Best Cloud Storage Services

The Top 3 Best Cloud Storage Services that we love and we hope that you would too.

1.)Dropbox

Dropbox is a favorite in the cloud storage world because it's reliable, easy to use, and a breeze to set up. Your files live in the cloud and you can get to them at any time from Dropbox's website, desktop applications for Mac, Windows and Linux, or the iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Kindle Fire mobile apps.

You can store any kind of file in Dropbox, by either uploading to the website or adding it with the desktop apps. Those apps live in your file system so that you can easily move files from your computer to the cloud and vice versa by dragging and dropping them into your Dropbox folder. The service automatically and quickly syncs your files across all of your devices, so you can access everything, everywhere. There is no size limit on files you upload to Dropbox with the desktop or mobile apps, but larger files can take several hours to upload, depending on your connection speed.

Dropbox gets a lot of praise for its clean design, and rightfully so. Though I am not a fan of Dropbox's website because the design is very basic and it doesn't give you many options to view and organize your files, its mobile apps and desktop apps are beautiful and easy to navigate.

Dropbox gives its users plenty of opportunities to get extra storage to beef up the paltry 2GB you get when you sign up. If you participate in the quick Getting Started tutorial, you get 250MB. Turn on the automatic photo upload feature on any of the mobile apps to get 3GB of extra space (you can get only 3GB total, not per device). You can earn 500MB for each friend you refer to Dropbox who actually signs up for the service, up to 16GB total, or 32 referrals. If you have a brand-new HTC or Samsung phone with the Dropbox app pre installed, you may get 50GB of storage for up to two years, depending on the device.

Pros:-

Dropbox works equally well on PCs and Macs, Android and iOS. The service is so simple and elegantly designed, that it's easy for anyone to master. Its desktop applications seamlessly blend with your computer's file system.

Cons:-

In my experience, Dropbox's website design is one of the weakest of the cloud storage services. It's simple and clean, but you can't control the way your files are displayed. However, you do get many more sharing options on the Dropbox website, which almost makes up for the bare-bones design. And even the free storage provide is very less (2GB).

 

2.)OneDrive (aka SkyDrive)

First up is OneDrive, Microsoft's storage option. Those who use Windows 8 and 8.1 have OneDrive built into their operating system, where it shows up in the file explorer next to all of the files on your computer's hard drive. However, anyone can use it on the Web, by downloading a desktop app for Mac and earlier versions of Windows, or the OneDrive Android, iOS, Windows Phone and Xbox apps.

You can store any kind of file in the service, including photos, video and documents, and then access them from any of your Windows PCs or mobile devices. The service organizes your files by type for you, so it's easy to find what you need.

The Android, iOS and Windows Phone apps all have automatic photo uploads, meaning that when you shoot a photo with your phone, it's automatically saved to your account. OneDrive's biggest strength is that it works closely with Microsoft Office apps, such as Word or PowerPoint, so when you launch one of those applications you'll see a list of recent documents saved to OneDrive. If you have an Office 365 subscription and open a document saved in OneDrive, you can collaborate on it in real time with other people. You'll even be able to see the changes they make as they make them.

Microsoft is hoping that OneDrive will be the place where you store your photos, and the company is working on technology that will eventually sort all of the photos you take based on how important and meaningful they are. For instance, if you take a photo of your kids, a picture of a special meal and a shot of your parking space so you can find your car later, OneDrive would be able to understand the importance of each picture, save the ones it thinks are the most useful, and trash the rest. That's still big-picture stuff for OneDrive, but it gives you an idea of the direction Microsoft is moving in.

Pros:-

OneDrive works seamlessly with Windows devices because it's built in to the Windows operating systems running on PCs, tablets and Windows Phone. It's easy to open and edit files from OneDrive in Microsoft's other applications, such as Word or the Photos app. Since OneDrive is closely tied with Office, it's a good choice for anyone who uses Office frequently.

Cons:-

If you don't have all Windows devices, OneDrive doesn't have as much appeal. There are apps for other devices, but it's clear that OneDrive is really meant for the Windows set.

In order to use OneDrive, you must sign up for a Microsoft account, which gives you access to Outlook, Xbox Live, and other Microsoft services. Whether or not you want all those extras is up to you.

OneDrive for Business currently (as of early 2015) has a limit of 20,000 files that you can store in your account. Microsoft says it is working to change this, but we don't have exact timing on when that limit will disappear.

 

3.)Google Drive

What started as just a handful of helpful online office tools called Google Docs, has transformed into Google Drive, a complete office suite with cloud storage. You get a little bit of everything with this service, including a word processor, spreadsheet application, and presentation builder, plus 15GB of free storage space.

If you already have a Google account, you can already access Google Drive. You just have to head to drive.google.com and enable the service. You get 15GB of storage for anything you upload to Drive, including photos, videos, documents, Photoshop files and more. However, you have to share that 15GB with your Gmail account, photos you upload to Google+ and any documents you create in Google Drive.

While you can access any of your files from the Drive website, you can also download the Drive desktop app for Mac and PC to manage your files from your computer. You can organize all of your files in the desktop app, and they'll sync with the cloud so you can get to them anywhere.

Drive is built into Google's Web-based operating system Chromium, so if you have a Chromebook, Google Drive is your best cloud storage option. Like other cloud storage services, Drive has apps for iOS and Android, so you can manage your files from your phone.

Google Drive has the benefit of a built-in office suite, where you can edit documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, even if you created the document in another program. The service also a large collection of extras, such as third-party apps that can send faxes or sign documents.

What I like most about Google Drive is that you can drag and drop files into the Drive website and they'll be uploaded automatically. You can also preview attachments from Gmail in Google Drive, and save those files to your cloud.

Pros:-

Google Drive requires very little setup if you already have a Google account. What's more, if you use Gmail, it's easy to save attachments from your email directly to Drive with just a few clicks.

Cons:-

While you can organize your files and photos in Google Drive, there's no way to automatically upload photos from your phone directly to the service. Instead, Google has an Auto Backup feature in the Google+ mobile apps, which sends your photos to your Google+ profile. I'd like for Google to create a central space where I can store and upload all of my files that combines the best of Google+'s photo editing features and Google Drive's document editing tools.