Backblaze vs pCloud Comparison 2026
Backblaze charges $6.95 a terabyte every month, metered and ongoing, reached through an S3-compatible API rather than a desktop app. pCloud sells the same idea as a single payment: 2 TB for $399 once, with a virtual drive and native apps on six platforms so a media library stays browsable without downloading it first. Do the math on your own terabyte count. At $6.95 a month, 2 TB of Backblaze crosses pCloud's lifetime price at around 29 months, a little over two years, and every month after that is where the lifetime plan wins.
At a glance
- Backblaze starts cheaper, at $6.95.
- Neither has a free tier.
Side by side
Backblaze | pCloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $6.95 | From $199 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Paid subscription | One-time purchase |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Billing (they differ) | Usage-based | One-time purchase |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Yes |
Backblaze
Cloud storage at $6.95 a terabyte
Backblaze B2 is object storage priced at a fraction of what the big three charge, with an S3-compatible API so most tools already speak to it. For a video archive that has to exist somewhere and rarely gets read, the arithmetic is hard to argue with. Egress is free up to three times what you store, and above that it is billed by the gigabyte.
Our note
Egress decides this one, not the $6.95. Free retrieval up to three times average storage covers an archive that is written often and read rarely. A working library pulled back every week meets the penny a gigabyte, and that is a different bill.
pCloud
Cloud storage you buy once and keep
pCloud sells lifetime storage for a single payment, which over five years costs less than any subscription and removes the monthly bill from a creator's overheads. Files stream without downloading first, so a media library stays browsable. The one-time price is real but the encryption add-on is separate, and lifetime means the company's lifetime.
Our note
Why people weigh these two
- pCloud instead of Backblaze
- Consumer cloud storage bought once at $199 and kept, one payment against Backblaze's $6.95 per-terabyte metering.
- Backblaze instead of pCloud
- Backblaze bills by the terabyte every month rather than one lifetime payment, cheaper to start and simpler to cancel if the archive turns out smaller than planned.
Which one should you pick
Take Backblaze if the archive is still growing and paying monthly keeps the commitment small. There is no lifetime bet to make, egress is free up to three times what you store, and the S3-compatible API slots into backup tools you probably already run. What it does not have is a consumer app: everything moves through the API, with runs-on listed as web only.
Take pCloud if the size is roughly known and a single payment beats a bill that never ends. 2 TB is $399 once, with a 14-day money-back guarantee, and files stream straight from it without downloading first, which keeps a media archive browsable from native apps on macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android. Client-side encryption costs extra on top of the plan. Lifetime means the company's lifetime, not yours, so it is not the place for the only copy of anything irreplaceable.
Common questions
- At what point does pCloud's lifetime plan beat paying Backblaze monthly?
- For 2 TB, a little over two years. pCloud charges $399 once for 2 TB; Backblaze charges $6.95 a terabyte a month, or $13.90 a month for the same 2 TB, which crosses $399 at about 29 months. Every month after that, the lifetime plan is the cheaper one.
- Does either charge for downloading files back out?
- Backblaze does, past a point: egress is free up to three times what you store, then a cent a gigabyte. pCloud's lifetime and subscription plans carry no comparable egress charge, since streaming and downloading are part of what the storage plan buys.
- Is pCloud's lifetime plan really lifetime?
- It lasts as long as the company does, not as long as the buyer does. pCloud has been running since 2013, longer than most, and a 14-day money-back guarantee covers the purchase itself, but nothing protects the plan if the company were to close. Backblaze carries no equivalent risk, since it bills monthly with nothing paid years in advance.
- Which one has apps for phones and desktops?
- pCloud does, on macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android, with a virtual drive that streams files without using local disk. Backblaze is reached through its API and the web, built to be written to by other software rather than opened as a desktop app.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.