Privacy @lemmy.ml lord___vader @sh.itjust.works 5 mo. ago

What is the best cloud storage provider right now?

What is the best cloud storage that gives a nice balance between features and privacy? I know you can manually encrypt files to use any provider, but I would prefer an open source E2EE for the sake of convenience.

Currently I have heard about the following:

proton
filen
sync
icedrive
pcloud

(Not including GDrive, Onedrive etc..)

40 comments

When it comes to privacy and security, I think you should treat all cloud providers equally. Use a client with client-side encryption so that the only thing that touches the provider is encrypted data.

Rclone is an example of a good client that can do this, and can even mount your cloud storage as a filesystem with its encryption layer in between.
- yep. I use backblaze B2 with rclone, and just don't worry since it's encrypted (including the file names) before it leaves my server.
- Yeah that's what I do. I use filen because it's nice and easy to use and I got in early and got a good deal on a lifetime plan (actually two because you could stack them at the time, I dunno if you still can), but yeah I encrypt everything locally first before I upload it so it doesn't really matter if it gets stolen or whatever.
  
  If you do that then I don't think it really matters especially where you put it.
- You also shouldn’t use them as a safe way to store things. They routinely delete shit or bake your data and point to their EULA like sorry buddy, no guarantees. Your stuff is not safe there at all.
  
  Far better to store locally and just create a way to share it or access it from your home network.
  
  I've been thinking about a 'RAID5' of free storage providers as a way to overcome this, shouldn't be too hard to implement, but I'm busy atm. I wonder if their TOS are already onto this, but conversely, how could they tell?
I like Backblaze mostly for their business practices. The Backblaze devs answer questions on forums sometimes (Reddit link btw). The costs are pretty good, but there are cheaper options. $6/TB plus some API transactions. I paid almost a dollar last month for a couple hundred GB of data and transactions.

Plus their drive failure publications are awesome.
Backblaze B2 with rclone and client-side encryption
- Way too expensive. I pay $200/mo for 160TB with an entire large dedicated server attached to it from hetzner.
  
  I get about 100G for less than a dollar a month on backblaze b2. My credit card company waves fees less than a dollar, so its free.
  
  It covers all my servers and PC backups.
Filen.io is really good, but lacking features in their apps. But they're about to release a new desktop client with webdav and rclone support.
The troposphere?
- Take a lap
This is worth mentioning :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarsnap

https://www.tarsnap.com
BitWarden provides some encrypted storage on their paid tiers. I think it's very small, like 1GB, but it's E2E.

Apple iCloud storage is actually E2E too if you turn on Advanced Data Protection. (Note that not all iCloud features are E2E, like email, for example.) And the price is pretty comparable too. Naturally this works a lot better if you're on a Mac, but just FYI.
Cloud is just someones computer so I wouldn't ever upload anything without encrypting it manually myself first just in case .
- If the client (which encrypts the data in for an E2EE service) is open source and has also been audited by third parties than there's little reason to do so
  
  Yep but just in case yknow if your paranoid like me . also that kind of a provider is hard to come by .
I've heard google is pretty good! /s
I'm using BorgBase with Vorta (desktop client for Borg Backup) and I'm pretty happy with it.
- I started with this setup and added borgmatic to my home server. Borg and borgbase are awesome.
The cheapest one + rclone crypt and or cryptomator / veracrypt
I'm using pcloud because proton still doesn't have a way to share folders with other users, so I can't share my holiday photos with my partner there.

Pcloud works fine. The online interface is not the nicest, but it works.
- I think they recently rolled it out recently https://proton.me/drive/file-sharing
Self-host
- Unless you're hosting that off site, it's not really fulfilling the same complete purpose of cloud storage.
  
  i'm gonna play devils advocate and say you could rent cloud space on say a vps and host your own solution there instead of locally. it'd probably be better if you have the know how to do it properly.
  
  What do you mean, self-hosted is equally reachable regardless of where it's hosted.
  
  You can self host and make it accessible only to you from anywhere in the world.
  
  You might be thinking about it not fulfilling the 3-2-1 backup strategy, but as long as you have a remote copy of the data through some means then you have the remote copy fulfilled.
- I do.
  
  All data is replicated 3x locally, with one cloud. backup.
  
  Having all data in one physical location makes for a single failure point.
Best for what requirements?

Lots of space? Ease of use? What devices? Web access? Etc
- What's your favorite?
  
  Proton because I get it basically for free under my existing Proton plan and because of Proton's stellar reputation.
  
  That's not to say the apps aren't a bit buggy or missing (Linux doesn't have one) though.
I think storj is worth mentioning. You could also look at the list of supported providers for rclone.
If you need to share with others, trezorit is probably the best option for businesses and Mega is second (and the first few gigs are free)
Nextcloud self hosted if you can. Keep in mind it does require maintenance and planning.
I've enjoyed Proton for several years, except there ia no Linux desktop client. I intend to test installing the client in a virtual machine running windows, and then use shared folders.

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