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 already have 5GB of free storage.
It’s the easiest way for those bought into the Apple ecosystem (iPhone, iPad and Mac users) to sync contacts, notes, files, photos and more across devices and access them on all their devices. For example, you can use the Files folder on an iPhone or iPad to see all 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 in with Apple. And I mean it all-in: All your computers are Macs, your mobile devices are iPhones or iPads, you work in Apple productivity software (Pages, Numbers, Notes), and so on.
Frustratingly, Apple only provides a paltry 5GB of free iCloud storage, which isn’t too bad if all you want to do is store some Pages and Numbers documents, but is woefully inadequate for photos and videos. Apple is years overdue to increase this limit (Google offers 15GB for free), but at least it should stop counting iOS backups against it. Since fall 2021, Apple has offered to “borrow” you as much iCloud storage as you need to back up and restore your data on a new device, for up to two weeks. It’s a nice feature for those buying 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/£0.99 per month for 50GB, $2.99/£2.99 for 200GB, $9.99/£8.99 for 2TB, $29.99/£26.99 for 6TB and $59.99/£54.99 for 20GB. See: iCloud storage plans. You can enable family sharing on the 200GB and above plans – doing so does not mean that your family members can see all of your cloud stuff. It just means that your entire family’s iCloud usage will count towards the same storage limit.
These paid tiers are labeled “iCloud+” and include more 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 restore your account. These are all excellent features that help reinforce our view that iCloud is by far the best choice for those who are all in on Apple devices.
The main advantage of paying for more iCloud storage is that almost all of Apple’s apps can be seamlessly synced through it. Photos, productivity apps, Mail, Calendar, and anything you throw into your iCloud Drive folder in the Finder on a Mac are immediately available on all your Apple devices. A significant number of iOS apps are also backed up and synced via iCloud.
If you use non-Mac computers or non-iOS mobile devices from time to time, Apple provides a full suite of web apps on iCloud.com, but they’re kind of mediocre. Apple also provides an iCloud Windows app that syncs data and integrates your iCloud mail with regular Windows apps like Outlook, but there are no built-in productivity apps for Windows or Android: If you want to edit a Pages document, you need to use the web interface .
We like using iCloud, but we also pay for it. Most decent cloud services require you to pay a small fee.
If you’re a heavy Apple user, consider the Apple One service package. It’s much more than a cloud storage solution, and thus beyond the scope of this article, but the value offered may tip the scales in iCloud’s favor for you.