from Google drive into this Syndotcom?
Thanks.
Hello there,
Sync.com offers 5 GB of free storage forever so you can examine it all you want and then decide if you want to switch your cloud storage provider. They don’t have an implemented program for that. If you decide to go for Sync.com you’ll have to transfer it manually or by using an outside program like MultCloud.
If you’re looking for a hassle-free cloud storage with easy transition you could try out pCloud. They, on the other hand, have the transfer option integrated so you can backup or transfer files between cloud storages, including Google Drive, Dropbox and other popular options.
Dejan
Hi!
Nice review of a couple free cloud storage places. I knew about Google, OneDrive and DropBox like most people do I suppose, but had never heard about the other firms.
I am missing one though, iCloud. I believe they offer some form of free space for iMac owners. I don’t have such a machine, but because my brother has, I managed to create a free account on iCloud and got some GB storage on it. Not sure how much really. For iMac owners, it is free up to a certain amount of GB and really everything automatically saves in the cloud for them, whether they are on iPhone or iMac etc.
I use mostly:
– DropBox
– Google Drive
on my Windows 10 machine, I also have automatically OneDrive, but I think its only used for when I press print-screen.
I never really stood still by the idea that stuff isn’t client-side encrypted. I see it most important that I sent files over an encrypted line (SSL) and that the files are encrypted stored at cloud’s end.
But encryption is really only needed if you plan to save private or sensitive information in the cloud. What do you think?
Steven
Hello Steven,
I have simply taken the 9 top cloud storages that I believe are the best on the market currently. I didn’t want to recommend any cloud storages below that as IÂ don’t think they’re really worth the trouble if you have the 9 listed above available to use.Â
It’s all about how much you value your privacy and how important it is to you for nobody to be taking a peek at your files. If you have no problem with your information being used in ad algorithms or being accessed by cloud administrators then it doesn’t make a difference for you if your data is client-side protected or not. As long as it is protected correctly against hardware failure and unauthorised access.
But if you’re saving files that should be for “your eyes only” then you should search for a cloud storage that is providing client-side encryption such as pCloud or Sync.com. Or you could encrypt your files locally and then upload them to the cloud.
Dejan
I noticed that several of the services had listed under the cons as having no local encryption. I’m not really sure what local encryption means but I was under the impression that cloud storage services automatically encrypted your information. Could you explain a little more what this means because this isn’t really something that I thought I would have to look out for because I thought encryption was a given with services like this?
Hello Lynn,
When I mention local encryption I am basically referring to client-side encryption. In short, it basically means that the encryption keys that are used to secure and encrypt your files aren’t saved with the cloud storage provider but are stored with the client, in this case, us. What does that mean? It means that even cloud storage administrators aren’t able to access your files. Think of it as an advanced security measure that protects you from inside and outside threats. Here’s a full article about it.
Thanks for elaborating on this. I understand more clearly now.