Every European cloud storage tool reviewed
Zurich, Switzerland
Founded 2011
From about €10.42/month (Personal)
14-day trial, no free tier
Best for: Businesses and individuals requiring maximum security for sensitive files
Tresorit encrypts more of the picture than anything else in this category.
Files are encrypted on the device before upload with keys that never leave it, each file gets a unique key, and those keys are themselves encrypted with a master key derived from your password — but the part that separates Tresorit is that file names, folder structures and metadata are encrypted too. A competitor that protects contents while leaving "Q3 layoffs — legal review.docx" readable on the server has protected less than it claims.
Tresorit AG is headquartered in Zurich, originally founded in Budapest in 2011, and is a subsidiary of Swiss Post — a state-owned postal operator, which is a materially different ownership structure from a venture-funded startup that can be acquired.
Data centres are in Switzerland, Ireland and the Netherlands, and the service has undergone independent security audits. Pricing starts around €10.42 per month for Personal with no free tier, only a 14-day trial. Forgetting your password without recovery configured means the files are permanently gone — the architecture working as designed.
What Tresorit does well
- Encrypts file names, folder structures and metadata, not just contents
- Owned by Swiss Post, a state-owned operator rather than investors
- Data centres in Switzerland, Ireland and the Netherlands
- Independently audited zero-knowledge architecture
- Strong business and enterprise controls for regulated teams
Where Tresorit falls short
- Most expensive in this category at about €10.42/month
- No free tier, only a 14-day trial
- No integrated document editing — needs a separate tool
- Not open source, so the implementation must be trusted
Standout feature. Encrypted metadata: Tresorit hides the folder structure and the metadata from the server as well as the file name, not just what is inside the file.
Stuttgart, Germany
Founded 2016
Free self-hosted / Enterprise plans on request
Free self-hosted
Best for: Organisations that need complete control over where their data lives
Nextcloud is the only open-source entry in this category with no provider in the middle.
Nextcloud is AGPL-licensed software that runs on infrastructure you control — a home server, a VPS from a European provider such as Hetzner, or your own data centre — and your files never touch Nextcloud GmbH unless you deliberately pick a managed hosting partner. For an organisation that must guarantee data stays inside its own jurisdiction, that guarantee comes from the architecture rather than from a contract, which is why German hospitals, French schools and Swedish government agencies run it.
Nextcloud GmbH is based in Stuttgart, and the product goes well past storage: file sync, calendar, contacts, Nextcloud Talk for calls and messaging, Nextcloud Office for collaborative document editing, and an app marketplace covering everything from forms to project boards. It replaces Google Workspace rather than Dropbox.
The self-hosted version is free; enterprise plans add support and hardening. The cost is operational — someone has to run it, update it, back it up and be responsible when sync breaks — which is why it makes sense for organisations with infrastructure staff and rarely for households.
What Nextcloud does well
- No provider holds your data at all — you host it yourself
- Files, calendar, contacts, Talk and Office in one platform
- AGPL open source with a large app marketplace
- Used across European healthcare, education and government
- Free to run, with enterprise support available
Where Nextcloud falls short
- You are responsible for hosting, updates, backups and support
- Performance depends entirely on the server you put it on
- Initial setup is a real project rather than a signup
- Mobile and desktop clients less polished than commercial rivals
Standout feature. No processor at all: Nextcloud is the only open-source option in this category where there is no data processing agreement to negotiate, because there is no third party holding anything.
Valencia, Spain
Founded 2020
Free 1GB / from about €0.89/month; lifetime plans available
Free tier
Best for: Privacy-conscious users wanting future-proof encryption at a low price
Internxt is the only provider in this category building for a threat that has not arrived yet. Alongside AES-256, Internxt implements Kyber 512, a lattice-based post-quantum algorithm resistant to attack by both classical and quantum computers. The reasoning is concrete rather than speculative: data captured today can be stored and decrypted later, so anything with a decades-long confidentiality requirement — medical records, legal files, financial history — is exposed by today's key exchange even though today's computers cannot break it.
Internxt operates from Valencia with data centres in the European Union, giving intra-EEA processing, and holds HIPAA, ISO 27001 and SOC 2 compliance with an open-source codebase. The zero-knowledge architecture means Internxt cannot read stored files, and cannot recover them if you lose your password.
Pricing is the most aggressive here: a free 1GB tier and paid plans from about €0.89 per month for 20GB, scaling to 2TB and beyond, with lifetime plans available. As a younger company the ecosystem is thinner — fewer third-party integrations and some collaboration features still in development.
What Internxt does well
- Post-quantum Kyber 512 encryption alongside AES-256
- HIPAA, ISO 27001 and SOC 2 compliance with open-source code
- Cheapest ongoing pricing here from about €0.89/month
- Spanish company, EU data centres, intra-EEA processing
- Lifetime plans available alongside subscriptions
Where Internxt falls short
- Younger company with a less mature ecosystem
- Limited third-party integrations
- Advanced collaboration features still in development
- Lose your password and the files are unrecoverable
Standout feature. Kyber 512: Internxt is the only provider in this category encrypting against quantum attack, which is the difference for files that must stay secret for decades rather than years.
Geneva, Switzerland
Founded 1994
Free 15GB / from CHF 5.99/month
Free 15GB tier
Best for: Users wanting a Google Drive replacement with a working office suite
kDrive is the most complete Google Drive replacement in this category, because it keeps the documents working. Alongside storage, kDrive includes an online office suite, real-time collaboration and file versioning — the things the zero-knowledge providers structurally cannot offer, since a server that cannot read a file cannot let two people edit it. For sensitive material the Vault feature adds client-side encryption on selected files, so the everyday folder stays collaborative while the confidential folder becomes unreadable to Infomaniak.
kDrive is operated by Infomaniak Network SA from Geneva, in its own data centres in Geneva and Winterthur running on 100% renewable energy, with ISO 27001 certification and open-source clients and apps.
The free tier is the most generous here at 15GB, with paid plans from CHF 5.99 per month and storage available up to 106TB. kDrive slots into the wider kSuite alongside kMail, kMeet and kChat. The limits are ecosystem depth: fewer third-party integrations than Google, and an office suite that occasionally falls short of Microsoft Office or Google Docs on complex documents.
What kDrive by Infomaniak does well
- Online office suite and real-time collaboration, not just storage
- 15GB free — the most generous free tier in this category
- Vault adds client-side encryption for selected sensitive files
- Own Swiss data centres on 100% renewable energy, ISO 27001
- Open-source clients, and part of the wider kSuite
Where kDrive by Infomaniak falls short
- Fewer third-party integrations than the Google ecosystem
- Office suite trails Microsoft and Google on complex documents
- Not zero-knowledge by default — only the Vault folder is
- Swiss Franc pricing exposes non-Swiss buyers to exchange rates
Standout feature. Vault alongside a working office suite: kDrive is the only provider here that lets you collaborate normally on most files and make specific folders unreadable to the provider.
Germany
Founded 2020
Free 10GB / from about €1.99/month
Free 10GB tier
Best for: Privacy-focused users wanting straightforward German encrypted storage
Filen encrypts everything by default and hosts it all in Germany, which is a short and unusually clean proposition. Every file is end-to-end encrypted on the device before upload — not an add-on, not a special folder, the whole account — and the clients are open source so the implementation can be inspected rather than trusted. Alongside storage, Filen covers file versioning, sharing, notes and contacts sync, which is more than most encrypted providers manage.
Filen Cloud Dienste UG is a German company with German data centres, giving intra-EEA processing under one of the strictest data protection regimes in Europe.
Pricing is a free 10GB tier and paid plans from about €1.99 per month — generous for genuine end-to-end encryption. The trade-offs come from the architecture.
Encryption adds computational overhead, so transfers are slightly slower than unencrypted services, especially on older hardware; previews work by generating encrypted thumbnails on your own device and uploading those separately. Launched in 2020, Filen is still filling out features, third-party integration is limited because no external service can read the files, and collaboration is basic — sharing works, but there is no real-time co-editing or comments.
What Filen does well
- End-to-end encryption on every file by default, not as an add-on
- Open-source clients that can be independently inspected
- German company and German data centres, intra-EEA processing
- 10GB free and paid plans from about €1.99/month
- Notes and contacts sync alongside file storage
Where Filen falls short
- Encryption overhead means slower transfers on older devices
- No real-time co-editing or comments
- Limited third-party integrations, an unavoidable consequence of E2E
- Launched in 2020, so still maturing against established rivals
Standout feature. Everything encrypted by default: Filen applies end-to-end encryption to the whole account rather than to an add-on folder you have to remember to use.
Baar, Switzerland
Founded 2013
From about €49.99/year or €199 lifetime (500GB)
Free tier
Best for: Users who want to buy storage once instead of subscribing forever
pCloud is the only provider in this category that will sell you storage outright. A one-time €199 buys 500GB for as long as the service exists, and €399 buys 2TB, with all features and updates included.
Against roughly €50 a year on subscription, the 500GB plan pays for itself in about four years — and pCloud has been operating since 2013 with demonstrated financial stability, which is the reassurance available for a bet that is fundamentally on the company's survival. Regular promotions discount the lifetime plans further.
pCloud AG is based in Baar, Switzerland, though its development team is largely in Bulgaria, and it offers a choice most providers do not: data centres in Luxembourg inside the EU, or in Texas.
That choice decides whether the US CLOUD Act reaches your files, and it is made once at signup. Standard encryption is applied in transit and at rest, which means pCloud can access files; true zero-knowledge requires the pCloud Crypto add-on at €4.99 per month or €125 once, creating an encrypted folder pCloud cannot read. Encrypted files cannot be shared directly, and there is no built-in document editing.
What pCloud does well
- Lifetime plans: €199 once for 500GB, €399 for 2TB
- Choice of EU (Luxembourg) or US data centres
- Operating since 2013 with demonstrated stability
- Built-in media player, automatic backup and file versioning
- pCloud Crypto available as a lifetime purchase too
Where pCloud falls short
- No end-to-end encryption by default — Crypto costs extra
- Encrypted files cannot be shared directly
- No built-in document editing, and fewer integrations than Dropbox
- Swiss company but development largely based in Bulgaria
Standout feature. The lifetime plan: pCloud is the only provider in this category where storage is a purchase rather than a subscription, which changes the arithmetic entirely past year four.
Wales, United Kingdom
Founded 2019
Free 10GB / from about €1.67/month
Free 10GB tier
Best for: Users wanting strong encryption with genuinely good design
Icedrive is the best-designed product in this category, and the virtual drive is why it matters practically rather than aesthetically.
On Windows, Icedrive mounts your cloud storage as a local drive letter that behaves like any other folder: you browse it in File Explorer and open files directly, with data streamed on demand rather than downloaded first. A 2TB archive therefore does not need 2TB of local disk, which is the difference between cloud storage being usable and being a website you visit. Comparable functionality exists on macOS.
Icedrive is operated by ID Cloud Services Ltd from Wales, with data centres in the UK and Germany, and applies client-side zero-knowledge encryption so Icedrive cannot read stored files.
The jurisdiction deserves a clear read: the UK maintains GDPR-equivalent protection through the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 under an adequacy decision, but it is part of the Five Eyes alliance and has passed the Investigatory Powers Act. Zero-knowledge encryption is what mitigates that — a compelled disclosure produces ciphertext. Pricing is a free 10GB tier and paid plans from about €1.67 per month.
What Icedrive does well
- Virtual drive streams files on demand without local duplication
- Client-side zero-knowledge encryption
- Genuinely well-designed interface and apps
- 10GB free and paid plans from about €1.67/month
- Data centres in the UK and Germany
Where Icedrive falls short
- UK jurisdiction: Five Eyes member with the Investigatory Powers Act
- No built-in document editing or real-time collaboration
- Selective sync less flexible than some competitors
- Founded 2019, so a shorter track record than established providers
Standout feature. The virtual drive: Icedrive is the only provider here that turns cloud storage into a drive letter you can work from directly, so archive size stops being limited by local disk.
Oslo, Norway
Founded 2008
Free 5GB / EUR 12.90 per month or EUR 129 per year for Unlimited
Free tier
Best for: Households and small teams backing up everything they own
Jottacloud sells unlimited storage for a fixed price, which is rare enough to be the reason to look at it. EUR 12.90 a month or EUR 129 a year covers backup of as many devices as one person has, with no per-gigabyte arithmetic and no tier to outgrow. The asterisk is real: unlimited is governed by fair use rather than a published ceiling, so anyone planning to park tens of terabytes should get that in writing before committing.
The jurisdiction is the other half of the case. Jotta AS is Norwegian-owned, organisation number 992 603 615, and has run its own datacentres in Oslo and Stavanger since 2011 rather than renting capacity from a hyperscaler — so the company, the servers and the law are in one place, which is exactly the alignment most cloud storage cannot claim.
Its Privacy Guarantee commits to handing over nothing without a warrant from a Norwegian court.
Norway sits in the EEA rather than the EU, so GDPR applies in full while the country is outside EU institutions: for most buyers that distinction is academic, for a public body with an EU-only procurement rule it is not.
What Jottacloud does well
- Unlimited storage at a fixed price, with no per-device charge
- Owns its datacentres in Oslo and Stavanger instead of renting from a hyperscaler
- Norwegian ownership, Norwegian law, data never leaves the country
- Privacy Guarantee requires a Norwegian court warrant before any disclosure
Where Jottacloud falls short
- Unlimited is fair-use bounded, with no published ceiling
- EEA but not EU, which matters under an EU-only procurement rule
- No client-side zero-knowledge encryption by default, unlike Filen or Internxt
Standout feature. Company, servers and law all in Norway — an alignment almost no cloud storage can claim.
Geneva, Switzerland
Founded 2014
Free 5GB / Drive Plus 200GB at €4.99/month or €47.88/year
Free 5GB tier; 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans
Best for: People who want encrypted storage by default from a company that owns its servers
Proton Drive is end-to-end encrypted cloud storage from Proton AG, the Geneva company behind Proton Mail, and it encrypts file names as well as the files themselves.
The Proton Drive apps for iOS, Android, Windows and macOS are published under GPL-3.0, and Securitum has audited them with the report made public, so the encryption claim rests on code and an audit rather than on a promise. Docs and Sheets are included, which takes Proton Drive further towards a workspace than most encrypted storage in this category.
Proton AG was founded in 2014 and keeps Proton Drive data in Switzerland and Germany, on server hardware and a network Proton owns rather than rents. That makes the chain short: a Swiss company on its own machines, with no hyperscaler underneath. Switzerland is outside the EEA, and transfers from the EU rest on an adequacy decision, so the legal position matches Tresorit and kDrive rather than the EU-based providers here.
Proton Drive has a free 5GB tier, and Drive Plus costs €4.99 a month or €47.88 a year for 200GB, with a 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans. Proton states ISO 27001 certification for Proton for Business. Because the server holds only ciphertext, anything that needs the server to read a file, such as searching across contents, has to happen on the device or not at all.
What Proton Drive does well
- End-to-end encryption of file names as well as file contents
- GPL-3.0 apps for iOS, Android, Windows and macOS, with a published Securitum audit
- Servers in Switzerland and Germany on hardware and network Proton owns
- Docs and Sheets included alongside the storage
- Drive Plus: 200GB for €4.99 a month or €47.88 a year, with a 30-day money-back guarantee
Where Proton Drive falls short
- Swiss jurisdiction: covered by an adequacy decision, but outside the EEA
- ISO 27001 is stated for Proton for Business, so check its scope before relying on it for a personal plan
- The 5GB free tier is half of what Filen and Icedrive give away
- No server-side search across file contents, a direct consequence of end-to-end encryption
Standout feature. Proton Drive encrypts file names as well as contents on servers Proton owns in Switzerland and Germany, and its GPL-3.0 apps come with a published audit, so the encryption can be read and checked rather than trusted.
Hamburg, Germany
Founded 2008
€76/year for 1 user with 10GB (Professional Starter, excl. VAT)
30-day trial
Best for: Teams sharing confidential folders with clients and partners, where the keys must stay with the users
TeamDrive is end-to-end encrypted team storage from TeamDrive Systems GmbH in Hamburg, founded in 2008, and TeamDrive never holds the keys. Files are encrypted on the client with AES-256 and the keys stay with the users, so the provider stores ciphertext wherever the data ends up. Guest licences are unlimited and free, which lets a firm bring clients and partners into a shared folder without buying each of them a seat.
Where the data sits depends on how TeamDrive is deployed. The TeamDrive cloud service runs in IONOS SE data centres in Frankfurt, so the company, the servers and the infrastructure provider are all European.
TeamDrive can also run hybrid or entirely on your own servers, or put its encrypted data on Azure or OneDrive storage you choose. That last option places a US provider in the chain; because the keys stay with the users, what that provider holds is unreadable to it.
TeamDrive holds ISO 27001:2022 certification from TÜV Nord and the EuroPriSe privacy seal, one of the stronger audit positions among the storage providers here. TeamDrive Professional Starter costs €76 a year for one user with 10GB, excluding VAT, after a 30-day trial. Per gigabyte that is far above the consumer services in this category: TeamDrive is priced as a secure collaboration tool for businesses, not as somewhere to keep a photo library.
What TeamDrive does well
- Client-side AES-256 encryption with the keys held by users, not by TeamDrive
- ISO 27001:2022 certified by TÜV Nord, plus the EuroPriSe privacy seal
- Hosted service runs in IONOS SE data centres in Frankfurt
- Hosted, hybrid or on-premise, so the servers can be your own
- Unlimited free guest licences for people outside the organisation
Where TeamDrive falls short
- Closed source, so nobody outside TeamDrive can read the code that does the encryption
- €76 a year for 10GB is business pricing, expensive per gigabyte next to the consumer services
- Choosing Azure or OneDrive as the storage back end puts a US provider in the chain
- The on-premise route hands your own IT staff the servers, the patching and the backups
Standout feature. TeamDrive keeps the keys with the users wherever the storage lives, so the same encrypted team folder can sit in Frankfurt, on your own hardware or on Azure without the storage provider being able to read it.
Berlin, Germany
Founded 1997
From €6/month for 500GB, €7.50 for 1TB (incl. VAT); first-year discounts
1 month free on selected plans (e.g. Starter)
Best for: Buyers who want their files in data centres the provider runs itself, in one country
HiDrive is the cloud storage product of STRATO GmbH, a Berlin hosting company founded in 1997 and part of IONOS Group SE. HiDrive stores files only in Germany, in two data centres STRATO runs itself, so there is no third-party operator between the company and the disks. HiDrive holds ISO 27001 certification from TÜV Nord and carries the Trusted Cloud label of the German economics ministry.
Encryption on HiDrive is a choice rather than the default. End-to-end encryption is an option at 2 € a month extra, which means that without it STRATO runs storage it is technically able to read: the same trade pCloud makes with its Crypto add-on. For files that must stay confidential from the provider, the add-on is the part of the price to include from the start.
HiDrive starts at 6 € a month for 500GB and 7.50 € for 1TB, including VAT, with first-year discounts and one month free on selected plans such as Starter. A family plan covers five users, and automatic backups run with a retention period you set yourself. The ownership is worth knowing: STRATO belongs to IONOS Group SE, so HiDrive is one product inside a larger hosting group.
What HiDrive (STRATO) does well
- Files stay in Germany, in two data centres STRATO runs itself
- ISO 27001 certified by TÜV Nord, with the Trusted Cloud label of the German economics ministry
- Optional end-to-end encryption for 2 € a month
- Family plan for five users
- Automatic backups with a retention period you choose
Where HiDrive (STRATO) falls short
- End-to-end encryption is a paid add-on rather than the default
- Closed source, so the encryption add-on is a claim rather than code you can read
- First-year discounts apply, so the renewal price is the one to budget for
- Part of IONOS Group SE, so the product sits inside a larger hosting group
Standout feature. HiDrive keeps every file in two German data centres that STRATO operates itself, so no outside infrastructure provider sits between the Berlin company and the hardware.
