A plain comparison across the dimensions that actually matter when picking cloud storage: price per TB, what you had to hand over to sign up, whether anyone else holds the keys, whether it can be shut off, and whether the code is open. No marketing superlatives — every row is a verifiable fact.
| Dropbox | Google Drive | Mega | iCloud / OneDrive | Backblaze B2 | Storj | Pithos + Sia | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price per TB/month | $10 (2 TB tier only) | $10 (2 TB tier) | $10 (2 TB tier) | $10 (2 TB tier) | $6 (pay-per-GB) | $4 (pay-per-GB) | $1–$2 (pay-per-GB) |
| Minimum spend | Monthly tier | Monthly tier | Monthly tier | Monthly tier | None | None | None — Sia accepts cents in a wallet |
| Signup | Email + password | Google account | Email + password | Apple / Microsoft ID | Email + card up-front | Email + payment | A Sia account (several accept crypto, no email) |
| Credit card required | Yes (paid tiers) | Yes (paid tiers) | Yes (paid tiers) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No — several Sia indexers accept crypto |
| Encryption at rest | Yes, Dropbox-held keys | Yes, Google-held keys | Yes, client-side (zero-knowledge) | Yes, provider-held | Server-side | Client-side, split across nodes | Client-side, split & encrypted across many hosts |
| Who holds the keys | Dropbox | You (zero-knowledge) | Apple / Microsoft | Backblaze | You | You — key derived from your Sia account, stays on your computer | |
| Can be shut down / censored | Yes — Dropbox TOS | Yes — Google TOS | Yes — Mega TOS | Yes | Yes — Backblaze TOS | Partially (storage node independence) | No single operator — files are split across many independent Sia hosts |
| S3-compatible API | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes — works with aws CLI, rclone, every S3 app |
| Open source | No | No | Partial | No | No | Yes (Storj client) | Yes — Pithos (MPL-2.0), s3d, Sia |
| Sync across devices | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No (storage only) | No (storage only) | Not yet (roadmap) |
| Collaborative editing | Yes (Paper) | Yes (Docs) | No | Yes (iWork / Office) | No | No | No |
| Share link (public read) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes — signed links, 1h / 1d / 1w expiry |
Headline prices translated to what you actually pay for the amount of data most people store. Dropbox / Google / iCloud force you to a tier; Backblaze, Storj and Sia bill for exactly what you use.
| Storage | Dropbox | Google Drive | Mega | Backblaze B2 | Storj | Pithos + Sia |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 GB (phone photos) | $10/mo (2 TB tier) | $2/mo (200 GB) | $5/mo (400 GB) | $0.60/mo | $0.40/mo | $0.10–$0.20/mo |
| 500 GB (personal backup) | $10/mo | $3/mo (2 TB) | $10/mo | $3/mo | $2/mo | $0.50–$1/mo |
| 2 TB (full home archive) | $10/mo | $10/mo | $10/mo | $12/mo | $8/mo | $2–$4/mo |
| 10 TB (media library) | $24/mo (3 TB max advertised) | $50/mo | $30/mo | $60/mo | $40/mo | $10–$20/mo |
Pithos's cost advantage grows with scale. At 500 GB, it's 10–20× cheaper than Dropbox / Google / iCloud; at 10 TB, it's still half the price of the cheapest competitor and under a third of the mainstream ones.
Honest trade-offs:
s3d and Sia are open).Pithos is free to install. You only need a Sia account when you want to actually store files — and even that costs cents to try.