There are many options on the market for cloud storage. Some are integrated into our devices Operating Systems, extending the physical storage by embedding virtual extensions of your smartphone or laptops space within its software. Many people only interact with the services that come with the devices they own – iCloud for iPhones and Macs, Google Drive for Androids/Chromebooks, and OneDrive for Windows PCs. More savvy users test out third-party cloud products that strive to offer the best Cloud Storage available, as opposed to settling for previously mentioned services which sometimes seem more like an afterthought – an add-on treated like a premium feature leveraged to gain extra revenue from existing customers. A few third-party products may instantly come to mind as suitable alternatives – Dropbox for example, but one that should be on your radar comes from a Swiss company known as pCloud.
pCloud is a Cloud Storage provider – and one that stands out due to the fact that they’re based in Switzerland, for privacy-conscious users – but the standout difference between pCloud and its competitors is they offer a perpetual license. pCloud’s claim an industry-first with their Lifetime plan, which many users say offers the best Backup experience and cost-efficiency. You only pay ONCE and get to organize your entire digital life for a LIFETIME. All premium features are available and you get to enjoy the beauty of collaboration and relieve that your most important asset- your information, is properly protected.
Standout Features
pCloud has quite a few unique features that separate them from the alternatives, starting with Unlimited Capabilities. There’s no limitations to the file sizes that you can upload to your account, and the Upload and Download speeds are unlimited as well. File Management is convenient also, offering superior search and filter capabilities, and th r a even a Trash Bin that preserves files you’ve deleted from your account for 14 days for free users, Premium/Lifetime users get 30 days.
File Sharing is versatile and full-featured, with the ability to Share Folders with colleagues and team members. You can invite other Cloud users to private folders, all while controlling the levels of access by setting View, Edit, or Manage permissions to the folder. You can also stop access to any shared folder or change the permissions whenever you desire. You can also share dynamic links to people without a Cloud account, that will always give access to the latest version of your file. Lastly, using Direct Links to files in the public folder, you could even use Cloud as a hosting service to create static HTML websites or embed images!
This is where things start to get funky, in a good way. pCloud also has third-party integration. Once you have created your pCloud account, you can back-up your files from third-party services like Google Photos, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox and Facebook! I found this feature to be surprisingly convenient and useful.
Premium Add-Ons
There are a few features that are kept back for the Premium and Premium Plus users. The most notable being the ability to share BRANDED LINKS. Thats’s right, links to file that you share with the public can be branded with a unique look and feel – down to the logo, and custom message to greet the recipient. It’s truly a standout feature that we even use here at Labfreq to share content with our readers.
File Versioning is unique to Cloud at the time of writing this article, allowing for Revisions to preview your file edits and restore previous versions if necessary. While file versions are also kept for free users for up to 15 days also, the feature is extended to 30 days for Premium to Lifetime users. You can Rewind back to any previous versions of your digital collection and restore or download and of your non-encrypted files or accidentally removed content. ETH (Extended File History) allows for you to record all file changes up to 365 days back in the past – and easily recover your content within a year of deletion or edit.
Security is at the forefront of pClouds feature set, with TLS/SSL encryption which is applied the moment you transfer a file from your device to pClouds servers. But the built-in security can be hardened with the Cloud Crypto add-on.
pCloud Crypto, is client-side encryption which no-one – not even pCloud – will have the keys for file-decryption. Set a password for your Crypto folder and you are the Supreme gatekeeper to what your place in it.
Pricing
Pricing for pCloud comes in three tiers- for the Individual, Family, and Business users. For the Individual, Annual pricing is $49.99 for the Premium 500GB account, and $99.99 for the Premium Plus 2TB accounts, and $175 for the Premium, $350 for the Premium Plus lifetime accounts. A Business Plan is available for $9.99 monthly and $7.99 annually, adding 1TB per user for up to three users. The Family Plan is available for $500 lifetime only.
FAMILY 2TB Lifetime 70% OFF: https://bit.ly/3yw2EFO
GET 500GB FREE: https://bit.ly/3FylD3M
Conclusion
There are a lot of power players in the Cloud Storage game, many that can afford to throw hundreds of millions – if not billions – into ad budgets to popularize their services over a start-up that might be in business solely to provide cloud storage as a service – like Dropbox or iCloud. But you would be mistaken for assuming those services are better simply because they are better marketed and are more readily assessable due to them being integrated into your devices. I’m happy to reveal that is not the case in this instance, as deep pockets, a large product lineup, and a large workforce work against Big Tech in this case. pCloud is one hell of a standout option in a sea of myriad, redundant choices.
