Google is now beating iCloud at its own game

Many of us live with our heads in the clouds these days. Not because we're daydreaming but because of our reliance on cloud storage systems like Apple's iCloud and Google One. While you do get 5GB of storage for free, Apple has upset a few people recently with a price hike on iCloud plans.

iCloud plan prices in the UK, large parts of Europe, the Middle East and South America have gone up 25%. That seems a steep increase indeed but in fairness, the cheapest plan (50GB) has only jumped from 79p to 99p a month.

It is with the other plans that the price hike seems more egregious, especially since Apple only offers a 200GB plan and then jumps all the way to 2TB, which most people will struggle to fill. With the 25% raise, 200GB of storage will jump from £2.49 to £2.99 a month and the 2TB rate from £6.99 to £8.99.  US prices will not be affected and nor will Apple One subscriptions which include 2TB of space - making it a better value proposition. But how does Google's offering compare?

Well for a start, all users get 15GB of Google Drive cloud storage for free, albeit spread across Gmail, Google Photos and Google Docs.  That's pretty generous compared to the 5GB iCloud offering.

Google's paid cloud storage service is called Google One, and you can get 100GB for £1.59 a month, 200GB for £2.49 a month or up to 2TB for £7.99 monthly. That makes the two larger plans cheaper than Apple's offering and while the basic plan may cost more than Apple's 99p effort, you do get twice the storage for less than twice the price.

Digital storage may not be a particularly sexy subject but with more and more of our data being stored in the cloud, it is only going to become a more pressing concern to get the best deal for our money. Of course, price isn't the only factor at play, with functionality and data security also a big factor to consider, if you use Microsoft 365 for example, then signing up for Microsoft's own OneDrive storage may be the best option for you.