Good value and secure Mega cloud storage
Do you remember the time you used to save all your “important” things to your laptop or mobile, not wanting to let them out of your sight?
Or maybe you used your email accounts to save the information.
Perhaps you still do….
But, if you don’t use secure cloud storage, what happens when:
- your laptop dies and you’ve not backed it up?
- your mobile phone’s stolen? or
- your email account’s hacked?
It’s happened more than once that I’ve lost my data and had to start over again.
That’s why I wrote this review about Mega after having looked for a trustworthy cloud storage company. It needed to include:
- securely encrypted storage
- good value for money
- a generous amount of cloud storage space
- good reviews
If you’re looking for a safe, encrypted cloud storage company….
Great, this MEGA cloud storage review is for you!
Trustworthy cloud storage for peace of mind
Deciding to use cloud storage wasn’t an easy choice for me as I was still in the mode of not wanting to save my data anywhere out of sight.
It was important that the cloud storage company was trustworthy to give peace of mind that my documents would only be accessible by me.
I decided to keep the cloud storage separate from the companies I generally used for internet browsing, email accounts and website purchases. I’ve included those options in the list of alternatives below, but for my purposes, it meant I wasn’t putting all my “eggs in one basket”.
Mega cloud storage review – the best choice
What is Mega?
Mega cloud storage is based in Auckland, New Zealand. It has powerful and extremely secure storage.
Mega doesn’t even have access to our data. With end to end encryption, they couldn’t mis-use it even if they wanted to. That’s a big tick for my trust and peace of mind, and it’s the main reason I chose to use Mega.
Unlike its competitors, Mega cloud storage has automatic User Controlled Encryption to ensure that only you control the decryption keys to your files to grant/deny access.
Mega is the only cloud storage company with browser-based high-performance end-to-end encryption
I was impressed with Mega’s trustworthy cloud storage features:
- its basic package provides a very secure 50GB of encrypted cloud storage. Unless you propose storing a lot of media files or large documents, you won’t need to upgrade any time soon due to lack of space, and it’s totally free;
- however, if you do need more storage, then you can easily upgrade for more space at a reasonable price. Ideal if you mostly store photos, videos and music, as it’ll free up a lot of space on your pc or wherever you’re currently storing them, and you can be sure that they’ll be securely encrypted.
Mega cloud storage is always up to date and secure
Mega continually improves its security to provide trustworthy cloud storage and ensure our files are kept private. It has browser plugins that not only reduce upload and download times but, more importantly, strengthen security with secure auto updates and high end-to-end encryption.
What’s it like using Mega cloud storage?
Having never used cloud storage before, I needed Mega to be intuitive and easy to use:
- everything can be easily organised online – search, store, download, stream, view, share, create, rename and delete
- it’s convenient to sync and manage the cloud storage across pc and mobile devices
- online collaboration and updates are in real-time
- automatically upload photos and save documents for offline access
When first registering to use Mega cloud storage, the system checks whether your password could withstand a brute-force attack, and prompts you to choose a stronger password.
It also provides the option of randomly generating a master key to save as a text file, in case you ever forget your password. Without that key, Mega won’t be able to provide access to your account because…. oh, did I tell you that Mega doesn’t intervene with the encryption/decryption process of your cloud storage and password? Yup, I thought I might have mentioned it, but hey, it’s a pretty important point, don’t you think?
Mega encrypted cloud storage is a front-runner if you’re looking for trustworthy cloud storage of any size.
Its facilities have worked really well for me; I’ve always had full, easy and secure access to my cloud storage whenever needed, and haven’t had any issues when using it on my mobile and pc. The Customer Service is helpful and respond quickly to email queries, bearing in mind any time zone differences.
A full list of cloud storage features can be found at Mega’s website (https://mega.co.nz), as well as more information about their pioneering plans to use encryption technology to protect our online communication.
UPDATE: Mega recently announced that it’ll be moving its website to https://mega.nz which is currently being used for the newly launched encrypted communication package, MegaChat. Email, calling and video conferencing will follow soon.
Keep up to date with Mega on its blog or follow on facebook or twitter.
Other Cloud Storage Companies
The list below is a selection of the other cloud storage companies I researched, as at March 2015. They either didn’t include enough storage space, had a renewal fee or were one of those that I use for daily internet usage, and therefore preferred not to use for cloud storage purposes.
Do check their websites and user reviews for more information, if required:
Provider | Storage Space | Cost | Features | Comments |
---|---|---|---|---|
Dropbox* | 2GB 100GB | Free £7.99 per month | 256-bit AES & SSL encryption, file recovery and version history within a 30 day period, sharing controls, remote wipe and account transfer and SSO and active director. | Cheap pricing offers for more storage space are often for a limited period, after which you'd need to pay an upgrade fee or change your provider. |
Google Drive | 15GB 100GB | Free $1.99 per month | Storage space shared across Google Drive, Gmail and Google+ plaforms | |
Amazon Cloud Drive | 5GB 20GB 50GB | Free £6 per year £16 per year | All photos taken with Amazon Fire phone, are stored free. Amazon Prime members get free unlimited photo storage. | |
Just Cloud | Unlimited | £9.95 per month | 256-bit encryption, 100% automated, encrypted and secure, share files, 24/7 technical support, unlimited file versioning and iPhone, iPad and Android apps. | The price starts at £9.95 per month and reduces with a six monthly or yearly storage plan. |
pCloud | 10GB 500GB | Free $3.99 per month | 10GB to 20GB free (see Comments section) | Each time a friend subscribes to PCloud or performs steps in the bonus program, the free storage quota increases up to 20GB. |
Mankayia | Unlimited | Free | Software community developed and supported. Files are encrypted as they are sent from your computer and remain encrypted until they return to your device. | Storage is free for an unlimited amount of storage space, provided each file size is less than 200MB. if a larger file size is required, then there's a one-time payment of $10 to allow storage of larger files. |
SurDoc | 100GB Unlimited | Free $8.33 per month | No restriction on document storage size. Military grade SSL security encryption. Continuous and automatic storage backup. | 100GB free cost increases to $2.50 per month after first year. |
Note: this review is a general resource, not intended to be professional advice.
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