Cloud storage for small businesses 2026: Proton Drive and Tresorit vs Google, Microsoft, Dropbox and iCloud

Full disclosure first: the links to Proton Drive and Tresorit in this guide are advertisement links via /ut/, and we may receive a commission if you become a customer. Both were in our catalogue with ratings and reviews before the partnerships existed, and the American giants are judged on the same facts. The guide is built on the vendors’ pricing pages, contract texts and independent reviews, not on first-hand tests.

The comparison in brief

Prices were retrieved on 2026-08-09 and converted where the vendor does not show Swedish amounts. Where the price comes from a third party, the text says so.

Proton Drive: best for sensitive data, cheapest to start with

Swiss Proton encrypts the files on your own device before they are uploaded. That means not even Proton can read them, which makes the question of which authority can demand the contents largely academic: there is nothing readable to hand over. The files are not scanned, not indexed and not used for AI training.

For the small business, the setup is simple: the free tier is enough to test for real, and the business plans give 1 TB per user, version history up to ten years and sharing links with passwords and expiry dates. The full Workspace suite (email, calendar, Drive, VPN, Pass) costs approx. 13 USD per user per month, and there is a 14-day free trial. The weaknesses are honest: integrations with third-party tools are fewer than with Google and Microsoft, the built-in document editors are simpler, and support is not in Swedish. Switzerland is outside the EU but has the European Commission’s adequacy decision, and the service is ISO 27001 certified. Our full review of Proton Drive is in the catalogue.

Tresorit: same encryption principle, more administration, higher price

Tresorit is also Swiss (majority-owned by state-owned Swiss Post) and runs the same zero-knowledge principle: the vendor cannot read the files. The difference from Proton is that Tresorit invests in the administrative layer: granular permissions, access logs, SIEM integration and a selectable storage region within the EU. Default storage is Microsoft Azure in Ireland, and Business customers can choose other EU regions. ISO 27001:2022 is in place, and the DPA is signed directly in the flow.

The price is the big objection: from approx. 19 USD per user per month with annual billing (third-party figure, minimum three users), and it is the most common complaint in independent reviews. Interface and support are English and German only, and some metadata (folder names, sizes, member lists) is unencrypted. Right now there is 30% off Tresorit Business via our link, which changes the price picture considerably for the first year. Choose Tresorit over Proton if you need audit logs and granular permissions, for example in a regulated industry.

Google Drive and Workspace: cheapest entry, but read the DPA

Google is the most affordable way to get both storage and a complete office suite: Business Starter costs 6.80 EUR per user per month with annual billing, with 30 GB of pooled storage, business email and real-time editing. Business Standard (13.60 EUR) gives 2 TB and, importantly, the option to store data at rest in the EU. The 15 GB free tier (shared with Gmail and Photos) is generous for the sole trader who wants to start at no cost. The interface is available in Swedish.

But two things should be known before you put the company’s documents there. Google has no zero-knowledge option on the business plans: the company holds the encryption keys and can technically read the contents. And Google’s own processing addendum allows processing in any country where Google has facilities (§10.1); EU storage is only available from the Standard plan. As an American company, Google is also subject to the CLOUD Act regardless of where the server sits. The 2025 price increase, when Gemini AI was forced into all plans with no way to opt out, also shows how the dependency can be exploited. For normal everyday data with a DPA signed and an EU region selected, Workspace is perfectly usable. For sensitive data it is the wrong tool.

OneDrive and Microsoft 365: most storage per krona, with the lawyer’s caveat

Microsoft 365 Business Basic costs approx. 66 SEK per user per month (Swedish resellers, third-party figure) and gives 1 TB per user, the web versions of Office and Teams. That is the most storage per krona in the comparison, and interface and support pages are available in Swedish. For EU customers, the EU Data Boundary also applies: customer data is stored and processed within the EU/EEA, with data centres including Sweden, and the processing addendum is available in Swedish.

The caveat is documented and unusual: Microsoft’s French chief legal officer admitted under oath in the French Senate in 2025 that the company cannot guarantee that data in EU data centres is protected from US authorities. The CLOUD Act follows the company, not the server location. The French state and the International Criminal Court have begun replacing Microsoft for precisely this reason. For most Swedish small businesses this is a theoretical risk worth accepting for everyday documents, but trade secrets, records and client confidentiality should be encrypted separately or stored with a vendor that cannot read them.

Dropbox: best at sync, weakest on small business terms

Dropbox is still the reference for fast sync and easy external sharing of large files, and the Advanced plan has both a year of version history and ransomware recovery. But the terms for a small business are the weakest in the test. The team plans require a minimum of three licences, so a two-person agency pays for three. Data is stored in the US by default, EU storage is reserved for larger team customers, and the data processing agreement only applies to business customers. The 2 GB free tier is unusable in practice. Zero-knowledge encryption is absent, and end-to-end encryption only arrives on the Advanced plan. Dropbox’s own transparency report confirms that the company receives US government requests, including ones with gag orders. If sync speed is decisive for a larger team, Dropbox is still justified. For a small Swedish company it is hard to defend in 2026.

iCloud+: excellent for the family, unsuitable for the company

iCloud+ is the cheapest of all (50 GB for 12 SEK a month, 2 TB for 129 SEK, prices from Apple’s Swedish support page) and unbeatable in convenience for anyone living in Apple’s ecosystem. But Apple’s own terms say the service is designed for personal use, there is no public data processing agreement to sign, and sensitive health data is explicitly forbidden to store. Without the optional Advanced Data Protection feature, Apple can decrypt the contents upon lawful requests, and that feature cannot be enabled for managed business accounts. Version history is 30 days against the competitors’ 365 days or more. Use iCloud privately by all means. Do not put the company’s files there.

Which one should you choose?

• Sensitive customer data, contracts or finances: Proton Drive for most, Tresorit if you need audit logs and advanced permissions and can pay for it. Both cannot read your files, and that is the point.
• Everyday documents with an office suite: Microsoft 365 Business Basic is cheapest per terabyte and stores within the EU. Google Workspace is smoother for co-editing but requires the Standard plan for EU storage. Sign a DPA in both cases and assess the CLOUD Act risk for your business; our CLOUD Act guide helps.
• Heavy external file sharing in larger teams: Dropbox Advanced, aware of the price and the jurisdiction.
• Privately, not in the company: iCloud+.

The simplest possible summary: sensitive files with those who cannot read them, everyday files with whoever is cheapest, and nothing business-critical without a signed DPA.