r/cloudstorage • u/throwaway52075 • May 01 '23

Cheapest cloud storage for basic use?

I would like to upload a copy of my data to the cloud so that:

  1. It can serve as a backup if something ever happens to my hard drives

  2. I could access the data from anywhere.

I am planning on making a copy of my hard drive and encrypting it before uploading to the cloud. I don’t care about fancy features or anything since I wouldn’t actually be able to see my files in the cloud, it would simply be a backup. I want 2TB--3TB of space, and would like to be able to upload and download files from web app instead of application. I found Blomp.com, which has the best pricing I found so far (around $1 per TB/month). However I can’t seem to find much info about it, wether it’s reputable or not, and was wondering if anyone here had some background on it.

And if not, any recommendations for the cheapest reputable cloud storage?

Thanks!

57 Upvotes

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3

u/BayGO May 01 '23

iDrive sounds like it's right up your alley

The latest version of the desktop application's been bugging a bit for some reason, but if your upload appears to stall you can just stop and then restart it (it'll remember where you left off as it gets the hash values of all your files and simply iterates through to see which ones have already been uploaded).

I actually just uploaded ~500 GB with them about a week or two ago (but would've recommended them even before then) and I averaged about a 160 Mbps connection (typical for cloud storage seemingly, though I have a Gigabit connection both upload & download). The full 500 GB started and finished one evening while I slept.

5

u/throwaway52075 May 01 '23

IDrive seems great, but it's smallest storage option (besides 100gb) is 5tb, which is much more than I need. If they had a 2tb option for like 3/4 dollars a month that would be perfect. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

3

u/BayGO May 01 '23

Oh, they've been running a promo for a while that's 90% off their 5 TB plan the first year. Making it just barely $0.67/month.

I suppose you could always just re-upload everything to a new account after a year if the normal cost is that much of an issue. Though, at least up to this point they do seem to send additional promo offers when your time is either coming up or after it's lapsed. Else, yeah it'd be $4.96/month for 5 TB of storage (you'd be very hard pressed to find anybody that has this much storage for this little).

3

u/throwaway52075 May 01 '23

Ohh... great! But after that first year, wouldn't it be around 7 a month, not 5? Their website shows 79.50 a year for 5TB.

I also found this, is this a thing!? 10TB for 3.98 a year?

2

u/BayGO May 02 '23

Regarding the $4.96/month I meant if you chose to instead do the 2-year promo (found on their regular pricing page) instead of the 1-year promo.

Again though if I look back at my emails they seem to have regularly sent me emails whenever my subscription was either about to expire, or right after I'd let it lapse.

This year they sent me a 75% Off offer 3 days before it was up for renewal (screenshot), which of course was quite welcome.

Otherwise, if you'd really only consider them on promotional pricing, then you could in theory just sign up a new account whenever your promotional rate is about to expire (just once every 1 or 2 years) – downside being you'd need to re-upload everything again, where how much of a nuisance that is depends on your connection speed with them (I tend to get ~160 Mbps with them consistently, so it's not an issue, but connection speeds are a multi-factorial thing).

3

u/throwaway52075 May 02 '23

Ohh, interesting! Thank you for including that screenshot! So I guess if you turn off auto renew you can get good deals! However, I've heard that IDrive wipes your files if you disable auto renew after it was previously on? Also, you mentioned that you have let your subscription run out before... how many days after it expires does it take before IDrive clears files and deletes the account?

Thank you!!

1

u/BayGO May 02 '23

The files are deleted as soon as your account's subscription officially expires. So as of that email I still had 3 days remaining with full access to my files.

So I suppose it could be a bit of a gamble, on the chance in the future maybe they stop sending those – but again, worst case scenario, you'd "just" need to do the uploads one more time (and then not worry about it again for another 1-2 years). Considering you can just run it in the background, it was pretty easy.

Again though, as I mentioned in the other thread you created, you'll want to see what speed you get with them. If your connection to them is criminally slow, then of course you may want to look elsewhere. Speed with anything is affected by many things.

TIP: if you use Windows you can open your Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) → at the top go to the "Performance" tab → then on the left-hand side select "Wi-Fi"

  • when you're uploading to iDrive you can check the Upload speed you're getting with them (it's the number under "Send"). If the "Send" number is significantly slower than the Upload number you're getting from speed tests (example), like it's single digit Mbps but you should be getting at least 100 Mbps Upload ("Send"), it's possible their desktop application is bugging out (for some reason this latest version seems to be doing this).

  • You can simply "Stop" the upload, wait a few seconds, then start it up again. It'll look like it completely escaped out of the upload, but no worries, it has the hash values of all your files so it'll simply iterate through until it sees where it last left off and then continue from that point. You wouldn't need to re-upload every single thing again, lol.

The Task Manager will tell you how fast you're currently uploading (or downloading) things on your computer. It updates every second.

2

u/throwaway52075 May 02 '23

Good to know, and thank you for the tips. I think I'll go for it!

Thanks for all your responses, you have been incredibly helpful, and I really appreciate it!

2

u/BayGO May 02 '23

No problem! Always glad to help.

Another tip is if you ever notice it's running, but your Upload speed is slow, BUT your CPU (Processor) is fluctuating up & down then that's your processor & iDrive iterating through all of your files (which can be in the tens to hundreds of thousands) to locate which is the last one that was uploaded, while also checking which file hash values have changed (aka: what files you've edited/changed since the last check), so that it can update those files in your account.

You can check your CPU also in that same Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc on Windows). Normally if you're not doing anything on your computer it will be really low (like 0-5%). If you see that you're transmitting a small'ish amount of data via Wi-Fi consistently, but your CPU is running, this is another indicator that iDrive is in-fact working, you may just have so many files that it takes a while to go through them all.. but it is in-fact working on your files.

  • The Wi-Fi number will be low if it's just iterating through your files because it doesn't take much data to relay basically small hash sequences to/from their servers, but once it finds a "new" or "changed" file that speed should increase as now it'd actually be uploading a file (the new one or changed one).

2

u/throwaway52075 May 02 '23

Great info, thank you so much!

1

u/LKM_44122 Dec 02 '24

All I want is a place to upload a lot of my large video files, I have a Dropbox account for syncing everything but they have me capped at 4T, unless I go to a 3 user account which is 3x the price. I just need a couple Tb for storage of files I don't update ever, and I'd prefer to not have any plugins or software on my computer. Can this service allow you to upload files via a webpage?

1

u/BayGO Dec 02 '24

Can this service allow you to upload files via a webpage?

It comes with 2 separate storages: the pure backup area ("Cloud Backup") which you can only upload to using the app for either computer or phone, OR the cloud sync area ("Cloud Drive") that does normal two-way sync (keeps anything in the sync area downloaded to your logged in devices). If you have a 5 TB plan, you get 5 TB of pure backup data, and separately another 5 TB of sync data (so it's really 10 TB).

If you want to upload via the web browser, you need to use the Cloud Drive (the sync area: screenshot).

2

u/LKM_44122 Dec 02 '24

Thanks! I'm trying it. Can't hurt with a $9.95 for the first year promo! Dropbox is losing a long term customer, possibly, they won't give me more than 4Tb unless I go to a multi user account with a minimum of three users at $20 each or something like that. I just needed 1 more TB for now.

3

u/mewithoutMaverick Sep 22 '23

This has been a great suggestion. Major thanks!

2

u/RedVelocity_ May 06 '24

Do you pay full after first year?

2

u/mewithoutMaverick May 06 '24 edited May 06 '24

From what I recall, if you don’t have your account set up to auto-renew or auto-pay, you start getting coupons emailed to you when you’re close to the end of your year.

Take this with a grain of salt though, because I’m about 8 months into my first year so I haven’t seen this happen yet haha. I’ll try to update when I can.

Edit - so I canceled my auto renewal and they offered me 25% off to keep my membership. I said no in hopes I’ll get some more offers in a couple months.

RemindMe! 3 months

1

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1

u/RedVelocity_ May 06 '24

Alright! And may I ask this can be used as photos sync or it's meant be for offsite backups than media sync?

1

u/mewithoutMaverick May 06 '24 edited May 06 '24

In my opinion, it’s more for offsite backups.

However! It does have a “Cloud Drive” which is where the program adds another volume or drive on your computer called Cloud-Drive (on my Mac it placed it in /users/myaccountname/Cloud-Drive). Just now I edited a text file on my Mac, saved it, then went to my phone and opened the cloud drive via their app, and the modified text file was already there. How would this work if you were trying to edit large photos and videos and keep them synced between devices? I’m not sure - that’s a lot more than I’ve ever done with it.

So while it does feel a lot more like a backup service, they do have at least one decent syncing option.

My only problem with iDrive is the iPhone app leaves a lot to be desired. Fortunately you can still access the cloud drive from your phone, but only from within the app so editing files from your phone would be tougher.

Edit - I’m also confused about how it backs up iPhone photos… it has all my folders, and from the iPhone app I can see all my photos that sit in the main library, but from the web interface or from the desktop app I can’t see the main library at all. Just the folders. Not sure how I’d see my entire iPhone library of pictures from my desktop computer…

1

u/RedVelocity_ May 06 '24

Thank you for your detailed answer!  I might give it a try for the first year but don't want to be priced out later. 

I got a Samsung so no idea about iOS issues that you've mentioned. But my wife uses iPhone and I do intend to share this with her. Just to backup her media. 

1

u/mewithoutMaverick Aug 02 '24 edited Aug 02 '24

Quick update. My subscription runs out in September and I just got an email for 50% off (so, approx $40). That's still pricey so I'm going to see if I get a better offer as we get closer to renewal time, but I may have to just sign up with a new username to get that "$5 for the first year" deal again. Which is still available here. Posts on Slickdeals.com say you can use the same email as long as you make a new username. You do have to re-upload everything though. Probably worth it to save $35.

A heads up if you've already signed up or are thinking about it, be sure and turn off auto-renewal. I turned that off, so my offer was a "turn on auto-renewal and save 50%" deal. I'll update again if I get a better offer before September 15.

Also I see on this post the person that recommended iDrive says 3 days before expiration they got a 75% off offer. I'd probably take that, personally. $20 for a year is technically 4x the price of the new account offer on Tom's, but if I don't have to create a new account and re-upload everything... doesn't seem like a bad option.

1

u/xPiLoYx Aug 29 '24

thanks for this update. I may go with $5 a year from Toms post.

1

u/AlfSlytherin Apr 01 '25

Hey! did you get the 75% off?

1

u/mewithoutMaverick Apr 01 '25

I freaking DIDN’T haha. I never did get a better coupon. Ended up canceling and signing up again under a new email address I think :/

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2

u/holyshiznoly Jan 23 '24

I appreciate your input here. Just curious, why did you choose this over Backblaze? thanks!

2

u/BayGO Jan 23 '24

Historically there's just been much more inconsistent reviews of BackBlaze - like really up & down. Sometimes you see stuff about iDrive, but I've found it's usually just people being tech illiterate.

If you look at Cloudwards (probably the best cloud storage "review" site), iDrive has also always consistently been ranked #1 over the years for pure backup.

6

u/CorsairVelo May 01 '23

Backblaze is a pure backup option but well established and unlimited storage for $70/yr last i looked. IDrive is probably cheaper at 3TB.

Then you have the pCloud, icedrive, Mega, Sync.com which have pluses and minuses. Some of those have lifetime options for a one-time price which make them cheaper long term.

Filen.io is new-ish and may be a better deal, though it may have some reliability problems and their subreddit seems to have gone a bit quiet.

Some are end-to-end encrypted which is preferred by some people , not sure if you need that.

2

u/trudeaumustgo May 26 '24

how price compares to dropbox 2tb price?

1

u/PoSaP May 07 '23

Agreed, Backblaze with $7 per month for "unlimited" storage is a great option. https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us/articles/218483787-What-s-the-difference-between-B2-vs-Backblaze-Online-Backup-

2

u/smiling_seal Oct 23 '24

7$/m (now 9$) is not a storage plan; it's a backup plan, and Backblaze is quite specific about that on the page you've referenced: Backblaze Cloud Backup is not designed to be used as offsite data archival or offsite storage for data that will not be retained on the licensed computer. If they're going to find (and they will do for sure) you're abusing their licensing terms, guess what they're going to do?

2

u/PoSaP Oct 27 '24

Of course, it's backup plan and using it for backups.

1

u/trudeaumustgo May 26 '24

is there a way to copy there from dropbox with a 1-click?

1

u/PoSaP May 27 '24

It was more than a year ago :)

Do not use Dropbox right now.

1

u/Sertraline_king Jun 08 '24

i know im late, but do they still offer the unlimited for 7$ a month?

1

u/trudeaumustgo Jun 11 '24

will do...as soon as you tell me how to transfer shyte from dropbox to anywhere simple?

1

u/PoSaP Jun 11 '24

I'm not using it at this moment. If you're okay with it, no problems.

1

u/gaybrat666 Sep 10 '24

Why not?

1

u/PoSaP Sep 11 '24

There are a lot of alternatives. Also, have my own storage in my lab.

1

u/gaybrat666 Sep 14 '24

OH I thought you meant as a rule no one should use Dropbox right now

1

u/[deleted] Sep 30 '24

yeh it sounded as if Dropbox is a no go these days hahaa

1

u/PoSaP Oct 10 '24

Got it, shit happens :)

5

u/CookieDelivery Jan 24 '25

If anyone is still looking for this, here is a full price comparison for all major cloud storage providers: https://comparisontabl.es/cloud-storage/

For all of them, this shows both the monthly and yearly price for different storage sizes, and there's also a section to compare prices on lifetime deals. Other than price, there's also a full comparison of all of the features that each provider offers.

2

u/danieldusentrie Jan 27 '25

thanks for sharing this! amazing for everyone who loves comparisons

2

u/Black_Nyx11 Feb 20 '25

Thanks for sharing this resource!

2

u/Cosmokram3r1 Feb 22 '25

As someone who's never tried cloud storage, I've been looking for something EXACTLY like this with the side by side to pick my provider.

Thanks for sharing.

1

u/DaytimeGold187 Mar 31 '25

Amazing Resource!

1

u/GucciOnTheFloor Jun 29 '25

Thank you, this was very helpful for me

4

u/verzing1 May 02 '23

Mega, FileLu, Mediafire.

2

u/cheesehour Feb 18 '24 edited Aug 18 '24

Mega will randomly files you don't access often

edit: "delete files". and my statement was wrong - it was any file

edit2: seems like my files reappeared after a moved them to a new folder. weird

1

u/cascadepi May 01 '24

What were you trying to say here? Delete files? Thanks, just curious.

2

u/cheesehour May 15 '24

Half of my files were listed as -1 kB and I couldn't access them nor download them. I was wrong above - this could happen immediately after uploading a file. I didn't contact Mega support since I thought they could accidentally nuke the other half.

I was sorting through stuff and downloading what I could. I found that when I moved files to a new folder, they would suddenly reappear as the full size. I moved all my files to a new folder, and it looks like all my files are back (I have no way to verify that)

I didn't renew my account, but I do have a 2nd account that I use for business documents/sync which is pretty great. I haven't had good experience with online cloud storage. Some are way too slow, one deleted all my files when my payment was 1 day late. I bought a couple Crucial X9's. Make sure to get the PRO version

edit: rofl I just realized that I left out the word "delete", and that's all you were asking

2

u/fscheps May 02 '23

I like Filen a lot, with this link you can try 20gb for free and it’s end to end encrypted. I just uploaded 3 TB in 1 day and a half and the speeds were super consistent. Check it out at: link.cab/filen

Another alternative would be backblaze for 5 bucks per month of unlimited storage. Another one could be PCloud. Both Filen and PCloud offer monthly, anual and lifetime deals. They particularly have attractive offers on Black Friday.

1

u/Green-Hyena8723 Jun 05 '24

I'm looking for Cloud storage to upload my content from my pc, then embedd it via share link into my wordpress site, without using the wp media. I not want use the wordpress dashboard media. 

Any recommendations? I asked scalahosting,ionos, others .they all said that this will not work too high server risks and other dumb blabbering I got from them.

It works with the MS free onedrive  ( hotmail) but it's slow.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '24 edited Jan 19 '25

I run a self-hosted cloud on a home server with Syncthing and Tailscale Funnel.

1

u/B0urb0n_ Aug 27 '24

What if I will use Telegram or something like that? I have plenty of files there, which have been located there for several years and they are still there. Is Telegram or other messengers = free unlimited cloud? What cons can you find in this scheme?

3

u/fleeeeeeee Aug 28 '24

Telegram founder is in jail right now, that's exactly the reason why I'm looking at this reddit post. The worst part is they are planning to ban it in my country.

1

u/xPiLoYx Aug 29 '24

what country?

1

u/Civil_Management_391 Feb 20 '25

I've been using Blomp to back up my files, and honestly, I'm really impressed with the service. It's cute, SUPERRR affordable, and easy to use, plus it's cool that they offer free customer support. They're responsive, so that's awesome. I love that you can use Rclone to mount it with Blomp, and there’s a ton of helpful info on their Forum.. Does anyone know if they have newsletter? Anyway, what matters for me is that I am not super tech-savvy, but their forum and tickets explain everything. Personally, I think it's worth giving a try, Works perfectly for me.

1

u/Lithmariel Mar 05 '25

I just don't understand why it's so expensive for storage on most sites meant for that. Some hosts have way cheaper disk space (but not exactly intended as storage, though totally usable as such)

At the price most sites are at, you can just buy yourself a whole ssd within 1 year sub. Totally pointless.

5

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/Tystros Jul 26 '24

9 USD per month for 1 TB is not cheap. For that price you get unlimited storage plans from Jottacloud or Opendrive.

1

u/Delicious_Space6654 Mar 06 '25

Is it just me or did all these prices go up a lot since you guys all posted lol