Features

The cloud storage app that keeps everything in one place.

Photos, videos, documents and the paperwork you keep meaning to sort out. CloudGate is personal cloud storage that holds all of it, reachable from your phone, your laptop or a borrowed computer. It is online cloud storage and file storage online in one account. Start with 100GB free cloud storage on Android, iPhone and web, and move up to 250GB, 500GB or 1TB whenever you outgrow it.

Every feature on this page is included on the free plan. No trial clock, no card, no feature quietly switched off after a month.

Plans Photo & Video Backup One-Tap Restore Vault Lock Document Scanning Sync Across Devices File & Folder Sharing

Photo cloud storage and video cloud storage

Every photo and video you take is copied to your account automatically, in the background, without you opening the app or remembering to do anything. This is the feature most people install a cloud backup app for, and the one that matters on the day a phone is lost, stolen or dropped in water.

As a file backup app it treats photo cloud storage and video cloud storage the same way: originals in, originals out, at full quality rather than shrunken copies.

The part worth getting right at setup is folder selection. Most backup tools cover only your camera folder, which captures photos you took yourself and misses everything else. Screenshots holding booking confirmations, PDFs in your downloads, and photos family sent through messaging apps all live elsewhere.

Backups run on a schedule that suits the phone rather than interrupting it, typically while charging, idle or on Wi-Fi. The first upload is the large one because it carries your whole history, and everything after that is just the handful of files you created that day. If you have ever avoided a backup app because you assumed it would flatten your battery or eat a data allowance, this is the part that answers it.

Automatic background upload of new photos and videos
Choose any folder, including screenshots, downloads and messaging media
Wi-Fi only by default, with mobile data optional
Originals kept at full quality, not compressed copies
Nothing is removed from your phone unless you choose to delete it

Read the backup setup guide

One-tap restore to any new phone

A backup is only as good as the restore. One-tap restore brings your entire library onto a new or freshly reset device without selecting files individually or sitting through a manual download queue.

Because your library lives in online file storage rather than a manufacturer backup, moving between Android and iPhone is a sign-in rather than a migration project.

This matters most on the day you change phones, which is also the day people most commonly lose things. Confirm your final backup completed before wiping the old device, because once a factory reset finishes there is no recovering what was never uploaded.

Restoring is also useful outside of upgrades. If a phone is repaired, replaced under warranty, or reset to fix a software problem, the same process puts your library back without you rebuilding anything by hand. Because the files live in your account rather than in a device backup tied to one manufacturer, you are never stuck choosing a new phone based on what your old backup will talk to.

Restore your whole library in a single action
Works on a new phone or one you have just reset
Move between Android and iPhone in either direction
Pick individual folders instead of everything, if you prefer
Files stream in the background while you keep using the phone

Read the new phone guide

Vault Lock: secure cloud storage for private documents

Backing up protects you from losing your phone. It does nothing about someone picking your phone up and scrolling through it. Those are different problems, and Vault Lock solves the second one.

If secure cloud storage is what you are after, this is the part that matters day to day. Encryption protects files while they move across a network. A passcode layer protects them from a person holding an unlocked device.

Adding a passcode layer to specific folders keeps sensitive documents closed even on an unlocked device. The documents worth protecting are usually identification scans, tax paperwork, insurance records and anything showing bank details.

Keep the vault narrow. People who lock everything tend to find the extra step irritating and switch it off within a fortnight, which leaves them less protected than a small vault they actually keep using.

It is worth being clear about what a vault does and does not cover. Encryption in transit protects your files while they move between your phone and CloudGate. A passcode layer protects them from a person holding your unlocked device. Both matter, they solve different problems, and only using one of them leaves an obvious gap.

Separate passcode layer, independent of your phone lock
Applies to folders you choose rather than everything
Contents stay hidden from the main file browser
Still backed up and restorable like any other file

Read the Vault Lock guide

Document scanning into online file storage

Document scanning turns your phone camera into a scanner, capturing receipts, forms and paperwork straight into your account rather than leaving them as loose photos buried in your camera roll.

Scanning is the easy part. Finding a document eighteen months later is the part that takes a little discipline, and it pays for itself. Naming files consistently and grouping them by category and year turns a folder of unidentifiable scans into something you can actually search.

Scanning also solves a quieter problem, which is paperwork that only exists on paper. Warranty documents, tenancy agreements, medical letters and vehicle records are all things people discover they need at short notice and cannot find. Capturing them once, at the moment they arrive, means the search later takes seconds rather than an afternoon going through drawers.

Capture receipts, IDs, forms and letters straight to the cloud
Edges detected and cropped automatically
Saved as clean documents rather than raw camera photos
Organised into folders you can search later
Pairs with Vault Lock for anything sensitive

Read the scanning guide

Multi device cloud storage that stays in sync

Your files stay current on every device signed into your account. Something added on your phone is available in the web app moments later, with no manual transfer, cable or emailing files to yourself.

That is cross platform cloud storage in practice: access files anywhere, access photos across devices, and treat cloud storage phone and computer access as one account rather than two places to keep in step.

The web app at my.cloudgate-app.com needs no installation, which matters more than people expect. If your phone is lost or stolen, a borrowed computer is how you confirm what survived and start recovering it.

Sync also removes the awkward middle step people fall back on, which is emailing files to themselves. Anything in your account is already available wherever you sign in, at full quality, with no attachment size limits to work around and no cluttered inbox acting as an accidental filing system.

Same library on Android, iPhone and any browser
No installation needed to use the web app
Changes appear across devices without manual syncing
Download individual files or whole folders to a computer
Access your account from a borrowed device if your phone is gone

Cloud Storage Plans

Start free. Upgrade only if you need to.

Most people never leave the free plan, and that is deliberate. When a large photo library or heavy 4K video outgrows it, these are the cloud storage plans available. Pick a cloud storage monthly plan while you are deciding, or a yearly cloud storage plan once you know it is staying.

Mobile cloud storage on Android, iOS and web.

The core features are the same everywhere. A few things differ by platform, mostly because of what each operating system allows an app to do in the background. Free cloud storage for Android and free cloud storage for iPhone both run from one account, and browser cloud storage needs no install at all.

Android

Full feature set

Automatic photo and video backup
One-tap restore to a new device
Vault Lock and document scanning
Any folder can be backed up
Background uploads while charging

iPhone

Full feature set

Automatic photo and video backup
Restore your library to a new iPhone
Vault Lock and document scanning
Share files and folders with anyone
Grant full photo access for complete backups

Web

No install needed

Browse and download your whole library
Upload from any computer
Share files and manage access
Reach your files from a borrowed device
Automatic phone backup needs the app

At A Glance

Why people choose CloudGate.

Four numbers that cover most of what people want to know before installing a free storage app.

100GB

Free storage on every account, no card required

Core features, every one included at no cost

Platforms: Android, iPhone and any browser

5 min

Setup time, then it runs on its own

How It Works

How a cloud backup app actually works.

Backup gets described in vague terms far too often. Here is the plain version of what the app is doing on your behalf.

When you enable automatic backup, CloudGate is given permission to read the folders you selected. From that point it watches those folders for anything new. When a photo, video or document appears, it is queued for upload and sent to your account the next time the conditions you set are met, which usually means the phone is on Wi-Fi and not in the middle of something demanding.

Your original file never moves. What travels is a copy, and the copy is what lands in your account. This is why backing up does not free space by itself, and why people sometimes assume nothing happened: from the phone's point of view, nothing visibly changed.

Once a file is uploaded it stops being tied to the device it came from. You can open it in the web app on a computer that has never seen your phone, restore it onto a completely different handset, or share it with someone who has no idea what CloudGate is. That separation between your files and any one piece of hardware is the entire value of cloud backup, and it is the reason a lost phone stops being a catastrophe and becomes an inconvenience.

The uploads themselves are encrypted in transit, so the connection carrying your files is protected while data moves across it. Files are then stored against your account, reachable only by you unless you deliberately share something.

Storage

What 100GB free cloud storage actually holds.

Storage figures mean very little until you translate them into the things you actually keep. These are realistic numbers for a modern phone.

A single photo from a current phone camera usually lands between 2MB and 5MB, depending on detail and lighting. That puts one gigabyte at roughly 250 to 400 photos, and 100GB somewhere between 25,000 and 40,000 images. Portrait mode shots and RAW files run larger, but for everyday photography those figures hold up.

Video is the item that changes the maths. A minute of 1080p footage costs around 60MB to 100MB. The same minute recorded in 4K can reach 350MB or more, which means ten minutes of 4K uses about as much room as a thousand photographs. If your library looks modest but your storage is disappearing, video is almost always the reason.

Documents are effectively free by comparison. A scanned receipt is a few hundred kilobytes and a long PDF perhaps two or three megabytes. You could scan every piece of paper in your house and barely register it against 100GB.

The practical takeaway: if you mostly shoot photos with occasional short clips, 100GB will hold years of material comfortably. If you record long 4K video regularly, expect it to fill faster and plan on archiving finished footage rather than keeping everything live indefinitely.

Get Up and Running

Set up your free storage app in three steps.

Setup is the only part that needs your attention, and it is short. After this the app looks after itself.

Create a free account

Install the app on Android or iPhone, or open the web app in a browser, and sign up. No card is required and the full 100GB is available immediately rather than after a trial.

Choose what gets backed up

Grant full photo access and pick your folders. Include screenshots, downloads and messaging media, not just the camera roll, since those are the folders people most often discover were missing later.

Let the first backup finish

Leave the phone charging on Wi-Fi and check back. When it reports complete, open a recent photo from inside your account to confirm it genuinely uploaded rather than trusting the status label.

Worth Knowing

Is this the best cloud storage for you?

A tool is easier to trust when its limits are stated plainly rather than discovered later.

CloudGate is personal cloud storage in the literal sense. Photos, videos, documents, contacts and the paperwork that accumulates around ordinary life. It is aimed at people who want that material protected without becoming interested in how backup works, which is most people.

If you have been comparing a free cloud storage app against paid online file storage, the honest question is not which has the longest feature list. It is which one you will still have running in six months.

It is not a collaboration suite. If you need several people editing the same document simultaneously, shared team drives with permission tiers, or version history across a working file, those are different products solving a different problem and you should use one of them instead.

It also does not free up phone storage on its own. Backing up creates a second copy and leaves your originals in place, so reclaiming local space still means deleting local copies once you have confirmed the backup holds them. That is deliberate, because software that deletes your files automatically is software that will eventually delete something you wanted.

And it cannot recover anything that was deleted before it was ever backed up. If a photo left your phone last year and no backup existed at the time, no service can retrieve it. Protection starts the day you switch it on, which is the strongest argument for not leaving the setup for another weekend.

Best for personal photos, videos and documents
Works alongside whatever your phone already does, not against it
No lock-in, since you can download your files at any time
Free plan is permanent rather than a trial period

How It Compares

Compare free cloud storage apps.

If you are weighing up the best cloud storage for photos and documents, the free tier is the part you actually live with. Here is how CloudGate lines up against other popular cloud storage apps on the features people use most.

Feature	CloudGate	Google Drive	iCloud	Dropbox
Free storage	100GB	15GB	5GB	2GB
Automatic photo backup
Vault / passcode lock
One-tap restore
Document scanning
Web access with no install

FAQ

Cloud storage app questions.

The things people most often want clarified before setting everything up.

Is this a secure cloud storage app?

Files are encrypted in transit between your device and CloudGate, and Vault Lock adds a passcode layer to folders you choose. Those cover two different risks: data moving across a network, and someone holding your unlocked phone.

What makes this different from other free cloud storage apps?

Mainly the size of the free tier and what is included in it. Most free online storage sits between 2GB and 15GB, which fills within months. 100GB free cloud storage with every feature unlocked lasts most people years.

Can I use it as a photo storage app and a document store?

Yes. Photo cloud storage, video cloud storage and document scanning all run from the same account, so your camera roll and your paperwork end up in one place rather than scattered across separate services.

Do I need to install anything to use it?

No. The cloud storage web app runs in a browser, so you can upload files online and reach your library without installing anything. The mobile cloud storage app is only needed for automatic phone backup, since a browser cannot watch your camera folder.

Are all these features free?

Yes. Automatic backup, one-tap restore, Vault Lock, document scanning, cross device sync and file sharing are all included on the free 100GB plan. There is no trial period and no feature that stops working later to prompt an upgrade.

Does backing up delete anything from my phone?

No. Backing up creates a second copy and leaves your originals exactly where they are. Local files are only removed if you delete them yourself, which some people do deliberately to reclaim space once a backup is confirmed.

Will backups use up my mobile data?

Not unless you allow it. Wi-Fi only is enabled by default, so nothing uploads over mobile data until you turn that on. A common middle ground is allowing photos over mobile data while keeping larger video files on Wi-Fi.

Can I use CloudGate on Android and iPhone at the same time?

Yes. Your files live in your account rather than on a single device, so you can sign in on an Android phone, an iPhone and a browser at once and see the same library on all three.

What happens if I forget my Vault Lock passcode?

Vault Lock is designed so that the passcode is the only way in, which is what makes it useful. Recovery depends on your account settings, so it is worth choosing something memorable rather than something you will need to write down.

How long does the first backup take?

It depends on how many files you have and your connection speed, and it can range from a few minutes to overnight. The first run uploads your entire library at once, which is why it is worth starting it while the phone is charging on Wi-Fi. Every backup after that handles only new files and finishes quickly.

Do my photos lose quality when they are backed up?

No. Files are stored as the originals rather than compressed copies, which matters if you ever want to print, edit or crop them later. This is also why shared links are more useful than sending photos through a messaging app, since most of those compress heavily.

What happens if I run out of space?

Nothing is deleted. New uploads stop until you free some room, either by removing files you no longer need or by clearing out large videos, which are almost always what filled the account. Your existing files stay exactly where they are.

Can I back up files from a computer as well?

Yes. The web app lets you upload from any computer, so documents and folders that never touched your phone can live in the same account. The automatic background backup is a phone feature, since that is where files are created continuously.

Does sharing a file give someone access forever?

Access stays open until you revoke it, which is why reviewing your shared items occasionally is worth doing. You can withdraw access to any file or folder at any time from the app or the web.

Start with 100GB, free.

Every feature on this page is included from the moment you sign up. Set it running in minutes on Android, iPhone or the web, with 250GB, 500GB and 1TB plans waiting if you ever outgrow it.

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