If you're an artist or designer, especially a freelancer, chances are you might need to send large graphic files to your clients. It can be a 500MB Photoshop file, 1GB+ EPS file, or a multi-page PDF of a book you laid out with Indesign.
Below's a list of cloud storage services that I use on a frequent basis.
| Service |
Google Drive |
Amazon Cloud Drive |
Dropbox |
Microsoft OneDrive |
| Free storage |
15GB |
5GB |
2GB |
15GB |
| Paid plans |
$2/mth for 100GB, $10/mth for 1TB |
$10/yr for 20GB, $25/yr for 50GB, $500/yr for 1TB |
$10/mth for 1TB |
$2/mth for 100GB, $4/mth for 200GB, $7/mth for 1TB |
| File size limit |
5GB |
2GB |
10GB using client application |
10GB |
There are numerous cloud storage services available. There's even a list compiled by Wikipedia that's located at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_file_hosting_services
I've only listed the more ubiquitous brands because chances are you probably have an account with them, so you don't have to create any new account with other companies.
The four main services all have the ability to create a download link that you can send easily to clients. Also, when clients are on the download page, they won't be bombarded by advertisements and other distractions.
I personally use Amazon Cloud Drive as my main cloud server for hosting shared files. I paid $25 per year to get 50GB, plus Amazon also throws in their Amazon Cloud Player which will store 250,000 songs. Currently, for $24/yr or $2/mth, you can get 100GB from Google Drive, same as OneDrive.
OneDrive from Microsoft is also good. They start with 15GB free storage. You get another 15GB free when you download their OneDrive mobile application. With OneDrive, you can easily get 30GB for free.
Apple iCloud has competitive pricing but unfortunately, it has no feature to create download links. To share files, you have to send the files as attachment in an email.
