Greatest cloud storage for Mac and iPhone: on-line backup and file sharing

View Apple iCloud right here

We’re beginning with iCloud as a result of Apple’s personal cloud-based storage system is easy to make use of and largely intuitive. It’s obtainable on all Apple merchandise and syncs all of your information – so long as you have got sufficient iCloud storage. It doesn’t act as a backup on your Mac, however you’ll be able to create a backup of your iPhone or iPad by way of iCloud.

As a result of it integrates so seamlessly with all of Apple’s services and products, iCloud is the perfect cloud storage answer for somebody who’s all-in with Apple. If all of your computer systems are Macs, your cellular gadgets are iPhone or iPads, and you’re employed in Apple’s productiveness software program (Pages, Numbers, Notes), iCloud is by far the simplest possibility – permitting syncing of contacts, notes, information, pictures and extra throughout gadgets.

Practically all of Apple’s apps can seamlessly sync by way of iCloud. Images, productiveness apps, Mail, Calendar, and something you drop into your iCloud Drive folder in Finder on a Mac are instantly obtainable throughout all of your Apple gadgets. A major variety of iOS apps optionally again up and sync by way of iCloud, too.

In case you use non-Mac computer systems or non-iOS cellular gadgets sometimes, Apple supplies a full suite of internet apps at iCloud.com, however they’re type of mediocre. Apple additionally supplies an iCloud Home windows app that syncs information and integrates your iCloud mail with frequent Home windows apps like Outlook, however there are not any native productiveness apps for Home windows or Android: If you wish to edit a Pages doc, you must use the online interface.

We like utilizing iCloud, however we additionally pay for it. Most respectable cloud providers require you to pay a small charge.

In case you personal an iPhone or iPad and have an Apple ID, you’ll have already got 5GB free storage. Nevertheless, 5GB isn’t almost sufficient, so you will have to subscribe. iCloud storage plans begin at $0.99/£0.99 per thirty days for 50GB, $2.99/£2.99 for 200GB, $9.99/£8.99 for 2TB, $29.99/£26.99 for 6TB and $59.99/£54.99 for 20GB. You may allow household sharing on the 200GB and above plans.

These paid tiers are branded “iCloud+” and embody a number of advantages. There’s iCloud Non-public Relay, free storage for HomeKit enabled safety cameras, a Conceal My E mail characteristic, customized domains for iCloud e mail accounts, and extra contact choices for recovering your account. These are all wonderful options that assist solidify our view that iCloud is by far your best option for individuals who are all-in on Apple gadgets.

View Google Drive right here

Whereas the thought of utilizing Google’s instruments on Apple {hardware} could make some squirm, it’s deep integration with Google Docs, Sheets, and different well-liked Google instruments means it’s by no means been simpler to share a doc with a colleague, gather suggestions, and make amendments. 

Google’s system, alongside Dropbox and OneDrive, is arguably one of the frequent file-sharing choices. It’s rather more prevalent than, say, iCloud Drive, making it rather more helpful throughout a number of platforms.

In case your workflows and job require any diploma of fast sharing of information forwards and backwards, it’s an ideal match. Outdoors of labor, Google Images can also attraction as a pleasant backup choice to have, nevertheless it’ll begin to eat into your storage fairly shortly.

That mentioned, Google Drive does comes with a whopping 15GB of free storage – that’s triple what Apple provides without spending a dime on iCloud Drive. 15GB is lots beneficiant, however you’ll be able to take pleasure in 100GB for simply $1.99/£1.59 a month, 200GB for $2.99/£2.49, and 2TB for $9.99/£7.99 per thirty days. There’s even a large 30TB for $150 a month.

You should use Google Drive on Mac by way of a devoted app, or by way of the online interface.

Whether or not you’re on Mac, iPhone, iPad, or simply about every other platform, Google Drive stays the most suitable choice round.

View Internxt right here

Internxt is a quick and easy-to-use cloud backup service with versatile cost choices and a clear consumer interface. It provides privateness and security measures, together with post-quantum encryption and password safety, and is well-suited for Mac customers. Whereas it lacks some superior options, resembling a Darkish Net Monitor, it’s a sturdy package deal for cloud storage and backup wants.

Internxt is targeted on privateness and safety, however that doesn’t imply it’s not one of many sooner providers we’ve examined. It’s a simple choose if you wish to switch information between machines or customers with ease. Add to that the choice for backups and antivirus on your information and folders and also you’ve bought a strong package deal for as little as €2 a month (at time of writing, normally €9.99 a month). There’s additionally a life time value that begins at €180 at present.

Internxt completely nails the basics of a cloud storage service. The Internxt drive will be present in Finder’s sidebar, giving fast entry to your information. Dragging information to the folder sidebar or the online app is straightforward, and we had been always impressed by the velocity of its uploads. The menu bar has an inventory of just lately uploaded information and a ticker on your storage restrict. The Backup perform means that you can level Internxt at a folder and it’ll usually again as much as the cloud. It’s all encrypted. 

By way of safety and privateness, there’s post-quantum encryption to maintain your information protected and the choice to make use of password safety. Top-of-the-line options is an Antivirus scanner that works by importing a file to Internxt to have it checked. It really works on information as much as 1GB in dimension and might discover any malware and take away it. Some rivals additionally already supply instruments like a Darkish Net Monitor, on the time of our evaluate that options was “coming quickly”.

We’d prefer to see extra management over managing bandwidth when importing or downloading. There’s additionally no file model historical past. 

Internxt is one among our favorite cloud storage options. It has room so as to add some new options, nevertheless it’s so intuitive and clear that it’s arduous to not advocate. 

View Carbonite right here.

Carbonite Secure has lengthy been thought-about a superb utility to retailer information on-line and it’s simple to see why. After putting in the software program and granting it full entry to your Mac’s arduous drive, it’s simple to decide on particular information and folders to add to a vast space for storing, even below the Primary account.

You may choose particular information to again up, resembling your Desktop, Paperwork, Downloads, Footage, Music, or Motion pictures folder, or select your total Mac inside arduous drive to again up and Carbonite Secure will plow into the duty, steadily importing your information to the corporate’s servers.

True to kind as a restoration utility, the appliance’s restoration options are spectacular, and might both obtain information and insert it again into its authentic location or to a specified location. This, in flip, may also help reload your entire earlier information onto a crashed and rebuilt Mac, albeit your information throughput over the Web could also be slower than cloning your earlier information from a Time Machine or different native backup drive.

Set up and organising full entry to my Mac’s arduous drive was a bit tougher than anticipated: as a substitute of the installer performing this job and asking for my system password, it recommended that I open my Privateness and Safety settings, find Carbonite Secure, and add this alone.

The Primary tier subscription doesn’t cowl computerized backing up of video information, which appears arbitrary (although logical, as these are typically the biggest information in your arduous drive, and you’ll see the place Carbonite would cost barely extra to retailer these).

Lastly, whereas the appliance provides fast entry to its assist information and assist website, the educational movies for the Mac model of Carbonite Secure are nowhere to be discovered.

Carbonite Secure makes it simple to again up your information, restore it, choose precisely the place it’ll go, and this is without doubt one of the few utilities that may take a crashed Mac and successfully restore your entire information (in the event you’re keen to attend for every thing to obtain) versus utilizing Time Machine on an exterior drive or one other native backup method. 

View Field right here

Top-of-the-line cloud storage choices for companies, Field, has an entire host of fantastic instruments and might be probably the most slick and well-supported cloud-based storage service we’ve examined, nevertheless it would possibly transcend a normal shopper’s wants. 

Field’s incorporates a number of safety choices, API calls, and over 1,500 integrations throughout workplace mainstays like Slack, Google Workspace, Microsoft Workplace apps and Zoom, so it’s a simple choose for anybody on the lookout for a “plug-and-play” answer for file-sharing throughout bigger groups.

It’s basically a menu bar app that may come out right into a helpful search bar to trawl by way of something inside your Field folder, which will even seem in your Finder sidebar. A keyboard shortcut brings up the search bar, so Field is all the time only a keypress away. 

There’s a observe part that syncs throughout gadgets and a doc signing instrument that’s very helpful in the event you’re exchanging a variety of contracts.

It’s safe, too, with encryption normal throughout all plans and end-to-end encryption supplied by way of Field KeySafe so customers can difficulty their very own encryption keys.

The online app is quick and secure (not like some rivals) making shifting information between folders when away from the Mac a lot less complicated.

Field provides a really beneficiant free plan providing 10GB of storage and a 250MB file add restrict, however the subsequent tier up is $14/£11 month-to-month for people ($10/£8 per thirty days in the event you pay yearly), which is a steep improve in comparison with the likes of Google Drive. 

Field nails absolutely anything you might need from a cloud storage service in 2025. It’s quick, safe, and will get out of the way in which while you want it to, making it a simple choose for companies.

View pCloud right here

pCloud will allow you to add and sync information in your Mac, so you’ll be able to level it at a particular location and realize it’ll preserve issues updated. It’s a pleasant, hands-free backup choice to have switched on simply in case you want it.

You’ll get entry to 4GB of free storage, which is lower than we’re used to, however will be raised to will be raised to 10GB in the event you invite mates. There are various annual costs, starting from $49.99 a yr for 500GB, and lifelong choices from $299.

pCloud’s internet app is clear and easy-to-navigate. You may retailer and share all varieties of information, and set a listing or an area folder in your Mac to maintain backed up.

Media performs effectively inside pCloud. Saved a video? You’ll be capable of watch it by way of the in-window participant, and the identical will be mentioned for audio and pictures, too. 

pCloud is fairly incredible as an alternative choice to a few of the standard suspects. In case you’re on the lookout for lifetime cloud storage, pCloud is effectively value a glance. It’s additionally simple to make use of and has some nice further options that would make it a dream for large libraries of dwelling films and photos.

View IDrive right here.

lDrive is an internet backup service like Backblaze and Carbonite, though it differs from them in a lot of methods.

Firstly, it has a free tier – you’ll be able to again up 5GB with out paying something. After that, although, it’s dearer than both its rivals.

At the moment, the annual cost for the Private tier is $59.62 (approx £46) for the primary yr, however that solely means that you can backup 5TB of knowledge, whereas Backblaze and Carbonite permit limitless information. Nevertheless, that 5TB will be unfold throughout a number of computer systems, whereas Backblaze and Carbonite restrict you to 1 pc.

Additionally, in the event you want to revive by having information bodily shipped to you, lDrive supplies that without spending a dime for the primary restore every year – although in the event you’re exterior the US you’ll need to pay for the transport.

Like Backblaze, lDrive additionally means that you can again up exterior arduous drives. Even with exterior drives backing up, it’s unlikely most individuals will breach the 5TB restrict – taking into account that you simply’re not backing up purposes or system information.

Options like Rewind and Snapshots permit you to restore from earlier variations of information or snapshots of the whole information set. And all information is encrypted, with the choice to set your individual personal encryption key.

lDrive’s consumer interface makes utilizing it very easy. Your Desktop, Paperwork, Music and Footage folders are mechanically chosen for backup, together with the contents of ~/Library/Mail.

So as to add different folders, click on ‘Change’ on the backside of the window – that’s not precisely intuitive. You may add movies to the backup, however finding them in lDrive’s interface takes quite a lot of doing.

Each scheduling and restoring are easy, nonetheless. As is selecting an area drive because the vacation spot for a backup instead of lDrive’s servers.

lDrive’s free tier and the power to unfold your information allocation within the paid tiers throughout a number of computer systems makes it enticing. Total, although, it’s costly for a single machine.

View Backblaze right here.

Choices like OneDrive, Google Drive, and even Apple’s personal iCloud Drive supply a cloud-based storage space that can be used to share information between customers, normally with a hyperlink to a particular spot.

Others, like Backblaze (and IDrive and Carbonite) are storage providers within the strictest time period. Backblaze takes your information, ferries it off-site, and backs up your Mac to its servers. It’s not for shortly sharing a doc or collaborating on a chunk of labor, it’s for recovering information you might lose if one thing occurs to your native machine. Whilst you might share a file with Backblaze, doing so requires utilizing Backblaze’s separate B2 Cloud Storage service which, admittedly, comes with versatile, pay-as-you-go choices.

Backblaze backs up the contents of your Paperwork, Footage, Motion pictures and Music folders, however excludes your Purposes folder. You may view and share backed up information on an iPhone or iPad with the Backblaze cellular app.

Backups are incremental so solely information which have modified because it final ran are copied. Backups are encrypted and saved for 30 days.

On the subject of restoring your information you’ll be able to restore by way of Backblaze’s internet interface or you’ll be able to have information despatched to you on a USB stick or arduous drive for a further (refundable) charge.

A Discover My-like Find your Laptop service tracks your Mac’s location that will help you discover it if it’s stolen. The Mac can let you know its present IP tackle and present you latterly backed-up information.

In case you want an offsite again up of your Mac, Backblaze’s simplicity and value give it the sting over Carbonite and IDrive.

View Microsoft OneDrive right here

In case you want a cloud plan for a household or small staff, and also you’re already leaning on Microsoft’s Workplace apps, then OneDrive is a superb possibility.

Top-of-the-line elements of OneDrive is that it opens up the Workplace ecosystem, each for Mac and iPhone or iPad. With entry to Microsoft mainstays like Phrase, Excel, and with these apps utilizing OneDrive to sync throughout platforms, it’s bought potential for the office – or for households with children engaged on college initiatives.

In case you’re not eager on Google Docs or Sheets, or Apple’s Pages and Numbers, having Phrase and Excel paperwork unfold throughout your gadgets may very well be an enormous boon.

The 5GB base storage is painfully low without spending a dime customers (though nonetheless higher than Dropbox’s 2GB). Microsoft clearly desires to nudge you to one among its paid plans. You may spend $99.99/£79.99 per yr to get entry to Phrase, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and extra, with 1TB storage per individual for as much as six individuals (6TB whole). Alternatively, the Microsoft 365 Private model with 1TB storage prices $69.99/£59.99 a yr, and Microsoft 365 Primary is $19.99/£19.99 a yr for 100GB cloud storage.

Whichever possibility you go for, OneDrive is a mannequin citizen in the case of macOS. The app is light-weight and sits in Finder so that you can drag and drop as you see match.

Whereas it’s not as intuitive as Google Drive, in the event you’re utilizing Microsoft Workplace to any diploma you’ll discover lots to love.

View Dropbox right here

No dialogue of cloud storage options could be full with out discussing the corporate that popularized shopper cloud syncing: Dropbox. Dropbox is the app that kickstarted the cloud storage arms race , however in recent times it has been usurped considerably. 

A stalwart for a lot of fashionable workflows, Dropbox stays a dependable option to sync information and information to the cloud, nevertheless it will get tougher to advocate in case you are trying to share information with others, as a backup answer, or as a way to entry your content material from wherever you might be.

It simply doesn’t supply any must-have options and rivals have rather more beneficiant free tiers. The paltry 2GB beginning providing is manner behind Google’s 15GB. The subsequent their up is 2TB for  $11.99/£9.99 per thirty days (billed month-to-month), or $9.99/£7.99 a month in the event you pay for a yr upfront. It’s an enormous leap with no choices in between. 

There’s some good. Dropbox supply a sizeable drop-down window so you’ll be able to see extra details about just lately uploaded and up to date information, in comparison with the fundamental menu bar apps of the competitors. Options like PDF signing are helpful additions.

Sadly, Dropbox simply doesn’t really feel as easy to make use of as many different cloud storage providers.

View Acronis right here.

Acronis True Picture for Mac, capabilities as each a customizable backup utility in addition to an antiviral/anti-malware app. We’ve included it right here on this cloud again up spherical up as a result of in addition to native backups you’ll be able to again as much as Acronis cloud. You may entry your cloud backup from wherever. To make the most of the cloud primarily based backup will price extra.

The Necessities plan begins at $49.99/£42.99 per yr for one pc with native backup and anti-ransomware included, however you’ll have to pay extra for cloud backups. The Superior plan, with 250GB storage, prices £69.99, however there are cheaper and dearer choices.

The software program put in simply and was configured for full disk entry with out trouble. It helps incremental, scheduled and cloud-based backups.

It’s centered round Backup, Safety, Disk Cloning, and Archive modules. The Backup module means that you can designate supply and vacation spot volumes in addition to select which information are backed up and to the place. It’s simple to create exclusion lists as to which information can by bypassed in the case of backing up, and the scheduling characteristic labored effectively.

The Backup module additionally results in True Picture’s Acronis Survival Package, which permits for a bootable backup drive to be created that your Mac can boot and set up a brand new working system from.

Disk Cloning module works effectively, and makes fast copies of volumes as wanted. the Archive module means that you can offload native information to Acronis’ cloud construction, which is helpful for liberating up native area

The Safety module supplied a superb diploma of antiviral safety, catching a minimum of 23 potential threats from a pattern archive off the bat.

Sadly, throughout our testing there have been bugs that couldn’t be averted and consumer interface components that had been both inconvenient or wanted an entire total.