pCloud Review 2025: Really as Secure as Promised?

There are many cloud storage solutions available today - and they all offer pretty much the same thing. pCloud aims to stand out from its competitors with Swiss data protection standards and user-friendly terms. But does it succeed?

We thoroughly tested pCloud and compared it with other cloud storage services to help you make your choice.

While most cloud storage services opt for minimalist interfaces, pCloud has given its apps more personality. Whether you like this design is a matter of personal taste – we quite enjoy it.

Like all platforms, there are three main ways to access your cloud storage: the web interface, a desktop app, and a mobile app. Let's take a closer look at each one:

You can access your pCloud storage from any browser using the web interface. All you need are your login details and an internet connection.

The interface is clean and you can reach all important features with just a few clicks. It's logically organized into five areas:

You have plenty of options to display and organize your files and folders. pCloud supports common filtering options ("Name", "Last modified", "File size") and several view options, including grid and list views.

The search feature is solid: It searches your entire cloud storage, not just the files in your current folder. You can also filter your search by file types like images, audio files, or documents. However, the search only looks at file names, not the content of your documents (unlike Google Drive).

Unfortunately, there's no document editor. Unlike Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, or Dropbox, you can't open and edit Word or Excel files directly in the cloud storage. You can only preview documents and download them for offline editing.

On the bright side, it comes with a built-in audio and video player for streaming media files. Audio files played smoothly, but pCloud struggled with our video test - even with a good internet connection, we couldn't get smooth playback.

We also ran into some performance issues beyond the video player. Sometimes the pCloud web app would freeze and wouldn't let us access our folders. Only restarting the app would fix things - at least for a while.

Overall, we like pCloud's user interface, even though the colorful tiles on the home page and ads in the free plan might look a bit "cheap." The bigger issue was the performance problems, which got pretty annoying over time.

When you install pCloud Drive on your desktop, you can access your cloud folders right from your file manager. During installation, pCloud creates a virtual drive that works as a window to your cloud storage. You can work with your cloud files as if they were on your computer, without taking up any storage space.

Many cloud storage services don't offer a real desktop app - just a sync tool that handles file synchronization across devices.

While pCloud Drive handles syncing too, it also comes with a feature-rich desktop interface. This makes it easier to use on your computer. You can drag and drop files to upload them to the cloud, manage sharing settings, and even request files from others. The interface may not look as modern as the browser version, but it works well.

Unfortunately, the app shows that pCloud makes syncing more complicated than other cloud storage services. One reason is that the different sync types aren't clearly separated (more on this in the next chapter).

There's also a mobile app so you can access your cloud files on the go. It's pretty straightforward to use. The home screen has a nice module-based layout that you can customize to some extent. The "Files" section shows all your cloud files in an organized way.

You can set up automatic syncing for photos and videos from your device to the cloud. You can also manually upload photos and scan documents to save them directly to the cloud.

We've compiled a list of all platforms where you can use pCloud. Good news for Linux users - there's a Linux client that, according to users, works just as well as the Windows and macOS apps:

With pCloud, you can access your cloud files across devices and sync them between the cloud and your computer. Your file access options depend on which interface you're using.

In the web app, you edit your files directly in the cloud. All changes are saved to the cloud file right away and synced with connected local folders.

There's also a Crypto Folder for files that need extra security. Files you move to this folder are encrypted on your device before being uploaded to pCloud's servers. This is called end-to-end encryption (more on this later).

Encrypted files can only be stored in the cloud and can't be saved locally or synced. However, you can still access them through the desktop and mobile apps when you're online.

On your desktop, you can access your pCloud files directly through your virtual drive, which lets you edit files in the cloud right from your file manager.

You can also link local files with your cloud drive. To do this, go to the Sync tab in the app and pick a local folder to sync with a folder in your cloud drive. This creates a two-way sync: when you edit or delete synced files on your computer, these changes will apply to your cloud files too, and vice versa.

The best part is that you can work on your files offline. Your changes will sync automatically once you're back online.

You can get the same result by right-clicking files and folders in your file manager and selecting "Offline Access (Sync)" from the menu. The only difference is that you're working in reverse here: making a cloud file available locally instead of connecting a local file to a cloud folder. But the end result is the same.

pCloud might make syncing options more complicated than necessary by having multiple features that basically do the same thing.

The biggest culprit here is the Cloud Backup feature. You'd think this would be a one-way sync that saves your local files in the cloud and keeps them safe there, right?

Unfortunately not: pCloud's backup feature also uses two-way sync. If you delete local files, the backup files will be deleted too - and if you delete the backup, you'll remove the local files as well. So it's just another sync feature that doesn't really work with a proper backup strategy. The "backup" label is a bit misleading.

The desktop app offers several useful sync features and settings. Under "Exclusions," you can set up patterns and rules to completely exclude specific folders and files from your sync processes.

You can also limit the speed and disk usage. The LAN sync feature is handy too - it helps speed up synchronization between devices on the same local network.

On your phone, you can access cloud files directly, both in regular pDrive and the Crypto folder. You can also download files to make them available offline.

Here's a comparison of pCloud's main sync features with other providers:

For a smooth user experience, it's important to know how fast and reliable the syncing process is. We measure this using three performance metrics:

To compare providers fairly, we measured these metrics under identical conditions. We created a test folder with the same content for all cloud storage services and synced it from a PC with a 400 Mbps connection (both upload and download). The test folder contained 10,000 files, 10,000 folders, 100 photos (about 500 MB), and one large video file (about 500 MB)

Here's what we found:

pCloud did really well in our test. Its upload and download speeds were among the fastest of all providers we compared, and CPU usage was solid too. We found pCloud's syncing to be fast and reliable – and our performance test backs up this experience.

You can use pCloud by yourself or share your files and folders with others for collaboration. Sharing is user-friendly and available across all pCloud apps - web, desktop, or mobile.

You have two main options:

Let's look at both options in detail:

When you click "Share link," pCloud automatically copies a dynamic link to your selected resource to your clipboard. By default, link recipients can preview the folder and download its contents.

You can customize several link settings, including allowing pCloud users to upload files. You also get link statistics with information about traffic and downloads.

For businesses, the "Branding" setting is particularly useful. It lets you create custom links with your company logo, a personalized cover, and a custom message.

Some options, like password protection and link expiration dates, are only available with premium plans.

If you want to work on documents with other pCloud users, you should share the entire folder. Just enter the email address(es) of the people you want to share with and set their access rights.

There are three user roles:

Team management with group permissions, where you can organize your employees into teams, is also available - but only with business plans.

Here's a comparison of pCloud's main sharing features:

Don't expect pCloud to be a full collaboration platform like Google, Microsoft, or Dropbox: It lacks a document editor for real-time collaboration. While there is a comment feature, it's only available to business plan users.

You can manage your documents together and access them in shared cloud storage. However, you'll need to work on these documents offline or using other cloud office solutions. Unfortunately, pCloud doesn't offer integrations with programs like Office 365 or Google Workspace.

Here's how pCloud's collaboration features compare:

Cloud storage services fall into two main groups: those with end-to-end (E2E) encryption and those without. pCloud belongs to the first group, but there's a catch: End-to-end encryption isn't included by default - it's only available in business plans (or for an extra fee).

pCloud offers E2E encrypted cloud storage only in the Crypto Folder, which is a folder with an extra layer of encryption.

Your data gets encrypted locally on your computer, and only this encrypted version is uploaded to pCloud's servers. pCloud uses 4096-bit RSA for user private keys and 256-bit AES for file and folder keys.

The password you use for encryption and decryption (called Crypto Pass) is known only to you and isn't uploaded to pCloud's servers or stored anywhere else.

Files outside the Crypto Folder in your regular pCloud storage aren't left unencrypted or unprotected either.

Server-side encryption comes standard here: All files stored in pCloud are secured with 256-bit AES encryption during and after transfer. For data transfer, pCloud uses TLS/SSL channel protection.

While pCloud offers EU servers, make sure to select the European Union as your data region during signup - pCloud also runs servers in the USA.

For security and compliance, pCloud delivers what you'd expect from a cloud storage provider of this size. You can protect your account with two-factor authentication to prevent unauthorized access.

Your data is also protected against loss: Depending on your plan, you can restore file changes within 15 days (free plan) or 30 days (premium plans). You can also add extended file history as an option to restore file changes for up to 365 days.

pCloud promotes Swiss data protection standards. While the company is indeed based in Switzerland, its corporate structure isn't very clear. According to LinkedIn, most employees seem to be located in Bulgaria.

Bulgaria is an EU country, and there's nothing wrong with having operations there. Still, as a cloud storage provider asking us to trust them with sensitive data, we'd like to see more transparency about the company's structure and the people behind it.

Experts agree: The Swiss law firm Steiner Legal dedicated an entire podcast episode to pCloud's lack of transparency. They also pointed out that despite claiming GDPR compliance, pCloud doesn't have an EU data protection representative - an official contact point in the EU responsible for ensuring GDPR compliance.

We couldn't find any transparency reports online, nor recent audits by independent third parties. pCloud doesn't share its application source code, and detailed whitepapers about their technology are missing too.

Instead, the company seems to prefer showmanship: They ran an "Encryption Hacking Challenge" offering $100,000 to anyone who could crack their client-side encryption system - no one won.

That's nice, but we think that for a provider calling itself "Europe's most secure cloud storage," pCloud should offer more transparency and prove they're keeping their promises about transparency and data protection.

Here's an overview of pCloud's key privacy features:

Besides the free plan, pCloud offers several plans for individuals, families, and businesses. The regular plans mainly differ in storage space and traffic limits for shared links. Business plans come with extra features like team management, commenting, and end-to-end encryption. You can add end-to-end encryption to other plans for an extra fee.

What makes pCloud special is their lifetime plans: Instead of paying monthly or yearly, you make a one-time payment to use pCloud for life (99 years). If you plan to stick with pCloud for that long, the higher upfront cost could save you money in the long run.

Here's an overview of pCloud's plans:

pCloud offers competitive prices. Their free storage plan is generous - only MEGA and Google Drive offer more. The 500 GB and 2 TB plans are very affordable too. However, pCloud isn't among the cheapest options for 5TB storage and team plans.

The comparison table below shows the monthly costs from different providers in our review, broken down by storage size and number of users:

pCloud shines on the technical side: It uses up-to-date encryption standards, has some of the fastest sync speeds in our performance tests, and works smoothly across web, desktop, and mobile platforms. Plus, it offers great value for money with generous free storage.

However, it's not all perfect: For a company that calls itself "Europe's most secure cloud storage," we'd like to see more transparency about their company structure and compliance processes. Also, the web app sometimes froze during our tests, and pCloud could simplify their sync features (the "backup" feature isn't suitable for real backups at all).

Collaboration isn't pCloud's strong suit either: It lacks a document editor and doesn't integrate with popular office suites. If you need real-time cloud collaboration, pCloud isn't the right choice.

pCloud is a solid cloud storage option for budget-conscious users with end-to-end encryption, though it could improve its presentation and offerings.

What do pCloud users say about this cloud storage service? We looked through review sites and compiled the most common feedback:

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