Unlimited cloud storage - like lifetime cloud storage - is part of the cloud storage ecosystem and, functionally, can be compared to cloud backups. It's also, like lifetime cloud storage, aimed at heavy business use, or solo professionals with the money to burn.
Unlimited cloud storage sounds a little too good to be true, and does come with caveats. Some that we've seen in the wild include ‘cold storage’ - or delayed access to files - and being charged a fee for each device you want to back up, or per terabyte of storage space.
That said, some tantalising offers do exist, and at TechRadar Pro, you’ll find more unlimited cloud storage providers and offers than anywhere else on the web.
It's September 2024 right now, meaning that deals have sprung with the season, but even with that in mind, it's important that you determine whether unlimited cloud storage is something that even suits your needs, otherwise you could be spending more money than you need to.
In this article, we'll be using cloud backup and cloud storage as interchangeable terms, even if there are some notable differences between the two.
Our cloud storage guides
Best cloud storage: Expand your storage easily
Best cloud backup: Protect your data on the go
Best cloud storage for photos: Space for your photos
Best business cloud storage: Data resilience for business
Best free cloud storage: Bits and bytes online for free
Per Google Trends, demand for “unlimited cloud storage” has slightly decreased in popularity over the past few years after a number of big players (most notably, Bitcasa and Google Photos) stopped using no-limit cloud storage as a unique selling point for their services.
However, not all of the best unlimited cloud storage deals on the market right now are from the obvious big-hitter providers, so we've done our best to put your best alternatives under the spotlight.
- If we’ve missed any unlimited cloud storage service or if one of the ones listed below are out of date, ping me an email on [email protected].
Save 40%:
Carbonite's one of the biggest names in town, offering unlimited backup, automatic file and photo backup.
Carbonite claims to be offering this deal 'for a limited time', but it's been around a while and we're not expecting it to go anywhere anytime soon. We'll keep this page updated if anything changes.
GoPro Premium unlimited cloud storage: $̶4̶9̶.̶9̶9̶ $24.99/yearA bit of a niche one, maybe, but GoPro are offering unlimited cloud storage of all GoPro footage as part of their Premium subscription plan, which also includes 25GB of Cloud Storage of non-GoPro footage.
It's worth noting that the price will double after the first year.
A 'Premium+' plan goes further, and offers 500GB of storage for non-GoPro footage for $100 a year.
Backblaze Personal Cloud Backup : $99/year
Backblaze ranks consistently amongst the best cloud backup providers with more than 500,000 customers and unlimited cloud storage space. Unlike other providers, there's no price increase after the first year.
A $27 discount is available when taking out a two-year plan.
Livedrive Backup: $119.88 $99.90/year
Save 17%: We liked that Livedrive has an established pedigree, celebrating its 15th anniversary in 2023. It's also UK-based, which may appeal depending on where you are in the world.
What we like less is that the service has seen a price hike as of September 2024, despite the company tweaking the numbers to still make it sound like you're getting a deal. You might well be, but that doesn't change the fact that the Backup plan used to be $10 cheaper.
Though Livedrive does offer unlimited cloud storage, the only thing we would note is that, as of September 2024, edit access to your files, in a true 'cloud storage' sense, is only available in a 'Briefcase' plan for $156, or a 'Pro' plan that combines both functionalities for $240 a year.
JottaCloud's primary product is an unlimited cloud storage service at just 119 EUR / year, this includes backup, archive and sync across all your devices.
The service isn't limited to cold storage, and the servers are located in Norway and they have launched a new AI photo search feature.
As of September 2024, the catches are that your upload speeds will be 'reduced' by an unspecified amount if you use more than 5TB, providing access to additional accounts will cost extra, and that it simply used to cost €20 less.
OpenDrive personal unlimited: $99/year
OpenDrive has emerged as a capable contender with plenty of features for individuals, businesses or enterprises and counts the likes of T-Mobile and FC Barcelona as customers.
Like JottaCloud, we appreciate that unlimited storage allowances are available for single personal users, something that a number of larger providers fail to offer in 2024.
Crashplan Professional cloud backup: $88/year per user
Crashplan is different from most providers here, in that it only offers file backup and recovery, so you don't have an interface that allows you to select individual files. What we like, though, is that Its Professional and Enterprise plans have no user limits, even if you are still paying for each one.
The Professional plan provides unlimited cloud storage with the only limits being 2 devices per user, while the Enterprise plan ($120 a year per user) allows 4 devices per user.
Sync Teams+ Unlimited: $180/yearper user
Exclusive: Sync.com delivers a competitively priced unlimited cloud storage solution affordable enough to rival some of the key players in the game, and a rock-solid set of central functions, as well as some excellent security features. Minimum of 3 users per plan.
TechRadar readers get an exclusive $100 off for the first year.
Box Business storage: $180/yearper user
Box offers team collaboration by default with its unlimited cloud storage offer with a staggering 1500+ integrations with many popular SaaS providers plus Box Sign and Box Canvas as well as DLP. Minimum of 3 users.
Adrive business unlimited: starts at $70 a year
Adrive offers unlimited cloud storage across multi-year business accounts, but they won't come cheap. Business users will be able to upload up to 16GB files with the ability to collaborate baked in thanks to its partnership with SaaS specialist Zoho.
Asurion Drive: $24.99 a month (although technically free)
Unlimited cloud storage is now being thrown in with US tech repair company Asurion's Home + subscription, a 'whole home device protection service' offering 'tech support and data security', for what it says is 'a limited time'.
The company is tight-lipped on how long this'll last, or whether current subscribers will be grandfathered into their 'free' unlimited cloud storage.
It's also US-only, with no indication that unlimited cloud storage will be offered separately in the future. But if both sides of the deal appeal, you could do a lot worse.
Nikon Imaging Cloud: Free unlimited image storage for Nikon usersThis one is a little niche: if you own a Nikon Z6III specifically, you now have access to a brand new service that, beyond instant backups, firmware upgrades, color profile downloads, and file transfers to third-party services, offers unlimited image storage for 30 days.
Nikon has uploaded primers on its YouTube channel to get you started.
What is unlimited cloud storage?
In theory, It is cloud storage with no limits in capacity, file format and file size.
However, there are always restrictions as to what you can and can’t do. That’s because cloud storage service providers have finite resources: fixed bandwidth to and from the data center where hard disk drives are stored, fixed number of bytes per hard drive and fixed number of hard disks.
For more on this, check out our perspective on no-limit cloud storage.
Why do companies offer unlimited cloud storage?
Companies offer unlimited cloud storage because it is a powerful marketing argument, a valid selling point not only in cloud storage but also in web hosting (unlimited bandwidth) and in mobile phone contracts (unlimited minutes, unlimited data downloads, unlimited text).
What they bet on is that customers won’t be uploading tens of terabytes of data. Unlimited cloud storage depends very much on how much data you can upload at any time and this has a physical limit based on your connection.
Is unlimited cloud storage really unlimited?
Like anything that’s unlimited, service providers bank on a number of different things to happen, most importantly though, they do not expect customers to max out the service.
As is usually the case with unlimited-type services that follow Bell curve normal probability distribution, most users will be located in the middle of the curve with a few outliers.
Those heavy users are the ones that are the costliest for the service providers; they can deploy an array of limitations ranging from bandwidth throttling (how much data you can move per unit time).
Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!
Desire Athow
Managing Editor, TechRadar Pro
Désiré has been musing and writing about technology during a career spanning four decades. He dabbled in website builders and web hosting when DHTML and frames were in vogue and started narrating about the impact of technology on society just before the start of the Y2K hysteria at the turn of the last millennium.
With contributions from
- Luke HughesStaff Writer
More about pro
Latest
