It takes a lot to continue trusting companies such as Microsoft, Apple, and Google, to keep your data safe and accessible. There are notable concerns over privacy, security, and availability, depending on what you're storing in the cloud and how often you need to access said data on different platforms. Cloud storage can prove useful when working with smaller files across multiple devices, but you can also achieve similar results with self-hosted services. Here are some reasons why you should consider hosting your own data hosting platform.

Take back control of all your data

One of the most important factors when deciding to self-host instead of paying a subscription for cloud-based services is to take full control of all your data. Cloud storage such as Microsoft OneDrive or Google Drive are fantastic for convenience. You simply activate a subscription, create an account and store files. It's great for those who simply wish to stash some data and make it accessible on most platforms, but an issue arises when you consider how much control and responsibility you're passing to this third party.

Most cloud-based storage services have good uptime and responsive redundancies should they encounter problems relating to servers or network infrastructure. But you're not solely relying on this company to remain online. You'll connect to their servers through your ISP and other network partners. By bringing everything in-house, you'll only need to remotely connect to your NAS should you require files while off-site. Should you spend most of your time at home or enjoy a hybrid work model, you'll rely on nothing aside from your LAN.

Not reliant on third-party support

Everything you do through a cloud hosting platform needs to comply with the host's terms and support. You'll only have select protocols available, depending on the service used. This may lead to incompatibilities with existing devices or hardware that require specific means to transfer data to and from other sources. You're also beholden to the company's roadmap, which may or may not include changes that negatively affect how you use the services. Should the company make a change that hampers your ability to effectively use the service, you'll need to look elsewhere.

While you do use software developed by others for self-hosted storage platforms, it's important to factor in that it's in their best interest to keep things the same. They're usually not driven by monetary goals, nor do they need to implement integrations with other services, nor will they likely change much without community input. Open-source software allows you to use other forks of the same branch, so you can effectively create the perfect software solution for your needs.

Save money in the long term

Cloud hosting isn't expensive, at least when looking at the monthly costs. Plans can start from as little as $2 but this usually has a hard limit on how much data can be stored before needing to part with more money. Even the best plan with OneDrive, Google Drive, or some other service pales in comparison to a NAS with massive capacity drives available. When adding together costs over time, that's when things start to become expensive. A NAS will cost more upfront, but you will only need to pay a small amount for electricity each year, as opposed to the monthly cloud storage fee.

Store much more data

One limitation of cloud storage is capacity. Google Drive offers plans up to 2 TB, which is almost the same as the smallest capacity NAS drive from Seagate and IronWolf. A single 24 TB NAS drive will offer 12 times the capacity of this highest Google Drive subscription. There are ways to unlock more storage space, using more advanced enterprise plans. Google offers 1 GB per month for $.02 and 24 TB would work out to be around $480 per month. That's almost the same price as the drive itself, which shows how expensive cloud storage can become.

This isn't quite an apples-to-oranges comparison and provides a clear indicator of which can save you more money.

Why not leverage both?

Cloud storage does have its advantages, including availability, convenience, and low price. That's why it can prove useful to use cloud and local storage solutions. Following the 3-2-1 backup plan rule can make use of a cloud storage subscription as one of the two locations, as well as the one off-site recommendation.