Filen vs iCloud Drive Comparison

• 100 GiB, Starter for 1 year: €11.99 billed yearly
• 200 GiB, Pro I for 1 year: €19.99 billed yearly
• 500 GiB, Pro II for 1 year: €39.99 billed yearly
• 2 TiB, Pro III for 1 year: €89.99 billed yearly
• 10 TiB, Pro X for 1 year: €399.99 billed yearly

• 50 GB, iCloud+ 50 GB monthly: $0.99 a month
• 200 GB, iCloud+ 200 GB monthly: $2.99 a month
• 2 TB, iCloud+ 2 TB monthly: $9.99 a month
• 6 TB, iCloud+ 6 TB monthly: $29.99 a month
• 12 TB, iCloud+ 12 TB monthly: $59.99 a month

Filen says files are encrypted on your device with AES-256-GCM, each file with its own key, and that file names, folder names and file metadata are encrypted with a key derived from your password. The web app at app.filen.io receives its encryption code from Filen each time it loads and keeps your keys in the browser's local storage. Filen still sees your email address, IP address, how much storage you use and payment references.

By default Apple keeps the keys to iCloud Drive in its data centers and can decrypt your files, for example to restore them after a forgotten password. Advanced Data Protection, a setting turned on from an iPhone, iPad or Mac, deletes Apple's copy of the keys and leaves them on your trusted devices; Apple no longer offers it to new users in the UK. Even with it on, the file type, size, creation and modification dates and checksums of the file content and file name stay under keys Apple holds. With the setting on, iCloud.com cannot open your files until you allow web access, and then each session gets temporary keys from one of your devices.

Filen Cloud Dienste UG (haftungsbeschränkt) is registered at the District Court of Recklinghausen, Germany, and its terms are governed by German law. Filen says all its servers are its own hardware in colocation data centers in Germany; payment data passes through PayPal, Stripe and Coinbase, which also process it in the US.

Users in the US contract with Apple Inc. in Cupertino, California; users elsewhere contract with a regional Apple company, such as Apple Distribution International in Ireland. The terms are governed by California law, except for residents of the EU, the UK, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland, whose local law applies. Apple keeps the keys it can use in its US data centers and may store data with third-party data centers. In mainland China, iCloud is operated by GCBD (AIPO Cloud (Guizhou) Technology Co. Ltd) under its own terms.

A small German company represented by Jan Lenczyk, officially founded in May 2021. Filen says it has no outside investors and grew on sales of its earlier lifetime plans; its roadmap lists a planned change of legal form from UG to GmbH.

Up to 100 versions per file, kept for as long as the file itself exists; versions count toward your storage and can be turned off. Deleted files stay in the trash for up to 30 days.

Deleted files stay in Recently Deleted for 30 days and can be restored. Pages, Numbers and Keynote documents keep a version history; Apple documents no version history for other files.