Head-to-head · Cloud Storage
Google Drive vs pCloud
Which one to pick in 2026 — comparing 🇺🇸 Google Drive with the European alternative 🇪🇺 pCloud on the things that actually decide who can read your data.
🇺🇸 Google Drivevs🇪🇺 pCloud
Verdict
Who has stronger privacy guarantees by law?
pCloud — GDPR-native and outside the US CLOUD Act / FISA 702 reach.
Which one encrypts your data end-to-end by default?
pCloud ships E2E encryption by default. Google Drive does not.
Which one tracks you for ads?
Neither monetises through ad tracking.
Which one is open source?
pCloud is not fully open source — check details.
Side-by-side
Google Drive vs pCloud — full comparison
Criteria
🇪🇺 pCloud
🇺🇸 Google Drive
Headquarters
Lugano, Switzerland
Mountain View, USA
Jurisdiction
Switzerland
USA
Data location
EU or US (user choice)
Global
GDPR-native
Yes
No
CLOUD Act / FISA exposed
No
Yes
Ad tracking
No
No
End-to-end encryption
Yes
No
Open source
No
No
Ownership
pCloud AG
Alphabet Inc.
Founded
2013
2012
Make the switch
Try pCloud instead of Google Drive
Lifetime cloud storage from Switzerland.
Other European alternatives to Google Drive