pCloud review

pCloud stands out because you can buy storage once. Its lifetime plans cover 500 GB, 2 TB and 10 TB for a single payment, and subscription billing is also offered. Every Premium plan includes pCloud Photos, with timeline and map views, and pCloud Docs, which has six editors for documents, spreadsheets, presentations, PDFs, text and markdown. A built-in music and video player streams media straight from the cloud, the desktop app can work with files without filling local disk space, and you can recover data from up to 30 days back. The Family Plan covers up to 5 users. The catches: client-side encryption is sold separately as pCloud Encryption, so standard plans are not zero-knowledge, and a lifetime plan is a bet that the company will be around for decades. From our location the pricing page showed euros only, so the USD price is pending.

Who it is for

People who would rather pay once than subscribe, and families who want a single shared plan for up to 5 users.

Price

See vendor pricing (USD check pending).

US price check pending. See the vendor pricing page.

Key features

• Lifetime plans paid once for 500 GB, 2 TB or 10 TB
• pCloud Photos with timeline and map views
• pCloud Docs with six built-in editors
• Recover data from up to 30 days ago and restore earlier versions
• Family Plan for up to 5 users

Strengths and weaknesses

• Strength: Lifetime pricing removes the yearly bill
• Strength: Built-in music and video player streams media from the cloud
• Strength: Swiss privacy laws and a family plan for up to 5 users
• Weakness: Client-side pCloud Encryption is a paid add-on, not included in standard plans
• Weakness: Lifetime plans are a large upfront payment that depends on the company lasting
• Weakness: Prices on the page we fetched were shown in euros, not USD

Key facts

• Lifetime tiers: 500 GB, 2 TB, 10 TB
• File recovery: Up to 30 days
• Family plan: Up to 5 users
• Users: 24+ million, per pCloud

Where it ranks

pCloud is No. 5 in our Best Cloud Storage Services verdict.