The typical searcher bought or considered pCloud for its lifetime plans, then found that private client-side encryption is a separate paid add-on, or that the product is built around personal storage rather than a team. They move to an encrypted provider that includes zero-knowledge in the base price, to a service with a permanent free tier, or to a team product with per-seat pricing.
Sebastiaan SmitsFounderShort answer: The first three alternatives to pCloud in our cloud storage ranking are Filen, Internxt and Proton Drive. Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands in a category, wherever the category has them; the established names follow from place 4 in their ranked order. Choose Filen if you want encryption included in the price and open-source apps. All 12 alternatives below are ranked products from Best Cloud Storage for Business in 2026, and each says where it differs from pCloud.
Vendors can pay for visibility on this site; it never changes what we say about a product. How that works.
pCloud's plans give you storage, sharing and the built-in Photos and Docs apps, but client-side encryption is sold separately as pCloud Encryption (a Crypto folder), with its own lifetime price of 150 EUR on the vendor's encryption page. Providers such as Filen, Internxt and Proton Drive state that their storage is end-to-end encrypted as standard, so the privacy feature is not a second line on the invoice.
pCloud's pricing page shows lifetime plans of 500 GB at 219 EUR, 2 TB at 499 EUR and 10 TB at 1,499 EUR (one-off payments, as displayed on 16 October 2026). That is cheap against a decade of subscriptions only if the company, the product and your needs all stay the same. A subscription can be cancelled when the service disappoints, and a lifetime payment cannot.
pCloud sells Individual, Family (up to five users) and Business plans, and its business page lists access levels, teams, shared folders and comments. Products designed around administration, such as Tresorit, Nextcloud or Zoho WorkDrive, put policy, hosting choice and audit features further forward. A team that has outgrown a shared family account is the usual reason to leave.
| Alternative | Headquarters | Free option | Pricing | Key difference | Switch if | Our rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Filen | Germany | Yes | Free plan; monthly or annual plans by storage size, stackable, published | Zero-knowledge storage from Germany at low monthly prices | you want encryption included in the price and open-source apps | #1 |
| Internxt | Spain | Yes | Free 1 GB plan; paid per year or one-off lifetime, published | Open source encrypted storage from the EU | you like pCloud's lifetime payment but want encryption and open source in the base product | #3 |
| Proton Drive | Switzerland | Yes | Free tier; paid per user per month, published | End-to-end encrypted storage from a privacy company | you want encrypted storage inside one privacy ecosystem with mail and a VPN | #8 |
| Tresorit | Switzerland | No free tier | Per user per month, published | Encrypted storage built for regulated work | a team or regulated firm needs encrypted sharing with compliance documentation | #6 |
| Sync.com | Canada | Yes | Free 5 GB plan; Teams per user per month, minimum three users, published | Zero-knowledge encryption as the default | you want a free tier to test and a team plan that is encrypted by default | #5 |
| Koofr | Slovenia | Yes | Free 10 GB plan; paid yearly by storage size, published | Small Slovenian service that also reaches your other cloud accounts | you hold files in several clouds and want one interface with a European provider | #2 |
| Nextcloud | Germany | Yes | Free self-hosted; enterprise subscriptions per user per year, published | Self-hosted, so the data never leaves | you want to host the files yourself or have a provider host them under your control | #7 |
| Jottacloud | Norway | Yes | Free tier; paid per month or year by plan and user count, published | Norwegian storage and device backup at a published price | you store a very large archive and want unlimited storage rather than a fixed size | #9 |
| Dropbox | United States | No free tier | Per user per month, published | The sync engine everyone else copied | collaborators and apps matter more to you than where the files live | #14 |
| Google Drive | United States | No free tier | Per user per month with Workspace, published | Storage as part of the document suite | you already live in a Google account and want the cheapest big-name option | #13 |
| Zoho WorkDrive | India | Yes | Free 5 GB plan; paid per user per month, minimum three users, published | Team folders and file sync at a low per-user price | you run a team and already use Zoho apps | #10 |
| ShareFile | United States | No free tier | Per user per month, published; minimum of three users | Client file exchange and approvals for accountants and law firms | you exchange documents with clients and want an audited sharing workflow | #12 |
Germany · Free plan; monthly or annual plans by storage size, stackable, published
Zero-knowledge, client-side encryption is part of every plan, and the apps are open source. Plans run from 200 GiB at 1.99 EUR per month and stack on one account. Its listed features are storage, sync, sharing, notes and chats, and it lists no equivalent of pCloud's Docs editors.
Switch from pCloud if you want encryption included in the price and open-source apps.
Spain · Free 1 GB plan; paid per year or one-off lifetime, published
End-to-end encrypted by default, with post-quantum encryption and code published on GitHub for review. It has a free 1 GB plan and sells 1 TB, 2 TB and 5 TB tiers on annual or lifetime billing, so the lifetime model carries over. The free tier is far smaller than the other free offers in this category.
Switch from pCloud if you like pCloud's lifetime payment but want encryption and open source in the base product.
Switzerland · Free tier; paid per user per month, published
End-to-end encrypted storage with a 5 GB free tier, and paid plans from 200 GB (Drive Plus, listed at 4.99 USD per month). It bundles with Proton Mail, VPN and Pass in larger plans and has Docs and Sheets editors. There is no lifetime option on the pricing page.
Switch from pCloud if you want encrypted storage inside one privacy ecosystem with mail and a VPN.
Switzerland · Per user per month, published
An end-to-end encrypted, zero-knowledge platform aimed at businesses, with data stored in the EU, the US or Switzerland by choice and separate Engage, FileSharing and eSign products. It is aimed at organisations, not at a lifetime personal purchase, and its plans are sold per organisation.
Switch from pCloud if a team or regulated firm needs encrypted sharing with compliance documentation.
Canada · Free 5 GB plan; Teams per user per month, minimum three users, published
End-to-end encrypted storage with 5 GB free for individuals. The Teams plans give each user 1, 2 or 10 TB and require a minimum of three users. Its pricing page lists subscriptions only, with no lifetime plan.
Switch from pCloud if you want a free tier to test and a team plan that is encrypted by default.
Slovenia · Free 10 GB plan; paid yearly by storage size, published
Offers 10 GB free permanently and paid plans from 0.5 EUR per month for 10 GB extra. It connects Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Drive accounts in one interface and lists EU-based data centres. Encryption is limited to the Vault safe boxes, not the whole account.
Switch from pCloud if you hold files in several clouds and want one interface with a European provider.
Germany · Free self-hosted; enterprise subscriptions per user per year, published
Software you run yourself (server code under AGPL-3.0) or take from a hosting provider, with enterprise subscriptions for support. You choose the location and own the stack, but someone has to maintain it. pCloud is a hosted service with nothing to maintain.
Switch from pCloud if you want to host the files yourself or have a provider host them under your control.
Norway · Free tier; paid per month or year by plan and user count, published
A Norwegian service with servers in Norway, 5 GB free, and an Unlimited personal plan at 12.9 EUR per month (129 EUR per year) with upload speed reduced after 5 TB. Home plans share 1 TB among five users. It is a storage and backup service, not a collaboration tool.
Switch from pCloud if you store a very large archive and want unlimited storage rather than a fixed size.
United States · Per user per month, published
The mainstream choice, with Plus at 9.99 EUR per month for one person with 2 TB and Standard per user for teams. It has a far larger integration and sharing ecosystem than pCloud and transfers of up to 50 GB. Its plans page shows subscriptions only, with no lifetime option and no zero-knowledge claim.
Switch from pCloud if collaborators and apps matter more to you than where the files live.
United States · Per user per month with Workspace, published
Every Google account has 15 GB included, with 100 GB at 1.99 EUR per month and 2 TB at 9.99 EUR per month on the plans page. It is built around Docs, Sheets and Gmail sharing the same quota. Its storage is tied to the Google account instead of being a separate storage product.
Switch from pCloud if you already live in a Google account and want the cheapest big-name option.
India · Free 5 GB plan; paid per user per month, minimum three users, published
A team workspace sold per user, with a three-user minimum on its paid plans, and part of the wider Zoho application set. It suits a company managing shared team folders and roles, not an individual buying storage.
Switch from pCloud if you run a team and already use Zoho apps.
United States · Per user per month, published; minimum of three users
Built for sending and receiving client files securely, with Advanced listed at 18.15 USD per user per month (16.50 on annual billing) and a minimum of three users. It has none of pCloud's consumer features such as photo backup or lifetime plans.
Switch from pCloud if you exchange documents with clients and want an audited sharing workflow.
pCloud remains a sensible choice for an individual or a family that wants a one-off payment, a Swiss vendor, a choice of European or US storage and built-in photo and document tools, and is content to add the encryption product only if it is needed. If you do not store anything sensitive, the lifetime price is hard to beat on a long horizon, provided you accept that you are trusting the company to keep operating the service.
Files in pCloud's encrypted folder are encrypted on your device, so the vendor cannot move them for you. Download and decrypt them locally before uploading to the new service, and check that you still have the Crypto passphrase, because without it they cannot be recovered.
A lifetime plan has already been paid for, so cancelling it gives nothing back except the 14-day money-back window that pCloud states on its pricing page. Keep the old account until the migration is verified and count the sunk cost honestly when comparing against subscriptions.
Files are protected in transit with TLS/SSL and 256-bit AES encryption according to pCloud. Client-side, zero-knowledge encryption is the separate pCloud Encryption product, which keeps the key with you and is sold as an add-on, with a lifetime price of 150 EUR on its page.
Filen, Internxt, Proton Drive, Sync.com and Tresorit all describe their storage as end-to-end encrypted, and Koofr offers client-side encryption in its Vault safe boxes. Check whether collaboration features such as online editing still work with the encryption you need.
pCloud shows one-off lifetime plans of 500 GB, 2 TB and 10 TB. Internxt also sells lifetime plans next to annual ones. Filen, Proton Drive, Sync.com and Jottacloud list subscription pricing.
Koofr gives 10 GB free permanently, Proton Drive 5 GB, Sync.com 5 GB at sign-up, Jottacloud 5 GB and Internxt 1 GB.
Google Drive includes 15 GB with a Google account. Free tiers differ in encryption and sharing limits, so compare them on the files you would actually store.
pCloud International AG describes itself as Swiss-based and lets you choose between Europe and the USA as the location of your files. Tresorit offers the EU, the US or Switzerland, and Jottacloud stores in Norway.
Yes, with Nextcloud, whose server code is published under AGPL-3.0 and can be self-hosted or taken from a provider. It gives you control over location and access, and also makes you responsible for updates, backups and security.
Founder of The Knowledge Engineers and of 2 Steps Ahead, an AI search visibility agency. Editorially responsible for every page on this site; research and drafting are AI-assisted.
Written, edited and fact-checked by Sebastiaan Smits. Last reviewed 16 October 2026. How we review.
