Head-to-head

cloud storage service comparisons

One pair at a time, one verdict. The cloud storage and backup services people genuinely hesitate between, set side by side on price, on what they actually do, and on how they encrypt.

Compare any two

Choose the two services you are torn between. If that pairing already has a written verdict, the tool sends you to that page directly.

Proton Drive compared with pCloud, field by field
FeatureProton DrivepCloud
Our score4.4 / 54.6 / 5
PriceFrom $9.99/moFrom $4.17/mo
Renews atnot statednot stated
Free planNo
Plans offered22
Best forPrivacy-first usersLong-term storage, pay once
CategoryEncrypted & privateCloud storage & sync
ProviderProton AGpCloud AG

Head-to-head record

Every service in this table has been in at least two of the duels below; the columns count how many duels it has fought and how many times it came out as our choice. Read the tally as editorial judgement, not as a test result: nobody here timed a restore in a laboratory.

What these cost to start

Paid plans start at $0.99 a month at the low end and reach $11.99 at the top. A free tier is on offer at 13 of the 19.

Every duel, and who wins it

How to read these comparisons

If two names are already on your shortlist, open their duel directly. The verdict comes first on every duel page, with the trade-off between the two, typically renewal price against version history or encryption, set out immediately beneath it.

What we weigh is the price you keep paying after the first term and the limits that bite in practice, not the length of the feature list. On a normal day most of these services behave alike; the gap opens at the edges, when a restore or a full disk puts them under strain.

Sync.com vs Proton Drive

Two zero knowledge clouds that cannot read your files. One sells storage, the other sells a whole privacy suite.

pCloud vs Proton Drive

The highest score on this site against the privacy suite everyone has heard of. The yearly gap is $69.89.

pCloud vs Icedrive

Two providers that both sell lifetime plans. One has the higher score, the other the bigger drive.

Proton Drive vs Tresorit

Two Swiss providers built for people who cannot afford a leak. One bundles a suite, the other sells compliance.

Proton Drive vs Dropbox

Privacy against convenience, at exactly the same price. This is the rare comparison where the money tells you nothing.

Backblaze vs IDrive

The two best answers to "I just want my computer backed up": radical simplicity against maximum features per dollar.

pCloud vs Dropbox

The lifetime-deal champion against the sync pioneer. Pay once versus pay forever, Swiss storage versus Silicon Valley polish.

Proton Drive vs Google One

The cleanest privacy-versus-convenience choice in tech. Swiss zero-knowledge storage against the most integrated consumer cloud on earth.

Sync.com vs pCloud

The two most-recommended independents. Default encryption against lifetime pricing. You can only pick one default.

Internxt vs pCloud

The lifetime duel. The young challenger bundles encryption into its pay-once plans, the veteran has thirteen years of staying power.

MEGA vs Proton Drive

Two encrypted clouds with free tiers worth having: 20 GB of pragmatism against 5 GB of principle.

Google One vs iCloud+

The bigtech storage duel nobody really chooses. Your phone usually chooses for you. Sometimes it should not.

OneDrive vs Dropbox

The office-worker question. The storage that comes with Office against the sync engine everything integrates with.

Carbonite vs Backblaze

The two unlimited one-computer backups, separated by a decade of product philosophy.

Acronis vs IDrive

The power-user duel. Both do disk images and hybrid backup. One adds security, the other adds terabytes.

Tresorit vs Sync.com

The encrypted professional duel. Swiss Post pedigree against Canadian value. Both keep your keys yours.

NordLocker vs Proton Drive

Proton Drive wins. A complete private cloud, end-to-end encrypted by default, from $4.99 a month for 200 GB. NordLocker remains a strong vault for a narrower job.