You’re on the fence about paying for cloud storage

Cloud storage is very common these days. You need it for almost all types of digital data backups, be it your emails, documents, messages, contacts, photos or other files. Of course, you can always use physical storage to back up your data, but cloud storage just makes this super convenient for many.

There are also a number of cloud storage platforms to choose from these days. The most popular include Google One, Dropbox, and OneDrive, which offer a fair amount of free storage and relatively inexpensive paid storage plans.

So we asked our readers if they were subscribing to paid cloud storage plans or were they satisfied with the limited free storage most services offer. Here you are, you voted in our poll.

Do you have a subscription to cloud storage services?

Results

As you can see from the pie chart above, 51.49% of the 2,860 readers who voted in our survey said they pay for cloud storage. However, just under 48.5% of the survey participants only use the free storage option of cloud services. This shows that our readers are divided on how they use cloud storage. Comments on our survey shed more light on these results.

Your comments

AnySmarterIdRunLinux: My ‘cloud’ is private and takes the form of a microSD card that is synchronized with another HD.

Techngro: I’m in the process of creating my own Nextcloud. I have access to all of my data from anywhere, but it’s all stored on my own home server.

Paul: I use Syncthing for all of my devices. The ability to sync files anywhere without a central server is much more private than using Gdrive or Dropbox. Although it took me a bit to set up and configure, it’s definitely worth it.

Eric Pearson: I pay to go to school and it gives me unlimited storage for life. So paid?

Nicole B: I have the Google Fi phone service and it comes with 100GB of cloud storage. So technically, I’m paying for cloud storage, but not as a separate service.

Evie: No, I just don’t back up enough content to be concerned.

John W: Yes, Dropbox. It’s platform neutral and UI consistent, so it’s easy to share files with my clients. My primary system is a Mac so it’s a great feature to have all of my documents synced with Dropbox, along with Time Machine which does incremental backups. If I have to switch to a Win machine, tablet, Linux, etc., all of my files are available. A bonus is that it works with Docker containers and works as a “standard” drive. Every time a file is updated via the container, it is automatically synced to Dropbox (and also automatically backed up via Time Machine). I also use a NAS (behind a firewall) that maps the Time Machine drive, a 3-2-1 backup method, as a precaution against ransomware.

Matt Jensen: I was a prime example of data loss. I had a hard drive with me, I lost flash drives, computers broke down. While I now have local redundant storage with a NAS, I also use cloud storage for photos and videos in case a major disaster happens, natural disaster or even theft. Since I’ve lost so much, it is better to be safe than sorry.

Albin: Free levels are fine. I always differentiate between cloud “sync” and cloud “storage”. My synchronization needs are only a few hundred MB of active files and reading material, as well as storage space for some independently encrypted personal data and smartphone images (as opposed to camera) images and video files that keep getting bigger and bigger still on external hard drives every month or so secured.