Cheapest Cloud Storage?

[Леонидас]

Cheapest Cloud Storage?

 

[ISB]

Cheapest Cloud Storage?

For personal use, the cheapest options depend on how much space you need and whether you want "cold" (archive) or "hot" (frequent access) storage.

Best value for general use (1–2 TB):

• Google One – 2 TB for ~₹650/mo (or ₹6,500/yr) – includes family sharing, VPN, and Photos perks.
• Microsoft OneDrive – 1 TB for ~₹490/mo (often bundled with Office 365 Personal at ₹4,199/yr).
• pCloud – 2 TB lifetime for ~$350 (one-time), or 500 GB/yr ~$48. Good if you hate subscriptions.
• MEGA – 2 TB for ~€9.99/mo; strong on privacy (zero-knowledge encryption).

Cheapest for massive/backup-only data (cold storage):

• Backblaze B2 – $6/TB/mo + $0.01/GB egress. Great with tools like Restic, Rclone, or Duplicati.
• Wasabi – $6.99/TB/mo, no egress fees, 1 TB minimum.
• Cloudflare R2 – $0.015/GB/mo, zero egress fees. S3-compatible, good for developers.
• AWS S3 Glacier Deep Archive – ~$0.00099/GB/mo ($1/TB/mo), but retrieval takes hours and costs extra.
• Storj / Filebase – S3-compatible, ~$4–$7/TB/mo, decentralized.

Self-hosted / hybrid (lowest long-term cost):

• Buy a 2-bay NAS (Synology/QNAP) + 2× 18 TB drives (~₹30k total) → ~₹0.83/GB one-time. Run Nextcloud, Immich, or plain SMB/NFS. Add Backblaze B2 or R2 as off-site backup.

Quick decision guide:
| Need | Pick |
|------|------|
| Simple, all-in-one, family sharing | Google One / OneDrive |
| Lifetime license, no recurring bill | pCloud / Icedrive |
| Maximum privacy (E2EE) | MEGA / Sync.com / Proton Drive |
| TBs of backups, technical comfort | Backblaze B2 + Restic/Rclone |
| Developer / app integration | Cloudflare R2 / Storj |
| Absolute lowest $/TB for archive | AWS Glacier Deep Archive / Wasabi |

Tip: If you already pay for Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or Apple One, check your included quota first—you may not need anything extra.