In this MEGA review, we’ll discuss these aspects of the service, as well as its pricing, features, support, and ease of use, to help you determine whether it would be a good choice for you or your business.
Plans and pricing
MEGA has paid plans for both individuals and businesses. There is also a generous free plan on offer for individuals only. However, it is presented somewhat confusingly. The MEGA website says you can get 50 GB of free storage, but it’s actually only 15 GB of permanent free storage, with 35 GB being added when you sign up for an account, but that expires after 30 days.
You can complete “achievements” to retain access to the extra 35 GB, like inviting friends or installing MEGA client apps. Some of the achievements give you the extra space, but they’re also time-limited, with more achievements required after that, so it’s safer to assume that you’ll only have 15 GB free storage permanently.
If you want more storage space, prices for paid individual plans start at $5.87/month for 400 GB of storage and 1 TB of data transfer and go up to $35.26/month for 16 TB of storage and data transfer. The price per month per terabyte for MEGA’s Pro III plan makes it significantly cheaper than similar plans from others like Dropbox and Google Drive. Note that all prices are actually charged in euros and the conversion to US dollars is only an estimate.
MEGA’s business pricing structure is much simpler, with a flat rate of $11.80/user/month (minimum of three users) giving unlimited storage and data transfer.
Features
MEGA shares a similar feature set to other consumer cloud storage solutions but with a few additions that help it stand out from the pack.
Features that it shares with other providers include the ability to automatically back up content, including photos and videos, from mobile devices, with MEGA automatically maintaining a history of your files so you can revert to earlier versions if necessary.
Data is always kept in sync between your computer and your MEGA Cloud account through a desktop app. In addition, you can share secure links to your files and folders with other people, or share folders directly with MEGA contacts.
One of the features that makes MEGA stand out is MEGAchat, which enables you to connect to contacts on MEGA by audio or video. Another great feature is the fact that all your data is secured by end-to-end encryption, including your chats.
These features are carried over to business plans, where you also get user management capabilities.
Interface and in use
To get started with MEGA, you create an account, and when you verify your email, you’ll be logged into your account dashboard. If you’ve used other cloud storage providers, the dashboard will be somewhat familiar to you. But one thing you immediately notice about it is how fast it is to change from one page or section to another, with transitions happening within a split second.
There are tabs for your Cloud Drive that show you which folders you’ve chosen to sync, recent file uploads or downloads, and shared items (both incoming and outgoing). There are others for contacts, conversations, settings, file transfers, and the trash, where you can see deleted files and folders.
If you have the MEGAsync app installed on your computer, when you click on file transfers, it will open a window in the app which shows the activity.
You can also see some of the information from the dashboard in the app itself, but it has a smaller window so the presentation has to accommodate that. You can add new sync folders and upload and download directly from the app icon without having to drag items onto the dashboard or the MEGAsync folder.
The app’s preferences let you control your sync folders, proxy settings, exclusions, and bandwidth, but there are no settings for specifying which networks to use. This could be an issue if you need to connect your computer to your mobile data plan via a hotspot connection. You can choose to pause syncing but only when a sync is already in progress.
Support
MEGA offers support through a help center on its website which has a catalog of help articles and frequently asked questions. There are also different email addresses for support or to report a bug or abuse, or if you have privacy or security concerns. And when you’re logged in to your account, you can also fill out a form to create a support ticket.
MEGA has offices in New Zealand, Spain, and Portugal, but there aren’t any phone numbers listed for any of them.
Security
MEGA’s approach to security is one of the things that makes it stand out. The whole platform was designed around end-to-end encryption which the user controls, and the company is constantly working on new products to complement what has already been developed to improve the Internet security of individuals and businesses.
MEGA is very transparent about its security practices. It has published a whitepaper about the software’s design and security processes, and has made the code for the client apps open-source.
The competition
MEGA is a relative newcomer to the cloud storage space and goes up against alternatives like Box and Dropbox.
Dropbox also offers both individual and business plans, but with more advanced features for teams. Dropbox’s individual plans start at $9.99/month (billed annually) for 2 TB of storage, and team plans start at $12.50/user/month with 5 TB of storage, going up to $20/user/month for unlimited storage.
Box is another similar service with individual and business plans and a free 10 GB account option. Box’s prices are more expensive at $10/month for 100 GB of storage for individuals and up to $35/month for unlimited storage on its business plans. But like Dropbox, Box offers many more advanced features for businesses that make it an option worthy of consideration.
Final verdict
For a consumer cloud storage solution, MEGA is hard to beat. It has some of the cheapest prices around, its dashboard and app are impressive in their speed and ease of use, and its dedication to your privacy is admirable.
MEGA isn’t so impressive as a business solution, however, because the only thing that the business plan has that the individual plans don’t is user management tools. Other competitors offer far more advanced features for businesses.
