pCloud greatly resembles services like Dropbox and OneDrive in its implementation, with Windows Explorer integration and full web-browser functionality. That said, it’s also a bit easier to get up to speed with than those others. pCloud is also touted as uber-secure.
I even like its lifetime pricing, as opposed to the usual monthly rate. Let’s cover that first.
After our original review, pCloud added yearly rates to their lifetime plans which are less likely to daunt new buyers: $50 for 500GB, $100 for 2TB, and $200 for 10TB. Not amazing bargains, but competitive.
The single-user lifetime plans, if you don’t do the math, might seem daunting: $199 for 500GB, $399 for 2TB, and $1,190 for 10TB. Note that those are discounts from the standard rates of $300, $600, and $1,890 at the time of this writing.
However, if you break down those discounted prices over, say, a mere five years, it’s roughly $80 per terabyte per year for the 500GB plan, $40 per TB per year for the 2TB option, and approximately $24 per TB per year annually for the 10TB/$1,190 tier. Not bad, and of course, the longer you go, the cheaper it gets.
If you opt for a lifetime plan, you must believe that the company will remain in business. There’s no way for us to guarantee any company’s survival, but pCloud has been around for 12 years and is based in Switzerland — a country with a long history of safe-guarding valuables. pCloud also explained that it has a refund policy in place, as well as contingency plans for a force majeure.
Happily, there’s also a free 10GB plan so you can try pCloud risk-free.
pCloud’s primary feature is, of course, its online storage. To upload and sync your data, the company provides clients for Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS, as well as a very well thought-out and capable web interface with some neat tricks up its sleeve.
pCloud is unique in my experience in that it provides access to your online files via a virtual drive (pDrive with the drive letter P: — get it?!) rather than the dedicated folder metaphor that Dropbox, Google and others use. The files on P: exist only online, so you’ll need an internet connection to access them. In other words, the P: drive is a portal to your online files.
The Windows and macOS clients let you sync any folder you wish to your online storage, and cleverly/automatically create a suitable folder name for the online half (assuming you need a new folder). pCloud sync is two-way, so the standard caveat applies — you need to be careful about what you delete online as that will be reflected in the local folder.
My only problem with pCloud was that when I reinstalled it for my latest look, it automatically started downloading files to the P: drive without asking. After a complete uninstall, which entailed finding and deleting the sync folder manually, it then decided to ask. pCloud could be a bit smarter about that.
One of my favorite pCloud tricks is backing up the data from other online storage services. It’s not as comprehensive in that regard as Arq 7, but the list will cover most end users: Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox and Dropbox Business, Google Photos, Instagram, and Facebook. The first four are manually invoked operations, while the last three are ongoing.
You must sign in to the services for pCloud to back them up as per usual. Note that the online storage backups are true backup, not sync. The pCloud Windows client has a backup tab, but it’s misleading as I’ll discuss in depth below.
Another useful pCloud feature is the Crypto folder. This is a folder with a secondary password for even stronger protection. If there’s stuff you really don’t want anyone to see, this will interest you. Not that people are likely to stumble on to your non-crypto data if you use a suitably strong primary password.
Other functions include file sharing and file requests (i.e., let someone ask and upload something to your account). pCloud offers several ancillary services including: the pCloud Transfer file-transfer portal, which works with files up to 5GB; and the pCloud Save extension for browsers. The latter is supposed to save images and other files to a pCloud Save folder, but I had only moderate success with it. Finally, there’s pCloud Password, a password manager service.
pCloud allows you to view many types of files, but it’s hardly the equal of say OneDrive or Google Drive in that regard. In my tests, the pCloud viewing was fine with photos, decent with Word files and PDFs, but Excel files were displayed as one column per page. Trying to view an MP4 video stalled as well.
Editing of files is available, but it’s rudimentary, of the overlay type normally associated with images. If you want granular word processing, PDF, spreadsheet, etc. editing, Google Drive or OneDrive might suit you better.
Another thing I was a bit annoyed with was the feedback at the bottom of the program window: It tells you something’s happening, but it’s not specific enough. Is it for sync, or backup? I’d like to know.
Before I tried it, I was going to bestow upon pCloud major kudos for including a discrete Windows backup function. However, it’s not backup, it’s two-way sync of pre-selected (documents, pictures, etc.) and user-selected folders where changes at either end are duplicated at the other.
This is, however, somewhat mitigated by 30-day retention of revisions and deleted files, which are available via right-click or the pCloud trash bin at the web portal. A one-year undelete option is available as well for an additional fee. Unlike Backblaze there is no option for permanent retention.
As pCloud’s backups of your phone and online services are true immutable backups, the company is obviously aware of the difference. Your guess is as good as mine as to the reason for this vocabulary faux pas, but it came darn close to costing an otherwise excellent service half a star.
In uploading around 100GB of data, I had no issues with pCloud. It didn’t slow down my system, and the backup proceeded largely in line with the speed of my 2.5Gbps network and 7.5MBps/2.5MBps download/upload speed of local Bay Area broadband provider Monkeybrains.
pCloud might appear expensive, but it’s actually very affordable if you plan to keep your data online for any significant period of time. The unique features are also quite handy, so for the most part, color me impressed and consider the answer to this question yes. At the very least, sign up for the free incarnation. Who couldn’t use 10GB of free storage to mirror one or more of your other online data repositories?
Just remember that the Window’s client’s backup function is actually sync.
Author: Jon Jacobi
Source: PCWorld
Reviewed By: Editorial Team
