How Apple's New iCloud Pricing Stacks Up to the Competition

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Image: Apple

By Adario Strange2014-06-03 01:24:27 UTC

Along with updates to its Mac OS X and iOS operating systems, Apple unveiled a new file-storage system called iCloud Drive, as well as new prices to make its cloud solution even more competitive.

But figuring out which features appeal to cloud-storage customers is like hitting a moving target, so we've put together an updated comparison list of the competition to show exactly where Apple's new cloud offering stands. Check it out, below:

See also: Everything You Need to Know From WWDC 2014

Apple iCloud update

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  5GB - free

  
  


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  20GB - $0.99 per month

  
  


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  200GB - $3.99 per month

  
  


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  Tiers available up to 1TB

  
  

  Microsoft OneDrive

  
  


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  7GB - free

  
  


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  50GB - $25 annually

  
  


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  100GB - $50 annually

  
  


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  200GB - $100 annually

  
  


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  1TB (available soon) - $2.50 per user per month with an annual commitment

  
  

  Google Drive

  
  


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  15GB - free

  
  


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  100GB - $1.99

  
  


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  1TB - $9.99

  
  


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  10TB and up - $99.00

  
  

  Dropbox

  
  


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  2GB and up - free

  
  


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  100GB and up - $9.99

  
  

  Box.net

  
  


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  10GB - free

  
  


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  100GB - $5

  
  


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  Unlimited - $15

  
  

  The prices and options — as currently listed by each service — for large amounts of cloud storage have become fairly competitive, but vary widely. Some of the intangibles baked into each include uptime reliability, integration with each company's larger software suite, and of course, trustworthiness when it comes to protecting your personal data.

  
  

  

  
  

  A look at Apple's new iCloud Drive control panel during Apple senior vice-president of software engineering Craig Federighi's presentation at WWDC.

  
  

  While each company offers an attractive free tier of service, their other options are too different to be compared directly to each other. Regardless, Apple's new iCloud pricing plan puts it in a relatively good competitive position when compared to some other options on the market.

  
  

  Although Apple's operating-system updates have been slated for a fall release, the company did not specify when the new iCloud prices would be available, nor did it divulge sizes or prices for the announced up-to-1TB tiers.

  
  

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• Topics: apple, Apps and Software, cloud computing, cloud storage, iOS 8, OS X, mac os x yosemite, Tech, WWDC, Yosemite