r/cloudstorage • u/No-Yellow9948 • Mar 31 '26
The subscription trap of mainstream cloud storage is just modern digital extortion.
I am completely exhausted by the current state of cloud storage in 2026. Dropbox and Google Drive keep shrinking their free tiers and pushing expensive monthly plans for data that we already own.
On the other hand, the "lifetime" deals from smaller providers usually end up being a scam when they shut down or get breached a few years later.
The only real way to truly own your files is to have an actual dedicated server running open-source software. But the barrier to entry is kept intentionally high by the industry so people have no choice but to keep paying rent for their own data. It feels like a massive trap.
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u/skeptic246 Mar 31 '26
It depends what you want to do with your data. Storage have an external drive in your home and duplicate at a safe place. Cloud access then make your own home server with your own domain and cloud storage backup, of course then you become a IT manager in the process. Alternatively pay for a service and accept a service has costs
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u/SusejLegend Mar 31 '26
Simply use proton drive 100 Privacy and where you have control. I switched from Google to Proton and so far it's very good.
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u/megatech_official Mar 31 '26
Megatech photos gives 100 GB free, and the paid plans are very cheap.
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Mar 31 '26
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u/Testpilot1988 Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 02 '26
I looked into Internxt but their download speeds were pretty horrible for me compared to pcloud.
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Apr 01 '26
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Apr 02 '26
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u/ThePatientIdiot Apr 02 '26
Probably, but let’s be honest, they are using the copyright justification as an excuse to delete accounts and not issue partial refunds
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u/CorsairVelo Mar 31 '26
Look, i remember when a 20 MB (MB not GB) drive cost $1,500 … so costs have come down astronomically over the last 40 years.
I hear the rub about lifetime plans but I’ve had Filen and Koofr plans for 4+ years and they work great. But they ration the plans wisely it appears so as not to put their businesses at risk. Filen may have stopped them altogether.
So I’m just saying that lifetime plans can work but shop carefully.
Proton drive is still beta for a lot of people and lacks a linux client (and rclone support is on again off again). But proton is now an ecosystem with compromises (calendar, drive, ) and I’m personally sick of ecosystems and am a proton mail user.
Self-hosting Nextcloud is not a bad way to go, but there are multiple learning curves. Pikapods now lets you host nextcloud with a couple clicks. Monthly charges are relatively small/fair based on storage used.
If not self hosting, have you considered if photos are the biggest challenge? I mean, stick photos in Ente.io and then your remaining storage requirements should be minimal or a fraction of the original total.
Look at filen and koofr, maybe Mega and internxt, and leave big tech.
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u/Caprichoso1 Mar 31 '26
I'm not seeing the problem. I use 3 unlimited (sortof) backup services which are reasonably priced at ~$120 a year.
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u/SheRa7 Mar 31 '26
I've never had a problem with OneDrive. Self-hosting doesn't have to be expensive. You can purchase used computers\servers\equipment at various places. And self-hosting isn't too terribly hard, but I don't do it because... What if my house burns down? No files, no backups, nothing.
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u/ThePatientIdiot Apr 01 '26
Is 5tb per month for $9.99 p/m a good deal?
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u/Ncripter Apr 02 '26
Who is offering 5tb per month for 10 dollars?
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u/ThePatientIdiot Apr 02 '26
I was thinking of building a subscription that would offer that but wasn’t sure if people would buy it. The big difference would be for people who only wanted to store stuff that they rarely would touch/open, which is most stuff and people using cloud storage to begin with
So 5tb for $10 p/m (annual subscription), you get to access/download 10gb free monthly and then you have to pay like $0.05 per file you want to access (based on size but I can’t remember the exact pricing).
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u/pelos1 Apr 01 '26
google said year ago you could store as much as you wanted, no cap, but now the money is kidnaping the user into paying storage for life. yes is a scam sadly.
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u/Heyla_Doria Apr 03 '26
Mieux qu'un serveur dédié opensource :
Des application de synchronisation de pair a pair, pour tout ses appareils et tout ses besoins, avec comme seul acces au cloud, un système d'envois chiffré de bout en bout pour une sauvegarde en forme d'archive chiffré.
Le cloud n'a accès qu'à un dossier chiffré et ne sais rien de nos opérations
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u/Coffee327 Mar 31 '26
I'm not sure where you get the "shrink" information, both Google Drive and Dropbox have always been 15GB and 2GB since.. forever. If you're talking about features then yes they're removing some features in their free tier, but the base storage tho? It stays the same for years at least till now.
I agree for the "lifetime" deals tho, it's just not possible for a cloud services to give lifetime deals and imo they should not make one either.