pCloud vs Google One: which should you pick?
pCloud and Google One side by side
Google One
Starting from €1.67/month
pCloud
Starting from €4.17/month
Both give you a clean web app, mobile apps, and automatic photo backup. The real differences sit below the surface.
pCloud's pitch is its pricing. You can pay once for a lifetime plan, which works out cheaper than a subscription after about three years. It also offers zero-knowledge encryption as an add-on called pCloud Crypto. Anything you keep outside the Crypto folder is encrypted on pCloud's servers, but not end to end.
Google One's pitch is the ecosystem. Drive, Photos, and Gmail share one quota, family sharing is included, and there's a bundled VPN. Privacy is the weak spot, since Google holds the encryption keys.
Frequently asked
- Is pCloud cheaper than Google One?
- Month to month they're close. Over three years or more, pCloud's lifetime plan comes out cheaper because there's no recurring fee.
- Can both share storage with family?
- Google One includes family sharing on every paid tier at no extra cost. pCloud sells its family plan as a separate product.
Provider details
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