Cloud Storage Options Compared to OneDrive

[rhapdog]

What are the Cloud Storage Options for people?

Windows Central posted a well written article by Richard Devine today about alternatives that are compatible with Windows Phone/Windows Mobile for those that are wanting to take a peak.

Please read that article as a starting point if you are looking for something for a Windows Phone.

There are people, however, asking, "How does this compare to iCloud, Google Drive, or Amazon's Cloud Drive?"

Seems that there are some people rather upset that there is no longer an "unlimited" option. Others are upset that the free option will be now limited to 5GB. Let's take a look at other services to see where they stack up so that we can see if Microsoft is being competitive or unreasonable.

I am NOT including any services already listed in the article I linked above. Check the article for those.

Service	Amount Free	50GB Price	100GB Price	1TB Price	Unlimited Price
Amazon Cloud Drive	0 Free	N/A	N/A	N/A	$11.99/year for Photos $59.99/year for Everything
GoogleDrive	15GB	N/A	$1.99/month	$9.99/month	N/A
iCloud	5GB	$0.99 USD/month	N/A	$9.99/month	N/A
Tencent Weiyun	1TB	N/A	N/A	N/A	Unknown

As you can see, Tencent Weiyun is the best deal by far for free storage, but I really don't know the details of what the limitations are on it.

When you look, however, at the bulk of the offerings out there and not just these few, you can see that all of these both in the article and in my post are generally a superior deal. OneDrive compares favorably even with the changes made, however, I understand the frustration.

If you think about what you get with Office 365 Home, you get for $99.00 per year 1TB storage per user for up to 5 users, 5 users get 60 minutes per month of Skype minutes, and full up-to-date Office for 5 users and each user can have it on one PC or Mac, a tablet, and a phone. That comes out to just under $1.65 PER MONTH per person. $1.65 per month for 1TB storage, plus MS Office, plus 60 Skype minutes, and other benefits. I honestly don't think you'll find a better deal anywhere for what you are getting, unless you have no use for Skype Minutes or Office. If that's the case, go with Tencent Weiyun and get 1TB free.

What deals have you found?

 

[Ma Rio]

It's not that much about the deals that other companies offer. You can probably find even better deals than that.

The big problem here is that Microsoft made it so that if you don't use OneDrive, your whole experience across all of their (Microsoft's) services will be crippled. And we accepted open-handedly. And it was good. You had your OneDrive app on Windows Phone, Windows 10 Mobile, Even Windows 8 / 8.1 / RT / 10. Also the OneDrive folder accessible from the file explorer on Windows 8 / 8.1 / 10. It was linked with Xbox Music (Groove), so you could stream your whole collection anywhere. You had automatic photo uploads, so you didn't have to worry about that. You had everything you needed.
And then they took it away. Basicly it's still there, though you'll have to find a way to shove it all in 5GBs if you don't want to pay, and most don't want to pay (myself included). So now we can eather switch to some other random could provider, and loose all of this; stop uploading our stuff; upload way less stuff (we'd have to pick what to save and what not to); or just pay for the service. And that's what made the problem. Almost nobody cares about the removal of unlimited storage.
I'll just wait and see what'll happen. People aren't happy about this, and MS will have to answer. So I'm waiting to see if anything changes. If not, I'll just stop using the cloud completely, if not, I'm sticking with OneDrive, since it's what suits me most.

I went a little off-topic, but I hope you don't mind.

 

[rhapdog]

The big problem here is that Microsoft made it so that if you don't use OneDrive, your whole experience across all of their (Microsoft's) services will be crippled.

The API is readily available to any company that wants to make that kind of access and integration with Microsoft Services. OneDrive does NOT have to be necessary. DropBox works as a very nice substitute, but OneDrive is still a better deal. Yes, DropBox works with your MS Office for online storage. No problems there.

Also, if you're really using Microsoft's services, that includes Office. If you've got a version of Office that wants to run with OneDrive, then you've got Office 365, and the storage issue isn't a problem unless you need way more than 1TB.

Since we're going off topic, what about those people who need more than 1TB of storage? What do you need it for? Online storage is for files that you need to access from multiple devices and multiple places, like when away from home. Do you really need to have 75TB of movies online so you can access them from anywhere? No. A 1TB USB Hard Disk can be had for under $60 USD. You can get larger HDD at even less per GB of storage. Those are a great way to save your movies at home. Yes, I know a lot of people want off-site storage, but let's be realistic here.

If you're only talking about "Windows 10" and "Windows Phone" as your Microsoft services, then you can use any service to assist you.

If you're needing automatic uploads of your photos, well, use the 5GB free, and move them to another cloud service periodically to free up space, if you absolutely don't want to pay for service.

Let's face it. You didn't get 15GB of free OneDrive storage because you bought a Windows Phone. You can actually set up and use a Windows Phone without a Microsoft Account. I have one that I do that with. You got the free 15GB of storage for signing up for a free Microsoft Account. Get it? It was free.

Complaining about a company deciding to offer less of something for free because of a cost to them is as dumb as complaining to the police that the cocaine dealer sold you powdered sugar instead what you thought you were getting.

If you paid for Office 365 wanting unlimited OneDrive storage, well, get a pro-rated refund if that's your issue and move on. I challenge you to try and find a good deal on "true" unlimited storage, because there are conditions on everything else out there on what you can store and how much, even with their so-called unlimited.

The following statement is the bottom line in this post for a reason.
Bottom line is this. If you don't pay for a service, you don't have a right to complain about said service.

 

[wessock]

Google does have an unlimited plan, it just requires a minimum of 5 accounts at $9.99 each. You could either just gather 4 other family members or friends, or just pay $50 yourself.