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Google Announces New Cloud Storage Plans Including 2TB for $9.99 a Month

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Google has announced a new series of cloud storage plans arriving for Google Account holders, including a new family option for divvying up a single storage plan amongst up to five members.

Called Google One, the new plans will replace existing Google Drive paid storage plans and include 100GB storage for $1.99 a month, 200GB for $2.99 a month, and 2TB for $9.99 a month (down from $19.99).

Google-One-storage-800x235.jpg

As a result, Google is removing its 1TB/$9.99 plan, but will continue to offer 15GB storage for free to all Google Drive users. The other existing tier that will continue to be offered is 30TB for $300 a month.

As before, the new storage plans provide users with space for Google Drive, Gmail, and original quality photos and videos (including 4K) in Google Photos.

All the paid plans come with access to live chat support, a feature that was previously limited to G Suite business account holders. The changes will be seen first by paying Google Drive users in the U.S. "in the coming months", with rollout to users in other countries shortly after.

For the sake of comparison, Apple's iCloud monthly storage plans are 50GB for $0.99, 200GB for $2.99, 2TB for $9.99, and 5GB free storage for non-paying users.

Article Link: Google Announces New Cloud Storage Plans Including 2TB for $9.99 a Month
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/05/15/google-storage-plans-2tb-for-9-99-a-month/
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Of course the rest of the world has to wait.
I've never needed more than 15GB of Google Drive storage, but my needs are changing so I might look into these new plans when we get them.
 
TimWillz said:
This is hopefully good timing for iCloud users. Hopefully Apple will follow and reduce the costs of the current plans.
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It seems Google just copied Apple's pricing grid for the later tiers. I'm not sure Apple wants to remain the cheapest option between both. Microsoft One Drive is hands on the cheapest though, with $100 for 5 TB of storage for the year + Office 365.

What I want from Apple is more free storage. You can't do anything with 5 GB, and the competition has more free storage anyways (Microsoft, Google Dropbox*).

* I've always had 7.5 GB of free storage because I shared their promo videos back in the days
 
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I really like their Photos app but I never actually got to use it because every time it tried on my iDevices it would try to pull all my photos and videos from the iCloud to upload them on google photos even though I already have them all synced via Mac Photos and their google synch tool. It doesn’t seem to get that the stuff is already on google so it tries to upload everything again which I do not even have the space for on my iDevices

PsykX said:
What I want from Apple is more free storage. You can't do anything with 5 GB, and the competition has more free storage anyways (Microsoft, Google Dropbox*).
Click to expand...

Tell me about it. It’s really bad user experience too. You have no idea how many people I need to assist because they do not understand how their „phone“ could be full when all they do is a backup. „I bought the 128 GB iPhone. How can it already be full when I only use like 6 GB! This warning is so annoying!!!“

Apple should at least make sure the backup fits in the cloud or that every iDevice you add to your account adds another 5 GB
 
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itsmilo said:
Tell me about it. It’s really bad user experience too. You have no idea how many people I need to assist because they do not understand how their „phone“ could be full when all they do is a backup. „I bought the 128 GB iPhone. How can it already be full when I only use like 6 GB! This warning is so annoying!!!“

Apple should at least make sure the backup fits in the cloud or that every iDevice you add to your account adds another 5 GB
Click to expand...

I agree that the default should be more than 5 GB but $10/month for 2 TB of storage isn't bad, especially when I buy iTunes gift cards at at least 15% off and use those ($8.50/month for storage). I have 3 iPhone users (including myself) in my family so we just share the storage. It's plenty for us and works out to $2.83 per month per person.
 
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I think Google's option is more flexible than Apple's . You can use it as a drive easier and it integrates to backup options on NAS servers etc as a remote backup option. At this price I could almost drop my NAS.
 
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PsykX said:
It seems Google just copied Apple's pricing grid for the later tiers. I'm not sure Apple wants to remain the cheapest option between both. Microsoft One Drive is hands on the cheapest though, with $100 for 5 TB of storage for the year + Office 365.

What I want from Apple is more free storage. You can't do anything with 5 GB, and the competition has more free storage anyways (Microsoft, Google Dropbox*).

* I've always had 7.5 GB of free storage because I shared their promo videos back in the days
Click to expand...

Pay 99c a month, and you get 50GB of iCloud storage - more than Google ever gave you for free. The tradeoff is better privacy. Surely that's worth a dollar a month? If not... we can't help you.
 
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Instead of all the hacking and whacking JUST go with the Cloud service that best fits YOUR individual needs ... sheesh, talk about much ado over nothing.
 
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Very happy with iCloud 2TB. Full backup of all our iOS iDevices and OSX laptops and full sync for £7 per month, single payment covers all of us. Full integration with iOS and OSX makes it extra worth it.

Odd to see a laptop with 128GB SSD showing over 1TB space available on desktop Finder folders, but has massively eased storage pressure. Saved us spending thousands on new larger laptops or iDevices.

Only fly in ointment is Apple makes it difficult to maintain a full local copy of all iCloud data. Currently repurposing a cheap hackintosh with a large HDD for this function.
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neuropsychguy said:
I agree that the default should be more than 5 GB but $10/month for 2 TB of storage isn't bad, especially when I buy iTunes gift cards at at least 15% off and use those ($8.50/month for storage). I have 3 iPhone users (including myself) in my family so we just share the storage. It's plenty for us and works out to $2.83 per month per person.
Click to expand...
Excellent idea many thanks, will give that a go.
 
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chrfr said:
iCloud does not do full backups of Macs at all. It can sync the documents and desktop folders, but that's it.
iCloud also unfortunately doesn't offer the versioning features that Dropbox, and I believe Google Drive, offers.
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Yes and no. For iOS it’s more or less a full backup.

For OSX it also backs up all photos and films etc and a lot of other things too. It doesn’t back up apps themselves which you can easily redownload or reinstall, though I agree it would be nice if this was done automatically with a new Mac. I’m not sure if iCloud keeps the licence files for apps not purchased through the App Store. Probably not.

You are correct it doesn’t do versioning, which tbh I have never needed in 5+ years of running Time Machines for a dozen people.
 
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Pretty sure I've read that Apple scans all your saved cloud stored data also.
They don't want their servers filled up with Pirated software, Child porn and Terrorist plans.

Whilst I don't like the idea of anyone's data being scanned, I guess it's pretty obvious there has to be something done to avoid such storage areas being abused by the wrong people, and then used for criminal activities.
 
Piggie said:
Pretty sure I've read that Apple scans all your saved cloud stored data also.
They don't want their servers filled up with Pirated software, Child porn and Terrorist plans.

Whilst I don't like the idea of anyone's data being scanned, I guess it's pretty obvious there has to be something done to avoid such storage areas being abused by the wrong people, and then used for criminal activities.
Click to expand...

Dropbox and OneDrive do this too. It’s one thing to scan for underage porn and another thing to sell usage habits to advertisers.


Re OP: even though I pay for Google Storage I don’t see the new Tiers yet. 100GB/$20 a year. I’m interested in the Family plans. I do the same with iCloud.
 
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BigMcGuire said:
Dropbox and OneDrive do this too. It’s one thing to scan for underage porn and another thing to sell usage habits to advertisers.


Re OP: even though I pay for Google Storage I don’t see the new Tiers yet. 100GB/$20 a year. I’m interested in the Family plans. I do the same with iCloud.
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Here's an article you might have interest in reading when it comes to how each company handles user data.

https://decentralize.today/apple-vs...company-handles-your-data-better-a7022bd452b1
 
Last edited:
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Regime2008 said:
Here's an article you might have interest in reading when it comes to how each company handles user data.

https://decentralize.today/apple-vs...company-handles-your-data-better-a7022bd452b1
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting that.

So, Apple will share personal information, without permission amongst its partners . Google will do so upon consent.

"
One big difference between the companies is how they treat your data. From Apple’s site:

At times Apple may make certain personal information available to strategic partners that work with Apple to provide products and services, or that help Apple market to customers.

Google’s:

We will share personal information with companies, organizations or individuals outside of Google when we have your consent to do so. We require opt-in consent for the sharing of any sensitive personal information.
"
 
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