See Apple iCloud here
As an Apple user, you’ve heard of iCloud, but we don’t blame you if you find it confusing. It’s Apple’s own cloud-based storage system, and if you own an iPhone or iPad and have an Apple ID, you’ll get 5GB of free storage.
It’s the easiest way for those in the Apple ecosystem (iPhone, iPad, and Mac users) to sync contacts, notes, files, photos, and more across all devices and apps. access it on all their devices. For example, you can use the Files folder on an iPhone or iPad to view all of your files stored in the cloud.
Because it integrates so seamlessly with all of Apple’s products and services, iCloud really is the best cloud storage solution for someone who’s all about Apple. And I mean all-in: All your computers are Macs, your mobile devices are iPhones or iPads, you work in Apple’s productivity software (Pages, Numbers, Notes), etc.
Frustratingly, Apple only provides a paltry 5GB of free iCloud storage, which isn’t too bad if all you want to do is store Pages and Numbers documents, but is completely inadequate for photos and videos. Apple is years late in raising that limit (Google is offering 15GB free), but at the very least it should stop counting iOS backups. Since fall 2021, Apple has offered to “lend” you as much iCloud storage space as you need to back up and restore your data to a new device, for up to two weeks. This is a good feature for those who buy a new Apple device, but it won’t help you protect your data if your iPhone is lost/stolen/damaged.
From there it’s $0.99/£0.79 per month for 50GB, $2.99/£2.49 for 200GB or $9.99/£6.99 for 2TB. You can turn on Family Sharing on the 200GB and 2TB plans. If you do, it doesn’t mean your family members can see all of your cloud content. It just means that your whole family’s iCloud usage will count towards the same storage limit. These paid tiers are now branded “iCloud+” and include several new benefits. There’s iCloud Private Relay, free storage for HomeKit-enabled security cameras, a Hide My Email feature, custom domain names for iCloud email accounts, and additional contact options to recover your account. These are all great features that help reinforce our opinion that iCloud is by far the best choice for those who use all Apple devices.
The main benefit of paying for more iCloud storage is that almost all of Apple’s apps can sync seamlessly. Photos, productivity apps, mail, calendar, and anything else you drop into your iCloud Drive folder in the Finder on a Mac are instantly available on all your Apple devices. A significant number of iOS apps are also backed up and synced via iCloud.
If you rely on non-Mac computers or non-iOS mobile devices from time to time, you’ll find iCloud’s limitations frustrating. Apple offers a full suite of web apps on iCloud.com, but they’re pretty mediocre. Apple provides an iCloud Windows app that syncs data and integrates your iCloud email with common Windows apps like Outlook, but there are no native productivity apps for Windows or Android: if you want to edit a Pages document, you must use the web interface.
We love using iCloud, but we also pay for it. Most decent cloud services require you to pay a small fee.
If you are a heavy Apple user, you can consider the Apple One service pack. It’s much more than a cloud storage solution, and therefore beyond the scope of this article, but the value offered may tip the scales in your favor.
