You’ll have seen plenty of free services advertised, but these are all limited in some way, be it low storage capacity or sub-par security. pCloud avoids both those pitfalls, but that doesn’t mean paying for yet another monthly subscription. In fact, the company is offering three months’ access to the 500GB plan completely free of charge. That’s more storage space than you’ll find on most laptops, with no payment information required. Click here to get three months of pCloud completely free Once that period is over, a single payment will get you lifetime access to the service. Considering the monthly cost of competitors, this makes pCloud’s 2TB plan essentially free to use after just three years.

What makes pCloud so good?

Alongside an enviable free trial and lifetime plans, there are plenty of other reasons to choose pCloud. The first is simply where the company is located. Switzerland has very strict legislation with regards to data protection and privacy, more so than many other countries. Being based here means pCloud must adhere to these regulations, despite the service being available around the world. You’ll also find pCloud data centres in Luxembourg and Texas, but both are ISO certified. That means they’ve been accredited to be world-class in their quality, safety and efficiency. The physical centres themselves maintain high safety standards, but files are still mirrored across multiple locations to prevent any access issues. For even more security, there’s also the option for lifetime access to pCloud’s excellent encryption service. This is reserved for those very private files that you’d rather no-one else can ever see – including pCloud administrators. So far, 2860 hackers from around the world have tried to access encrypted files, with no successful attempts. It’s no wonder pCloud describes itself as ‘Europe’s most secure cloud storage’. But that’s nothing without a great user experience, which the service also excels at. Once pCloud is downloaded, it’s as simple as choosing which locally stored files and folders you’d like to automatically backup. On mobile, this can also include your camera roll and videos, with everything viewable within any of the official apps. These are available across all your devices, with Windows, macOS (including Apple Silicon), Linux, iOS and Android all supported. There’s also a pCloud Save browser extension for Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Opera, which lets you quickly add files from the web. A Recycle Bin prevents anything from being accidentally deleted, while older versions of files remain accessible for up to a year after they were removed or replaced. Other key features include the ability to share files using a link and an intelligent search function built into all the apps. By focusing on these core features, pCloud is able to deliver a great cloud storage solution that lasts a lifetime. If you’re looking to secure your files and other important data, it’s an excellent option. A three-month free trial of the 500GB plan is available now on the pCloud website, with no payment details required. But if pCloud has already convinced you, a lot of money can be saved on the lifetime plans. 500GB of storage will set you back just £149 with 65% off, while another big saving drops the 2TB plan to £299 from its usual £850. There’s an even bigger 73% discount on pCloud’s excellent encryption, which is now just an extra £107.