Rebel Tech AllianceFile Storage & Backup alternatives
Alternatives to: GDrive, OneDrive, iCloud
Simliar to email, Big tech cloud storage providers regularly scan your files, photos and metadata. They do this for two reasons - two improve their data profile they keep on you, and to train their AI models. So what you need is a cloud storage provider that protects you from the cloud storage provider!
The best way to do this is choose services with 'zero-trust encryption', aka 'zero-knowledge encryption' or End-To-End Encryption (E2EE). This means your cloud storage provider cannot see your files or photos/video data, only you can. Not even the security services can get the data from them, because they cannot see it.
The following services all have E2EE:
| App name | Open Source | Structure; Business model | Features | Focus | Country of origin | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Filen | Yes | Private company; Free and paid plans | Very flexible back up and mirroring options; Mount drive on laptop; Linux app | Files and photo storage; Backup | Germany | Filen.io |
| Proton Drive | Yes | Private company; Free and paid plans | Document collaboration (text docs only); Part of Proton ecosystem | File and photo storage | Switzerland | Proton Drive |
| Ente | Yes | Private company; Free and paid plans | Memories 'on this day'; On-device AI; Share albums | Photo storage and backup | USA | Ente.io |
| NordLocker | No | Private company; Free and paid plans | Private file sharing | File and photo storage | Netherlands / Lithuania / Panama | NordLocker.com |
| Sync.com | No | Private company; Paid plans | Business features available | File and photo storage | Canada | Sync.com |
| The Good Cloud | No | Private company; Paid plans | Hosted version of NextCloud; Family plan available | File and photo storage | Netherlands | TheGood.Cloud |
| Backblaze | No | Private company; Paid plans | Uncapped data | Backup | USA | Backblaze.com |
RTA's choice
We use Proton Drive and Filen for file storage (and in Filen's case, backup too), and Backblaze for backup.
Changing to an encrypted cloud storage service is really easy. You still keep your Gdrive, OneDrive or iCloud, Just stop using it for anything new. Download all files and photos to a laptop and upload them to the new service. Once you're happy and confident with the new service you can remove all files and photos from the big tech one.
We need to mention Immich, an amazing open source product for phots backup and storage. It has incredible local machine learning capabilites making the search through your photos very powerful. HOWEVER, it must be self-hosted, and it very complicated to set up. This is why it's not in the table above.
Another service is Mega, who, despite their offering being excellent, we thought they were a New Zealand company but they list their head office as located in Hungary. Due to this country falling under anthoritarian rule we cannot recommend Mega. This may not be a problem for you.