Best cloud storage apps for iPhone and iPad
- dec
- 31
Running out of room on your devices? Find the cloud storage app that works best for you!
iPhones aren't exactly winning when it comes to device storage (unless you shell out mondo dinero for the 256GB version), so looking into cloud storage is a great idea. It's a great idea period if you like to have your files, media, and more on all of your devices (or at least the ability to transfer it between them).
There's some real garbage out there, so we've narrowed down the best cloud storage apps for iPhone and iPad so that you can keep your stuff safe without taking up room on your devices.
Dropbox
Dropbox is easily one of the best cloud storage services around. I asked around in our forums, and everyone said they use Dropbox. I asked all my colleagues — Dropbox all around.
That's because Dropbox has kick-ass features, like the ability to recover deleted items, the fact that it's on just about every platform imaginable, and that it can sync with other services, like 1Password. You can also earn more free storage by referring friends and family and completing Dropbox's "Get Started Guide".
A basic, free Dropbox account gives you 2GB of free storage, or you can choose to pay a yearly subscription of $99 (USD) for 1TB.
- Free, with subscription - Download now
Google Drive
If you want free storage and you want a lot of it (reliably), then Google Drive is where it's at. You get 15GB up front, no charge. Within Google Drive is Google Photos, which gives you unlimited storage for photos up to 16 megapixels each.
Like Dropbox, Google Drive is on just about every platform and it's the perfect place to start and store just about everything. Photos lets you store photos, Docs lets you create and store documents (I wrote this in Docs), and you also have Sheets and Slides for spreadsheets and presentations, respectively.
For a whole host of awesome tools and excellent storage, from which you can download anything you create or store (on any device), check out Google Drive. It's pretty hard to beat what you get for FREE.
You can also pay $1.99 a month for 100GB, $9.99 a month for 1TB, $99.99 for 10TB, $199.99 for 20TB, and $299.99 a month for 30TB (I have no idea who needs 30TB of storage, but the price is reasonable!).
- Free, with subscription options - Download now
OneDrive
If you use iPhone and iPad, but prefer PC over Mac, then OneDrive has you covered. It's also available on just about every platform and works fairly similarly to Google Drive. OneDrive comes preinstalled on Windows 10 devices, so if you're looking to keep all of your iPhone data in sync with your PC, there isn't much you have to do besides making sure you're signed into the same account on both devices.
OneDrive also sends you real-time notifications when someone edits a document and lets you know who they are. Exclusive to iOS is the PDF annotation feature, which lets you highlight, draw on, and sign any PDF file on your iPhone or iPad. If you're big into storing photos, you'll also love that OneDrive automatically tags photos based on visuals, so they'll be easier to search for later on.
5GB is free or you can pay $1.99 a month for 50GB, $69.99 a year for 1TB and Office 365 Personal, or $99.99 a year for 5TB and Office 365 Home.
- Free, with subscription options - Download now
Box
Stop sniggering at the name. Box let's you store and share files on all your devices, and it even allows collaboration, which is great if you don't want to let people into your personal Google Drive or iCloud Drive folders (since they may be attached to personal email addresses and whatever else).
You get 10GB of storage for free, and your file size is limited to 250MB, per file, or you can subscribe to the Personal Pro Plan for $79.99 a year and get 100GB of storage and a file upload size limit of 5GB.
Box integrates with many other apps, just like Dropbox does, which you can use to annotate, e-sign, and more. The real-time search function lets you find files easier and you can rest easy know they're all protected with file-level encryption.
If you need to collaborate on files often or if you're just looking for another spot to store docs, away from your personal stash, then check out Box.
- Free, with subscription options - Download now
SugarSync
SugarSync is another great service to use if you don't want the files you share to be linked to personal email addresses, like Google Drive or OneDrive might be. It's also the perfect service for you if you want a constant sync of all of your files across every device you own.
You can privately share files, stream videos that you have without actually having to download them, automatically back up your iPhone Camera Roll, and much more.
SugarSync is free for 90 days, but then you have to subscribe, at $7.49 a month for 100GB of storage, $9.99 a month for 250GB, $18.95 a month for 500GB, and then $55 a month for a business account, which gives you 1TB.
If you're big into sharing all of your files or you have a ton of devices and can't be waiting for stuff to download all the time, then check out SugarSync.
- Free with subscription - Download now
Where do you keep your stuff?
What's your favorite cloud storage app for iPhone and iPad? Let us know in the comments below!