pCloud Review

pCloud works as both secure online storage and file-sharing tool. It has some truly fantastic features. Let’s take a look: 

pCloud Features

pCloud sure has a lot of impressive features. Here are the most outstanding ones:

Access and Synchronization

pClour automatically syncs your data across multiple devices. It also uploads photos from your camera roll. 

With pCloud, you get offline access, which means you can sync file and folder copies both on your local device and in your secure file storage cloud. In addition to this, the pCloud Drive serves as a virtual hard drive. So when you keep your files in it, it doesn’t take up memory on your local device and lets you free up space on your hard drive. 

pCloud Back-Up  

Manual backups can be a drag, especially when you have heaps of files to store. Luckily, this feature works automatically.

Just choose the files or folders you want to back up. The software will do its job. Every time you make changes to any of these files, the system applies them instantly to your backups. Based on the tests for our pCloud backup review, it does work seamlessly.

And don’t worry if you’re working offline! The service will save your edits when you go online again. If you need to access the previous file versions, pCloud keeps them in File History for 30 days. You can keep them longer, but that’ll cost you an extra fee.

Aside from your computer files, you can back up other existing cloud storage services, too. It also lets you back up social apps including, but not limited to, Instagram and Facebook. 

Once you start the pCloud backup, you will find additional folders of different apps on the page and in each, you can find the data you stored. 

Media and Usability 

While testing for our pCloud review, we found the software is best suited for multimedia content and is inarguably the ideal choice for media cloud storage. Here’s a quick roundup of the features: 

• Built-in video player
• Built-in audio player with playlists
• Unlimited file size and speed

The highlight, however, is pCloud video streaming where it lets you watch the videos on the cloud without downloading them. 

Because of this, pCloud deservedly takes the place of the best cloud storage for videos. 

File Management 

pCloud rewind lets you preview online documents and access versions from up to 30 days. You can use it for data recovery, too, just like EaseUS. Files can be uploaded when you paste their URL addresses in the software. 

Screenshot Saving 

This file-sharing cloud storage allows you to save screenshots of your desktop to the cloud when you hit the Print Screen key. It saves a lot of your time as you won’t have to paste the picture on the image app. 

Collaboration 

The best cloud file-sharing services should make collaborating with different users on your files easy. pCloud comes with some impressive collaboration features. 

You can: 

• Invite users to a shared folder
• Brand your shared links
• Share links and file requests
• Brand your shared links – under this option, you will be able to customize the shared links with your headline, title image, and description.

pCloud Security 

PCloud has gain increased visibility among established market players because of its immense focus on security. It is one of the safest cloud storage services. 

pCloud uses TLS/SSL and zero-knowledge encryption when sending data to its servers. It means that even the pCloud staff cannot even retrieve your files if you lose your password and that only you have access to your sensitive information. This is why pCloud is said to be among the best secure cloud storage options. 

There is also an add-on service available, which is called pCloud Crypto. With this feature, you can create a Crypto pass that will let you lock and unlock your files easily. It works like a password manager for files. 

To get started with Crypto, you will have to create a strong password. Once that’s done, you will get a confirmation message. And while you can reset your password in the web interface, doing so will lead to the loss of the saved files. It gives you the option to start saving data with e2ee. In case the account holder loses their password, they would not be able to retrieve their e2ee files. 

pCloud uses AES 256 encryption to secure the data uploaded via Crypto and transmits it to its servers through 4096-bit RSA. pCloud also saves five copies of your files on different servers to provide you with maximum security.

Overall, pCloud is a secure cloud storage ideal for personal and business use. 

Since you’re dealing with internet storage, here are a few things that you have to be careful about regarding data protection. If you use the browser-based client to upload files, you may become vulnerable to a man-in-the-middle attack. To protect yourself, you can use the pCloud stand-alone clients that you can easily download from the app stores or website. 

Regardless of how perfect the security of pCloud is, there’s something we felt it’s fair to mention in our pCloud review:

Since pCloud is not open source, it is impossible for an independent third-party auditor to verify its encryption method or source code. The available information, however, is somewhat sufficient to deduce that pCloud is safe and your data is not in any imminent danger.  

pCloud also launched the pCloud Crypto hacking challenge that ran for six months. The company announced a reward of $100,000 cash price or its Bitcoin equivalent to any hacker who could beat its client-side encryption. Around 2,860 hackers entered, and none beat the encryption. 

pCloud Privacy 

pCloud is based in Switzerland where there isn’t any strict data retention policy. 

However, only users with paid accounts can benefit from that. If you have a free account and the US government wants access to any of your data and issues a warrant, it will all be available to it. This is because people who use a free account do not get end-to-end encryption of their files.  

Also, the data centers of pCloud are located in Dallas, Texas, USA. This means that you will have to pay the subscription and start using a pCloud premium account if you want foolproof privacy.

pCloud also collects information about your IP address, device, operating system, referral source, browser type, and version. It also keeps track of your visited pages, etc. Even though the company claims that this information is not linked to a particular account and cannot possibly be traced back to you, the same is not true in the case of your IP address. 

That’s something users were definitely not happy about, judging by pCloud reviews.

pCloud may ask for your email address or other personal information to: 

• Send automated messages or notifications that are relevant to your experience
• Run A/B and usability tests that can help improve the firm’s service

However, you can bypass that by using a VPN service that can easily mask your IP and other private information.

pCloud Apps 

pCloud has mobile apps for both iOS and Android devices. Once you have logged into your pCloud android app or pCloud iOS app, you will have to turn on the auto-upload option for videos and photos. 

On the app, you can go through the photos or play the videos. You don’t have to pause or close your video to continue using your browser - something often praised in pCloud reviews. You can also open a Word file on the read-only format. The Crypto folder can be accessed with your password. 

You can also download pCloud for Windows, Mac, or Linux. 

Ease of Use 

pCloud lets you access the files on your drive from a folder within Windows Explorer. If you want to share something with your contacts, it can be done with a simple click.  

The drop-down menu will lead you to the “Copy Download Link” option. Click on it and pass the link to the contact with whom you wanted to share the file. The thing that you have to be careful about is that the file you share is not protected if you have a free account. 

pCloud is undoubtedly one of the best sync software. It allows you to sync your pCloud account with all the folders on your hard drive. Any changes that you made on the original folder are automatically incorporated into your pCloud account. You can also easily view the photos and videos saved, without having to download them. 

We encountered no difficulties while testing for this pCloud review.

pCloud Pricing 

What makes pCloud attractive are the incredible pricing plans. 

Let’s start with the fact that there is  pCloud free version, which allows you 10GB storage. Pretty neat!

The personal lifetime prices are:

• 500 GB - $200 current promo price
• 2 TB - $400 current promo price
• 10 TB - $1200 current promo price

The Family Lifetime Prices are as follows:

• For 2TB the current promo price is $600
• For 10TB the current promo price is $1500

Finally, the Lifetime Crypto price is $150.

pCloud Review - Verdict 

This software has plenty of amazing features that will make your overall experience great. But the service does have a long way to go to compete with the big players in the industry. 

Since it is not a closed source, you can’t really be certain about what it might be doing with your data. Another thing that may weaken the case of the service is that its data centers are based in the US, which means that the authorities can assess the files if needed. 

Regardless of all these drawbacks, the service is excellent for beginners and for people looking for affordable cloud storage. 

Here’s what you should keep in mind:

If you are looking for pCloud alternatives, iDrive is a good choice.