What is pCloud?
pCloud Review
Since its launch in 2013, pCloud continues to grow in popularity. Its fast file syncing, dedicated media player and heightened security are why 14 million people currently use the service. But is the hype worth your attention? We’ll determine the answer in this extensive pCloud review.
pCloud is one of the best cloud storage providers available right now. It offers a range of affordable storage plans and gives away a decent amount of free cloud storage. pCloud also gives its users full control over their privacy, something we’ll cover in greater detail during this pCloud review.
Key Takeaways:
- pCloud is a fast, secure cloud service and is reasonably priced.
- It’s based in Switzerland and has to adhere to strict Swiss privacy laws, meaning more protection for your files.
- Customer support is less than stellar, and is the main area where the service lets itself down.
- This cloud storage service is a fantastic option for most personal and business users.
pCloud is a cloud storage service that ticks several boxes: it’s fairly priced, has a dedicated media player and offers added encryption for your files. It can’t rival Google Drive and OneDrive in terms of document creation and collaboration, but it beats them hands down when it comes to privacy.
One thing that sets pCloud apart from some of the big-name players in the game is zero-knowledge encryption. Having total control over who can access your files is a must in this day and age. However, with pCloud, there’s a catch: you need to pay extra to access what it calls “pCloud Crypto.”
If you’re looking for a cloud storage service that includes zero-knowledge encryption for all of your files without an additional fee, then you should consider a service such as Sync.com (read our Sync.com review).
However, if you’d prefer the ability to choose which files are protected with zero-knowledge encryption, pCloud is an excellent choice. Let’s take a closer look at what it has to offer in this pCloud review.
Strengths & Weaknesses
Strengths
- Great value
- Zero-knowledge encryption
- Fast syncing
- Accepts bitcoin payments
- Sync any folder
- Integrated media player
- Lifetime plan options
Weaknesses
- Encryption costs extra
No document integration
Features
The most essential feature of any cloud storage service is its file syncing, which pCloud does incredibly well, especially compared to a bare-bones service like MediaFire. pCloud also comes with a number of additional features that add to your experience; admittedly, some of these features are better than others.
pCloud Cloud Storage Rewind
The pCloud “rewind” feature allows you to recover files from a previous date if, for some reason, you delete your files or they become corrupted (ransomware, look out).
You can use rewind to access old files for up to 15 days with a free account. However, the Premium and Premium Plus plans allow you to rewind your account for up to 30 days. This allows you to see a snapshot of how your files and folders looked at a specific date and time.
In comparison to other cloud storage providers, Dropbox allows users to rewind up to 180 days, and Icedrive allows you to rewind indefinitely (check our full Icedrive review), so pCloud’s 30 days isn’t all that much.
The rewind feature allows you to restore any of your previous files and folders from that date. Rather than simply reverting your account to match how it looked then, pCloud will give you the option to either download the files and folders you want to recover or restore them individually.
You can extend the rewind feature for up to a year, but it will cost you $39. This also applies to file versioning, which is a similar feature for restoring individual files to a previous state. In fact, pCloud makes it onto our list of the best cloud storage for versioning.
pCloud Save
pCloud also interfaces with your browser via pCloud “save,” an extension for Opera, Firefox and Chrome. This extension allows you to save images directly to your a special “pCloud save” folder by simply right-clicking on them.
It’s important to note, however, that enabling two-factor authentication (2FA) — something we will look at later — renders pCloud save unusable.
If you already use Dropbox, Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive, but are thinking about trying out pCloud, you can back up all your data from these services straight into pCloud.
- Go to pCloud’s “backup” section
- Choose the provider you want to back up from
- Sign in to link your account and pCloud will copy all of your files and folders into a new folder called “backups”
You can also back up your photos from social media, like Instagram and Facebook, in the same way (we also have a separate guide on how to back up social media). Currently, this service doesn’t work if you’re trying to back up Dropbox Business or OneDrive Business accounts.
Fair Share
If you’re interested in collaborating with other pCloud account holders, you may want to give pCloud’s “fair share” feature a try. If you share a folder, the recipient can add as much as they want to the shared folder without using up any of their storage space allocation. The shared folder will take up space only on the account of the person who originally shared it.
There’s no integration with either Microsoft Office or Google Docs, unfortunately, so pCloud doesn’t make it onto our list of the best cloud storage for collaboration.
Public Folder
There’s also the option to set up a public folder. This can be used for a number of purposes, such as hosting static HTML web pages, creating direct links to files or for embedding images as an alternative to image hosting sites, such as Imgur. While this feature isn’t available on a free account, you do get a seven-day trial when signing up for the service.
pCloud Crypto Feature
One of the best features, though, is pCloud Crypto, which allows you to protect some of your files and folders with end-to-end encryption. We’ll take a look at this in more detail in the “security” section of this pCloud review.
pCloud Backup
pCloud recently introduced what it calls “pCloud backup.” Through your desktop, you can select which folders you want to back up automatically to the cloud. For example, if you back up a folder of images, each time a new image is saved to the folder, pCloud backup will automatically sync it to the cloud.
While it’s a useful feature to keep your files regularly updated, we found it to be a little inconsistent. We saved 10 new images to our folder, and not all of them were reflected in the cloud. During our testing we were unable to determine why this happened.
Pricing
pCloud is reasonably priced and a good value for the money, with only Sync.com beating it in the battle of the best deals for cloud storage. You can learn more about Sync.com in our Sync.com vs pCloud comparison, but as you’ll see, pCloud competes very well on pricing.
pCloud Pricing
- : 10GB
- : 500GB
- : 2TB
- : 10TB
- : 2TB
- : 10TB
- : Price per user (minimum 3)
- : 1TB
- : Price per user (minimum 3)
- : Unlimited GB
