If you need to access work files at home, the easiest way to do so is to get them through cloud storage services. When you store files this way, you can view them on any computer you're on, whether you're at home or in another country. This review will help readers find the best cloud storage for Mac computers.

Difference Between Syncing, Backup, and Storage Services

When you’re in the market for a cloud storage service, it is essential to read all the information available for the services that you come across. Instead of storing files, some services only perform backup services for your computer. Also, some cloud services allow you to sync files to share them with others, so it is important to know which type of service you’re buying.

Cloud Syncing

Cloud syncing involves syncing folders on your system to folders on other devices or the cloud. It allows people to share information with others so that they can work from the folder or directory from different devices. Some of these syncing apps include Dropbox, iCloud Drive, OneDrive, and Box.

cloud upload icons connected

Source: Freepik.com

Most syncing services have tiered pricing for the amount of data stored with them. Some services also have a rollback service in case of data loss, so users can recover the information that was in the folders they had synced.

Cloud Backup

A cloud backup service continually works in the background of your computer to save changes to files or other data on your system. It saves the information to another computer or the cloud. The charge for this type of service is a flat rate, and if you lose data, the backup can restore it.  

Most backup services also have a rollback feature that allows users to restore any data they lose or accidentally delete. Some of the cloud backup apps include Mozy and Carbonite.

Cloud Storage

Providers of cloud storage are the endpoint for storing data for individuals or developers and include APIs and CLIs. Users often pay per gigabyte of storage, so they pay for the amount of storage they need. Although data can stay on these services for accessibility and durability, experts recommend that other methods of data backup are also available.  

How We Chose Our Ratings

If you have a Mac computer and need cloud storage services, we've found some of the top-rated ones to review so that you can find the best one for your needs.

By reviewing all the information on each service, as well as reading the reviews and testimonials from users, we gave each service a rating between one and five stars, with five being the highest. The star rating helps our readers find the service that best fits their needs.


Best Cloud Storage for Mac Users

Here are some of the best cloud storage services that we found for Mac computer owners.


Google One  4.8 Stars

If you have a Google account, then you can get 15 gigabytes of cloud storage at no cost to you. When you need more storage, Google One allows you to upgrade to 100GB for $1.99 per month or $19.99 per year.

Upgrading to 200GB is $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year, two terabytes are $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year, 10TB is available for $99.99 per month, 20TB is $199.99 per month, or you can upgrade to 30TB for $299.99 per month.

Each plan comes with access to Google experts, the option to add family members to your account, and other benefits like Google Play credits, special pricing for hotel reservations, and other savings on Google products. Users can add up to five family members to an account, and each member will receive separate storage.

Google One works well with Mac systems, as well as Windows computers. For Mac, it integrates well with the iOS share menu and supports split-screen multitasking for iPad.   


If you have a Mac computer, as well as an iPhone, iPad, or iPod, then you should consider iCloud Storage. It works seamlessly with the other iOS apps and allows you to store photos, videos, documents, and other types of files from your computer to the cloud.

With iCloud, each user receives 5GB of free storage, but if they need more, they can upgrade to accounts with 50GB, 200GB or 2TB of cloud storage. A 50GB plan is 99 cents per month in the US, it is $2.99 per month for a 200GB upgrade, or if you get 2TB, you will pay $9.99 per month. The 200GB and 2TB options allow you to share it with family members.

Each family member gets private storage, so what they put on the cloud isn’t available to others, unless they decide to share it. Storage plans can be updated from your Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or a Windows PC since iCloud storage is also available for Windows computers.


pCloud 4.5 Stars

pCloud storage is ideal for people who need to store large media files on the cloud. If you're a videographer or photographer, then you can store your work files on the cloud for a nominal price with this service. The company is from Switzerland, which is well known for its privacy laws. The plans they offer come with monthly or lifetime pricing.

The storage plans available are for 500GB or 2TB unless you get a family plan or a business plan. The Premium 500GB storage plan is available for $4.99 a month, or if you want to pay by the year, it is $3.99 a month or $47.88 per year. If you wanted to get this amount of storage for life, then it would be $175.

The Premium Plus 2TB plan is available for $9.99 a month, or the yearly price would be $7.99 per month, $95.88 a year, or $350 for life. If you choose the family plan, then you can divide 2TB with up to five users, which are on different servers, for a lifetime price of $500.

They also have pCloud Business with scalable plans, but if you’re interested in them, you need to contact their sales department for pricing. With some of their services, you can encrypt information to keep it private or share files and folders with others who may need to work on them too. pCloud services work with either Mac computers or Windows systems.

They offer several features like backup using:

  • Dropbox
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • OneDrive
  • Google Drive

It allows for online document review, remote uploads, data recovery, built-in video and audio players, and many more features.


MEGA has both a desktop app and a mobile app for its cloud storage service. The desktop app serves Mac, Windows, and Linux systems, while the mobile app allows people to save files from their smartphones or tablets. The data that you store in the cloud is always available to you so that you can work on it from anywhere at any time.

Their plans include the:

  • Pro Lite
  • Pro I
  • Pro II
  • Pro III

The Pro Lite plan provides 200 gigabytes of storage and one terabyte of transfers between your system and MEGA each month for $5.66 per month.  The Pro I plan has one terabyte of storage with two terabytes of transfers for $11.32 per month. You can get up to four terabytes of storage and eight terabytes of transfers with the Pro II plan for $22.66 per month.

If you get the Pro III plan, it offers eight terabytes of storage and 16TB of transfers for $33.99 per month. If you have a business and need more storage, you can contact the company for more information. The user can encrypt their data to prevent anyone else, including MEGA from accessing it. However, you can share data with whomever you wish and view their changes to files in real time.


If you’re a home user, then Amazon S3 may be difficult to understand. However, your company’s IT experts shouldn’t have any problems understanding how your business can use the service to store and share documents, spreadsheets, and media files.

Their storage plans do not have a set amount of Giga- or terabytes, but you use what you need and pay per gigabyte of data that you use. It has three tiers of storage, which are Standard, Standard Infrequent Access, or Standard-IA, and One-Zone Infrequent Access or One-Zone-IA.

The Standard tier is for hot storage, which is storage that is often accessed by the user. Each region has a slightly different price. For Ohio, the Standard tier cost depends on how much storage is needed, so for the first 50TB, the rate is $0.023, the next 450TB is $0.022, and if it is over 500TB, then Standard tier users pay $0.021.

For people who choose the Standard-IA tier, they pay one price no matter how much data they store. The cost is $0.0125 and for One-Zone-IA users, their rate, which is also one price at $0.01. Again, these prices are for the Ohio region, which is the East coast, so if you live in California or Texas, your rates may be slightly different.

Data uploads and downloads are free with the Standard plan, which can help users save money over other cloud storage services. For those who chose Standard-IA or One-Zone-IA, downloads would be a flat rate of one cent per gigabyte for the first 50TB they retrieve.

Along with Mac systems, Amazon S3 also supports Windows computers. They also provide services for large corporations, government agencies, and other solutions for your small business. To find out more about business solutions and pricing, you should contact them directly.


Rather than having servers and offering space on them to store data, Storage Made Easy, SME, offers services on existing servers on other sites. For instance, if you need 20GB of storage for your files, they may find space on a service like Rackspace, DropBox, or Azure that fits your needs. SME works with over 50 private, public, and SaaS, or Software as a Service, clouds.

SME uses software they call File Fabric to access these cloud storage sites. If you have storage across several cloud providers, the interface they use allows you to put them on it to better manage your file storage. It supports MacOS, Windows, and Linux computers, as well as apps for Android, iOS, Windows, and Blackberry smartphones or tablets.

SME offers personal and business plans for a low-rate. A personal plan offers 5GB of storage and includes five GB of free storage on Amazon S3 for $5 per month or $59.99 per year. They bill it every year.

For a business plan, you can get 20GB of storage, including 20GB of Amazon S3 storage per user, with a five-user minimum for $5 per month. So, your business would pay $25 per month for five users. Another option for a business account is 5GB of storage, which includes 5GB of free Amazon S3 storage, at $5 per month or $59.99 per year.

It also has a five-user minimum so that a business would pay a total of $300 per month for five users. If you need additional storage, then you can use another service to go along with your plan and pay whatever their rate is for the amount of extra storage that you need. Along with file storage, you can also sync files and share them with others through SME.

As far as security, you can use the SME interface to encrypt any data you wish, even if the cloud storage services don't offer encryption. This layer of security allows you to keep certain files private, no matter how many people you're giving access to your files.


This cloud storage service claims to be six times faster than Amazon S3 and only charges a fifth of the price of the retail giant. Wasabi offers fast download and upload speeds, so you won’t have a long wait when storing data on their service. They have plans for individual Mac and Windows users and IT professionals.

For Mac and Windows users, you can get storage starting at one terabyte, which is $4.99 per month or $59.88 per year. You can buy storage in increments of one terabyte or jump up to five, 10, 20, or 50 TBs instead. You can get a plan that stores up to 100TB if you have media files, as well as documents that you need to share with other users.

A 5TB plan would be $24 per month or $299 per year, 10TB would be $49 per month or $598 per year, 20TB is $99 per month or $1,197 per year, and if you need 100TB, you will pay $499 per month or $5,988 per year.

If you are an IT professional, contact Wasabi directly about their plans and pricing. You can try one terabyte of storage for free for 30 days if you are curious if their service will meet your needs. Wasabi currently has data centers in Virginia and Oregon, so they have good coverage in the United States. They are soon expanding their services to Europe.

Buyer’s Guide

If you have a Mac computer, you will find that most cloud storage services can support MacOS or iOS for Mac computers and Apple mobile devices. Even Microsoft, which is the home to Windows systems, offers cloud storage solutions for Mac computers.

Before jumping at the first service with decent pricing that you find, make sure they are a cloud storage service. Many services are either file sharing services or file syncing services and not true cloud storage systems. If it has sync or backup in the title, then that is probably the type of service they offer, which is not cloud storage.

Once you verify that it is a cloud storage service, determine how many Giga- or terabytes of storage that you'll need. If you are keeping document files on the service for your home computer, then you may not need several terabytes of space. However, a cloud storage solution allows you to pull up your work on a different device when you’re away from your main system at home.

If you’re a professional writer, photographer, or filmmaker, then having a cloud storage solution allows you to work from anywhere at any time that you need to access your work. However, your storage needs will be different if you’re storing written documents or media files. With images, photographs or films, you will need much more storage than you would for written documents.

With the different cloud storage services available, you should be able to find the best cloud storage for Mac at a price that you can afford. Also, consider the level of security that you’ll need if you are going to share some files on the cloud.

If you have work that you want to make sure it is private, look for services that offer encryption. Encrypting data allows you to keep your data and files private and separate from those that you're sharing with coworkers or collaborators on your next project.  

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