pCloud vs rclone

pCloud is cloud storage with apps for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, and Windows, plus access through my.pCloud.com. Its free plan provides up to 10 GB, and no credit card is required to start. Storage can extend to 2 TB. The service can back up phone photos and videos automatically and keep important files available offline. Users can share files and folders with passwords and expiration dates, and file versioning is available. Files in the Crypto folder use client-side encryption and zero-knowledge privacy. Users can choose storage in the United States or European Union. Business plans add access levels, teams, shared folders, comments, activity logs, and recovery of file versions from up to 180 days earlier. They also support branded sharing links with a logo, cover, and message. Business storage is GDPR-compliant and ISO-27001 certified. The Business 3 Users / 3 TB plan costs $29.97 a month and includes a 30-day free trial.

Rclone is a free command-line program for managing files on cloud storage. It can back up and restore files, mirror or migrate data, mount storage as a disk, and combine file systems. The project lists more than 70 cloud storage products, including Amazon S3, Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, and Backblaze B2. Sync options include copying changed files, one-way sync, and two-way bisync. Rclone checks MD5 and SHA1 hashes, preserves timestamps, and can restart operations. Where supported, it transfers between providers without using local disk. It can mount local, cloud, or virtual file systems and serve files over SFTP, HTTP, WebDAV, FTP, and DLNA. Rclone is also available through scripts and an API. Its crypt remote encrypts files before upload and decrypts them after download, but leaves file length and modification time unencrypted. The crypt password in the configuration file is only lightly obscured unless configuration encryption is enabled. The web-based GUI is described as experimental, and Android builds are not yet first-class builds.