As the world becomes more ‘digital’, the need and desire to store our digital stuff – such as photos, videos, music, emails, and documents – is ever increasing. The same holds true for seniors, who have become more comfortable and active with tech and internet usage. The question remains of how and where do you store all of this digital stuff.
Storage of digital information used to be in terms of megabytes (MB), then grew into terms of gigabytes (GB) and now digital information, especially regarding storage, is in terms of terabytes (TB). This is because of the growth of the internet in general and especially high speed internet, the vast amount of downloadable info and especially in the area of videos – which use a very large amount of data. Also, many people now use their computer as their file cabinet, photo album(s), record (music) collection.
In addition to needing to store all of these things, people want to access this info from multiple devices (home computer and smart phone in particular) and even share their stored info with family and friends. The popular and growing solution for this is known as “cloud storage”. This is basically a company’s data storage computers that you can use to store, access, and share your digital information. This is done via an internet connection from computer or other digital device. There are many of these cloud storage service companies competing for your business. However, only some of them are senior friendly and geared for personal and family usage, and be highly rated as well. Listed below are some of these companies that are best for seniors.
Dropbox
This company is very established and was the first commercial cloud storage service. Dropbox offers a large variety of features and is fully compatible with virtually everything from Google and Microsoft. Plus it allows you to integrate and use almost any third party add-on application. Its Smart Synch feature allows you to automatically store your data onto your cloud account and thereby free up storage on your device.
Cloud storage plans:
– Free for one user and up to 2 GB storage space
– Dropbox Plus: $12.00 per month for one user and up to 2000 GB storage space
– Dropbox Family: $20.00 per month for up to six users and up to 2000 GB total storage space
Google Drive
From the king of the internet, the famous company also offers cloud storage services, known as Google Drive. Not surprisingly, Google Drive is designed to fully integrate and work best with all things Google – also called the Googleverse. This includes G-Mail, Chrome, Google Docs and Android devices and applications. Therefore, if you and your family are all regular users of most or all of these Google products, then Google Drive is probably a smart choice for you.
Cloud storage plans:
– Free for one user and up to 15 GB storage space
– 100: $2.00 per month for up to six users and up to 100 GB total storage space
– 200: $3.00 per month for up to six users and up to 200 GB total storage space
– 2 TB: $10.00 per month for up to six users and up to 2,000 GB total storage space
OneDrive
The king of computer software, Microsoft, also offer their own cloud storage service known as OneDrive. It is designed to be optimized with Microsoft products, especially Windows and Office software (like Word and Excel). OneDrive also provides very versatile and useful sharing features. If you and your family are regular users of Windows and Office software, then OneDrive is a good choice for you.
Cloud storage plans:
– Basic: Free for one user and up to 5 GB storage space
– Personal: $7.00 per month for one user for up to 1,000 GB storage space
– Family: $10.00 per month for up to six users and up to 5,000 GB total storage space
pCloud
This Swiss based cloud storage company has been rated very high and even as the best. It comes with some special features, including an integrated music and video player, plus it can even let you convert media file formats. Very importantly, it has been rated as very user friendly which can be valuable for many seniors. If you store and access music and video files on a regular basis, then pCloud can be a smart choice for you.
Cloud storage plans:
– Free for one user with up to 10 GB storage space
– Premium: $5.00 per month for one user with up to 500 GB storage space
– Premium Plus: $10.00 per month for one user for up to 2,000 Gb storage space
Sync.com
This company is rated as one of the best in terms of privacy, security, and file sharing. Therefore, if you store data files that are sensitive or private and / or frequently are sharing your data with a large number of people, then Sync may be your best bet for a cloud storage service.
Cloud storage plans:
– Free for one user with up to 5 GB storage space
– Mini: $5.00 per month for one user with up to 200 GB storage space
– Basic: $8.00 per month for up to five users with up to 2,000 GB total storage space
