A regular part of any business or organization is the storage and sharing of files. Whether it’s documents, photos, photoshop files, or other types of media, everything is moving to cloud storage. Cloud storage, which is storing your data on another company’s servers, helps your business in many ways. It cuts down on costs, eliminates the confusion of emailing back and forth, is accessible anywhere (great for those who work remotely), and great for archiving and organizing.
This post will cover a few of the different options out there. Which online media storage service you use really depends on how much space you need and your budget, as well as other options. Coming from a small business / startup mentality, I’m going to focus on free cloud services with affordable scaling up, with not as much emphasis on the other features.
Some web file storage services have lots of free space, but scaling up is expensive, while others have relatively little space, with more affordable options for increasing that amount.
DropBox
Probably the most commonly used storage and sharing service, it offers a very small free account, with reasonable upgrades.
- 2 GB FREE (expandable through referrals)
- 1TB – $10/mo
Box
Another cloud service with a good amount of free space, though their paid storage options are really expensive comparatively.
- 10 GB FREE
- 100 GB – $5/mo
Google Drive
Connected with your Google account, there’s a lot of affordable tier options for online storage space.
- 15 GB FREE
- 100 GB – $2/mo
- 1 TB – $10/mo
- 10 TB – $99/mo
- 20 TB – $199/mo
- 30 TB – $299/mo
Microsoft OneDrive
Connected with a Windows/Live account, this offers a little more free storage space with very cheap upgrades.
- 15 GB FREE
- 100 GB – $1.99/mo
- 200 GB – $3.99/mo
- 1 TB – $6.99/mo
SugarSync
A newer media and file storage service that offers a solid pricing structure.
- 5 GB FREE
- 100 GB – $9.99/mo
- 250 GB – $24.99/mo
- 500 GB – $39.99/mo
- 1 TB – $55/mo
MediaFire
The only media storage service I’ve seen to offer this much free space and upgrade options this cheap.
- 5 GB FREE
- 1 TB – $4.99/mo
- Options in 5 & 10 TB increments
- 100 TB – $49.99/mo
To reiterate, this post focuses solely on the space and pricing structure of online cloud storage services, specifically those with initial free space options. It does not take into account other features that would become a factor in the price, such as mobile access, live editing, user interface, sharing options, syncing, and other factors. This guide is intended for small businesses that just need a free or affordable way to store their company documents and photos online for others to access from their own computers.
If you’re looking for the most storage for from a free plan, go with Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive.
If you’re looking for the best price for storage under 1 TB, go with Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive.
If you’re looking for the best 1 TB deal, go with MediaFire
If you’re looking for the best pricing for over 1 TB, go with MediaFire
If you have a small team, it makes sense to all use a single account sign on, though some of these online file storage services offer multiple-user plans. Hopefully this is a benefit to small businesses or small teams looking for a free or cheap solution to store your media and files online.
I’d love to hear your feedback. What online cloud storage solutions do you use? What features are you looking for?
Hi
May I recommend YetiShare as an alternative. It is a file hosting script that allows you to create your own file sharing service / site
Kind regards
YetiShare