The price of cloud storage has fallen once again. This week, Apple announced price reductions across its full range of popular iCloud data storage plans.
Nothing is changing with the most basic Apple iCloud offering – your first 5GB of storage is still free. You can upgrade to 20GB for $0.99 per month (formerly, 10GB cost $20 per year), and if you really need space, you can get 200GB for $3.99 per month. Ginormous 500GB ($9.99/mo) and 1TB ($19.99/mo) plans are also available for more serious business customers.
If you’re considering buying the new Apple iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus when the devices are released on September 19, it’s worth taking a moment now to re-evaluate your cloud backup needs. Apple’s iCloud is the easiest way to map your next phone to your current one and transfer all your favorite photos, but many will find the 5GB free data allotment insufficient to keep a full backup. A larger 20GB account size will cover everything on a new 16GB iPhone 6 and leave a little extra room for storing documents and other items you’d like to be able to access anywhere.
Of course, you don’t need to use iCloud as your backup service provider – in fact, there are good reasons not to. Celebrity photo leaks aside, Apple’s iCloud is still one of the most expensive cloud storage providers available. Competitor Google Drive, for example, offers 15GB of free storage and charges $1.99 per month for 100GB of space. Drive may not be a perfect white glove solution for iPhone backup, but it’s great for larger photos and video files if you want to avoid a monthly charge. Remember, once you start paying for cloud storage, it’s hard to switch back to a free option and still keep all your files.
If you’re interested in learning more about the new iCloud storage plans or upping your own personal allotment, visit apple.com/icloud.
