Cloud Storage Options for Churches - How We Get Unlimited Storage

If you're like me and started taking photos and videos for your church, you likely bought a hard drive to store your files. When that filled up, you bought another, and so on, until you have a stack of hard drives of varying sizes and capacities. This situation isn't ideal, especially in a church environment where organizing and sharing media is crucial. Today, I’ll share some online storage options for your church and explain how we get unlimited storage at an affordable price.

Criteria for Online Storage

When looking for an online storage solution, we had several criteria:

1. Unlimited Cloud Storage: We didn't want to worry about storage limits or keep increasing it every time we added more files.
2. Team Access: Everyone on the team needed easy access to all files.
3. Mac Integration: It had to integrate seamlessly with macOS Finder, allowing us to see everything stored in the cloud.
4. Affordable: We wanted a solution that was budget-friendly.
5. Easy Setup: The solution had to be easy to set up and use.

Based on these criteria, we evaluated several options.

Dropbox

My favorite option and what we use at our church is Dropbox. To get unlimited storage, you need a Dropbox Business account with a minimum of three users. This costs $24 per user per month, totaling $864 per year. However, as a non-profit, we receive a 30% discount, reducing the cost to $605 per year. Dropbox integrates well with Finder, allows easy file sharing, and lets you decide which files are stored locally or online.

Google Drive

Google Drive used to offer unlimited storage, but now you can only get this with the enterprise option, which isn't priced on their website. For most users, the Business Plus plan provides up to 5 terabytes of storage for $18 per month per user. Non-profits get a 72% discount, bringing the cost to $5.04 per month. This is a great option if you don’t need more than 5 terabytes of storage.

OneDrive

OneDrive’s storage options max out at 1 terabyte for most plans. However, the OneDrive for Business Plan 2 offers unlimited storage for $10 per month, provided you have at least five users. Non-profits can get this for $4.80 per user annually. This option is ideal if you're already using Microsoft 365 and need additional storage.

Setting Up a NAS

Alternatively, you can set up a Network Attached Storage (NAS) system. This involves a significant upfront cost but no monthly fees. For example, a Synology four-bay NAS with 10-terabyte drives would cost around $3,500. This setup provides local redundancy but requires technical knowledge to manage. Over time, you’ll need to replace hard drives, adding to the cost.

Conclusion

To summarize, Dropbox offers the best value for unlimited storage at $605 per year with a non-profit discount. Google Drive is an excellent option if you need up to 5 terabytes of storage, costing $5.04 per month per user. OneDrive is suitable for those already using Microsoft 365, providing unlimited storage at $4.80 per user annually. Setting up a NAS is best if you want full control over your storage but involves a higher initial investment and ongoing maintenance.

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment. If you're interested in learning about folder structure for better file organization, let me know, and I might make a video on that. Thanks for watching, and I hope you found this information helpful!