MEGA
20 GB of fully encrypted storage free — the most generous zero-knowledge free tier, from ~€48/yr.
About
MEGA is the privacy-first cloud drive out of New Zealand: every file is end-to-end encrypted with user-controlled keys on both free and paid plans, and new accounts start with 20 GB — the largest encrypted free tier Gizmodo tested in 2026. Paid tiers run from Essential (200 GB, about €48/year) through Pro I (3 TB, about €119/year) to Pro II (10 TB, about €238/year) and Pro III (20 TB, about €338/year), with MEGA VPN and the MEGA Pass password manager bundled on paid plans. The desktop and mobile apps are open-source, and there is an encrypted chat and video-calling product (MEGAchat) alongside storage.
Honest limits: every plan carries a download transfer quota (about 2.4 TB a year on Essential), so heavy sharing can hit a wall. In 2022 ETH Zurich researchers showed an attacker controlling MEGA's servers could recover private keys; MEGA patched the attacks but follow-up research described further weaknesses — worth knowing if your threat model includes state-level adversaries. Free accounts need a login every few months or data may be flagged for deletion. No lifetime plans and no published independent benchmarks found.
What it can do
- 20 GB free with client-side end-to-end encryption
- Open-source desktop and mobile clients
- Transfer quotas on every plan (2.4 TB/yr on Essential)
- Up to 100 file versions per file; Rewind on Pro plans
- MEGAchat encrypted chat and video calls
- MEGA VPN and MEGA Pass bundled on paid plans
- Automatic camera-upload photo backup on mobile
Setup
Register on the website or in the app; encryption keys are generated locally on first run.
Prerequisites
An email address; no card needed for the 20 GB free tier.
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 8/10
Scored 8/10 (VERIFIED tier, metrics-v1). Evidence: 20 GB free tier, euro pricing, and bundled VPN/Pass consistent across three 2026 Gizmodo guides and serverhoya; open-source clients confirmed by MEGA's own repos. Strengths: the biggest encrypted free tier, encryption on every plan, transparent pricing with no renewal jumps. Docked for: (1) download transfer quotas on all plans and password-protected links gated to paid tiers; (2) patched-but-notable 2022 ETH Zurich key-recovery research against its crypto. License: proprietary service with open-source clients.
How the trust score is built
Full methodology →- Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
- 9.0/10
- Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
- 8.0/10
- Openness · license + docs
- 7.0/10
- Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
- 7.0/10
- · Free 20 GB, E2EE on all plans (Gizmodo 2026).
- · Essential 200 GB ~€48/yr; Pro I 3 TB ~€119/yr; Pro II 10 TB ~€238/yr; Pro III 20 TB ~€338/yr (after-tax, German pricing).
- · 2022 ETH Zurich attacks patched by MEGA ~3 months later (Gizmodo).
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.