pCloud
The lifetime-plan pioneer: 2 TB for a one-time $499, with a virtual drive that streams without filling your disk.
About
pCloud, founded in 2013 and headquartered in Baar, Switzerland, is the cloud drive that made lifetime plans mainstream. Premium tiers: 500 GB at $49.99/year or $219 once, 2 TB at $99.99/year or $499 once, 10 TB at $299.99/year or $1,499 once (pCloud defines lifetime as 99 years or the owner's life). The standout feature is pCloud Drive, a virtual disk that streams files without consuming local storage, plus a built-in music player and video streaming and recently added pCloud Docs editing. Free accounts open at 2 GB and can reach 10 GB through setup tasks and referrals.
Honest limits: zero-knowledge encryption is NOT included — the pCloud Crypto add-on ($150 lifetime or $49.99/year) only encrypts a single Crypto folder, and Gizmodo's 2026 testing noted unfixed issues in that folder's crypto while MEGA's comparable flaws were patched. A February 2026 incident exposed some customers' file names to other accounts. Lifetime is a bet on the company lasting, and discounted purchases may not be refundable — try the free plan first. No published independent performance benchmarks found.
What it can do
- Lifetime plans: 500 GB $219 / 2 TB $499 / 10 TB $1,499 one-time
- pCloud Drive virtual disk with streaming file access
- Built-in music player, video streaming, and pCloud Docs editing
- Crypto Folder client-side encryption add-on ($150 lifetime)
- File versioning (30 days paid, 15 days free) and account Rewind
- EU (Luxembourg) or US (Dallas) data region choice
- Family lifetime plans for up to five private accounts
Setup
Sign up free, complete the five setup tasks to grow the free tier toward 10 GB, then install pCloud Drive.
Prerequisites
An email address; paid plans need a card or PayPal.
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 7/10
Scored 7/10 (VERIFIED tier, metrics-v1). Evidence: lifetime and annual pricing consistent across Gizmodo pricing guide, internxt-vs-pcloud, and builtineu (official page checked Sep 2026); 2013 founding and Baar HQ per builtineu. Strengths: the lifetime-plan benchmark, excellent virtual drive, strong media features, fast transfer times in independent tests. Docked for: (1) client-side encryption is a paid add-on covering one folder only, with Gizmodo reporting unfixed crypto issues; (2) Feb 2026 filename-exposure incident and 14-day strict refund terms. License: proprietary SaaS.
How the trust score is built
Full methodology →- Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
- 9.0/10
- Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
- 8.0/10
- Openness · license + docs
- 5.0/10
- Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
- 7.0/10
- · Lifetime: 500 GB $219 / 2 TB $499 / 10 TB $1,499; Crypto add-on $150 lifetime (folder-only).
- · Feb 2026: some accounts displayed other customers' file/folder names (Gizmodo).
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.