The breaking point
I'd been a Google Drive user for ten years. 2TB of family photos, work documents, side project code, tax returns, school records — everything was there.
Then the price increase hit. The 2TB plan went from $99/year to $119/year in my country. That's a 20% jump for the same storage.
I started looking at alternatives.
What I considered
Microsoft 365
- 1TB OneDrive included with Office
- $99.99/year (Personal)
- Better than nothing if you need Office
- Still expensive long-term
iCloud+
- 2TB
- $119.99/year (same as Google)
- Apple ecosystem only
- Tied to Apple ID
Dropbox
- 2TB
- $119.88/year
- Great sync, but expensive
- Not great for non-Apple devices
Self-hosted
- Own your hardware
- Software: free (Nextcloud, Seafile, etc.)
- One-time cost: hardware + domain ($50-100)
- Mount client: $5.5 lifetime
I chose self-hosted. Here's why.
The setup
I bought a Synology DS223 (2-bay NAS, $300 with 2x4TB drives). Installed Synology DSM, which has built-in cloud software (Synology Drive) that supports WebDAV.
Then I installed ScsDriver on my Windows desktop and MacBook. Configured the WebDAV endpoint from Synology. Files now appear as a local drive on both machines.
The cost
- Year 1: $300 hardware + $15 domain + $5.5 ScsDriver = $320.5
- Year 2+: $15 domain (recurring) + $0 ScsDriver (lifetime) = $15
Compare to Google Drive:
- Year 1: $119
- Year 5: $595
After 5 years, I save $274.5. After 10 years, $874.5.
For users in mainland China, the package is sold at CN ¥20 lifetime (separate pricing region).
What I give up
- Cross-device sync without manual setup
- Built-in OCR for scanned documents
- Automatic phone photo backup (Google Photos / iCloud Photos)
- Search across all my files (Google's search is genuinely better)
What I gain
- Privacy: my files are not in Google's hands
- Cost: cheaper long-term
- No vendor lock-in
- Full control over hardware
- Faster local access (gigabit network)
The verdict
If you have 1-2TB of files and use mostly one or two devices, self-hosting is now feasible. The setup takes a weekend. The savings compound over time.
If you need cross-device sync, automatic phone backup, or the best search, stick with Google / Microsoft / Apple.
Pricing recap (overseas, ScsDriver)
- $1.5 monthly
- $5.5 yearly
- $5.5 lifetime (was $9.99)
For users in mainland China, the package is sold at CN ¥20 lifetime (separate pricing region).
Hardware recommendations
For 1-2TB of files:
- Synology DS223 (2-bay, $300) — best software, easiest setup
- QNAP TS-233 (2-bay, $200) — cheaper, similar features
- Old desktop with 4TB HDD — free if you have one lying around
For 4-8TB of files:
- Synology DS423+ (4-bay, $500+)
- DIY with 2-4 HDDs in a tower case
For 10TB+ of files:
- DIY with 6-8 HDDs
- Consider RAID-6 for redundancy
- UPS strongly recommended
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