When it comes to clouds, I usually consider the storage size, file size, and bandwidth limitations above anything else. Of course, it must be free, haha. I believe that bigger is better and unlimited is the best. However, competition in this segment is stiff and free unlimited services are hard to come by. Still, there are quite a few providers that offer huge storage space at zero cost.
OpenDrive gives 5 GB of cloud storage on their free account. But one advantage of their free offer is the hot linking of files in their Public folder, useful when integrating external files into websites.
Syncplicity promises you content access on any device. Their free plan includes a big 10 GB of space on top of unlimited file size syncing on an unlimited number of devices. There are absolutely no bandwidth restrictions, and there’s real-time document versioning and backup. Plus, you can share files and collaborate with anyone.
Impressed? That’s just the appetizer, haha. Google is one of the most trustworthy names in the business, and Drive gives you 15 GB for storing files of any type. Take note, the total size already includes space for products like Gmail and Docs, so upload only the most important files here.
Degoo provides a whopping 100 GB of cloud storage. It boasts secure military-grade encryption to protect files. However, the free plan is limited to 5 devices and a maximum file size of 1 GB only, also ad-supported. It’s not really a deal-breaker for me. I use it for my photos and audio files.
BackBlaze has a Personal Backup plan that is unlimited for just $7/month or $70/year. You can’t, however, share files with others. They do have B2 Cloud Storage which will cost you extra.
Got server? Host your own cloud using OwnCloud. The software is part of the Softaculous package.
Now that you have lots of cloud accounts, how do you organize all the files and data spread throughout different cloud providers? AirExplorer is free cloud storage account managers. AirCluster is a sister software that combines all your cloud account into one cluster.
CloudFlare offers a free Content Delivery Network or CDN service. GCoreLabs provides 1 TB traffic for free, but requires credit card information.
BelugaCDN charges just $0.01/GB of global bandwidth, with minimum of $1/month. If you hate monthly plans, BunnyCDN is pay as you go, however they have variable GB rate per region, but still cost-effective.
For my WordPress site, I don’t upload images in the server as it could easily fill-up any space. Instead, I use free image hosting services like ImgUr coupled with the Featured Image From URL plugin. ImgUr is 100% free, allows hotlinking with no limits whatsoever. ImgBox is an alternative. While ImgBB have an in-page upload plugin.
To make it easier to integrate ImgUr, I use ImgUr Uploader Google Chrome extension. Just right-click and select “Rehost image” on the context menu, and it opens the image in a new tab, you can then copy the URL and paste it as Featured Image. If preferred, use the PixaBay Images plugin to search and download the image within WordPress.
CloudFlare Image is a cheap pay as you go image storage that also resize and optimize. Pay only $5 per 100,000 images stored and $1 per 100,000 images delivered. Here’s an image resizing plugin for WordPress that uses CloudFlare’s Image Resizing service.
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