iCloud alternative
Paperwork your spouse can handle without you. An iCloud alternative that reads it first.
You're in the hospital and your spouse needs the auto policy number. In iCloud Drive, it's on page 2 of a PDF you named back in 2022. In a Granite vault you've shared with them, the policy is titled with the car and the number is already on screen.
Best iCloud alternatives in 2026
Almost every list for this search is about room for photos. This one is about the family's documents, and what each side does when someone besides you has to deal with them.
| Feature | Granite | iCloud |
|---|---|---|
| Letting your spouse in while you're well | On Granite Paid, share the vault. They sign in with their own Granite account, to view or to edit | Share an iCloud Drive folder with them, to view and download or to edit. Family Sharing shares storage; each person's files stay separate |
| Looking something up | Yessearch by what a document is, like “car insurance”, and the result opens on the page that matched | Apple's Files guide says to search by filename, folder name or document type |
| When a new policy arrives | Yesread the moment it lands, given a real title, and filed with the car, the house or its tax year, on every plan | It goes where you save it, under the name you give it. Apple's guides don't describe filing it for you |
| The number they actually need | Yesa policy's carrier, policy number and renewal date are pulled out of the document | Not described in Apple's iCloud Drive or Files guides |
| Scanning a page on your iPhone | Yesscan in the Granite app, or share a file in from Files or Mail; HEIC photos are read like PDFs | Notes and Files scan with the camera, and Notes search finds text in scanned documents |
| A passport or policy about to lapse | Yesthe date is read off the document, then shows up in the Monday email once it's 30 days away | Not described in Apple's iCloud Drive or Files guides |
| Months without you signing in | A shared vault keeps working. On Paid, an opt-in check-in hands your emergency contact a full export of your vault | A shared folder keeps working. Legacy Contact starts only after a death |
| After a death | The same check-in. It runs on silence, so nobody has to tell Granite why | Legacy Contact, with the access key you generated and your death certificate. Without one, a death certificate and possibly a court order |
| Who holds the keys | Granite. Each file has its own key, and Granite's servers decrypt documents to read them | Apple, by default. With Advanced Data Protection, an optional setting, only your own devices |
| Where it opens | Any web browser, Windows included, plus an iPhone app, so your spouse doesn't need an iPhone | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Windows, and iCloud.com in a browser |
| What it costs | 25 documents free, then $99 a year with no cap on documents and 100 GB of space | 5 GB free with an Apple device (1 GB without one). iCloud+ from $0.99 a month for 50 GB or $2.99 for 200 GB, up to 12 TB |
Other iCloud alternatives
Want more room for photos and files instead? These three come up most, and each has its own Granite comparison.
Google Drive
Google's Docs, Sheets and Slides, plus folders you share with other people. You get 15 GB free, counted together with Gmail and Google Photos.
Microsoft OneDrive
Files on a Microsoft account. 5 GB is free and Outlook.com attachments count against it; Microsoft 365 Personal is $99.99 a year for 1 TB.
Dropbox
Folders kept in step across your computer, phone and the web. The free plan holds 2 GB on up to 3 devices, and Plus is $119.88 a year for 2 TB.
Why switch
Four reasons to move the family paperwork
All four are about the person who has to find things when you can't.
Your spouse doesn't have to learn your folders
Sharing your “House” folder in iCloud Drive does let your spouse in. What they get is the folder as you built it: your file names, your subfolders, and a stack of PDFs nobody has opened. A vault you've shared has no system to learn. Every document in it has already been read and named for what it is, so your spouse searches for the car insurance in the words they'd say out loud.
A plan for the long absence
For the stretch nobody plans for, Granite Paid has an inactivity check-in. If you haven't signed in for 90 days, Granite emails to check on you; after 21 days of silence, your emergency contact gets a full export of your vault. They can ask sooner, too, but then you decide: approve it, deny it, or let it go through on its own after a wait you choose.
A list of what you have that nobody has to maintain
In a bad week, opening a file is the easy part. The hard part is knowing which policies are in force, which title goes with which car, and what renews next month. Folders only know what their owner told them. Granite reads every document as it arrives, so a new homeowner's policy joins Home Insurance and the house, and a W-2 joins its tax year, without anyone remembering to update a list.
Tidying up doesn't lock anyone out
Apple's sharing guide has a catch worth knowing: if you move a shared file to another folder, the link stops working and the people you shared it with lose it. So anything your spouse needs has to stay in the shared folder, wherever you'd rather file it. A Granite vault is shared as a whole, and filing a document into a collection never changes who can see it. Granite does the filing as it reads, and your spouse keeps seeing all of it.
FAQ
iCloud alternative FAQ
- Will I lose everything if I stop paying for iCloud storage?
- Apple's page on canceling iCloud+ doesn't say your files get deleted. Here's what Apple's pages do say: when you downgrade or cancel iCloud+, the change waits until your billing period ends, and your storage drops to the free 5 GB. If you're storing more than that, iCloud stops syncing and updating, backups stop, and your iCloud email can't send or receive until you free up space or upgrade again. Apple's advice is to download whatever won't fit first. If you ever cancel Granite, nothing is deleted: the vault stays put, locked until you resubscribe, and you can still export it.
- What can I do instead of paying for more iCloud storage?
- Start with Apple's own list: check Recommended for You in iCloud settings, shrink or delete old device backups, and delete photos, videos, files and message attachments you no longer need. Granite won't hold your photo library or your phone backups. What it can take off your hands is the family's documents, and the first 25 are free.
- How do I move documents from iCloud Drive to Granite?
- Granite has no iCloud connection, so moving is a drag-and-drop job you do yourself. On a Mac, open iCloud Drive in Finder and drag a folder into Granite in your browser; on a Windows PC, do the same from iCloud Drive in File Explorer. On iPhone, add from Files in the Granite app and pick several documents at once. A file that's only in iCloud has to download to your device before you can add it. Granite takes PDFs and photos (HEIC included) up to 50 MB each, and plain text and Markdown up to 1 MB, so export Pages, Numbers or Word files as PDFs first if you want them in. A password-protected PDF unlocks with its password. Free covers 25 documents; a family folder with more than that needs Granite Paid.
- Isn't Apple Notes enough for scanned documents?
- Notes is a good scanner, and its search finds text inside scanned documents. But each scan becomes a note you title and a folder you pick, and nothing in Apple's Notes guides describes it pulling out a policy number or keeping track of an expiration date. Granite reads each scan, names it, files it and pulls those details out, so your spouse can find the car insurance without knowing how your notes are organized.
- Does Granite have something like Advanced Data Protection?
- No. Granite reads your documents on its servers, which is how it names and files them, so it isn't end-to-end encrypted, the kind where only your own devices can unlock your data. Each file is encrypted with its own key, and the titles, summaries and text Granite reads from it are encrypted in its database. Apple's Advanced Data Protection is an optional setting that makes iCloud Drive end-to-end encrypted and turns off iCloud.com access by default.
- Should I still set up Apple's Legacy Contact if I use Granite?
- Yes. Legacy Contact is how someone you trust gets access to certain data in your Apple Account after you die, and that can include photos, messages, notes, files and device backups. Granite's emergency contact only covers your Granite vault. Add a Legacy Contact from your iPhone, iPad or Mac, then print the access key and keep it where your family will look, like the binder our in-case-of-death guide walks you through.
Keep exploring
More on Granite
- Your family's paperwork has a bus factor of oneThe week nobody plans for, and why knowing what exists matters more than where it's stored.
- The in-case-of-death binderWhere Apple's Legacy Contact access key belongs, and what else goes next to it.
- Granite vs Google DriveIf the family files ended up in Google's folders instead of Apple's.
- Granite vs OneDriveFor a household where the paperwork lives on a Microsoft account.
- Granite vs EvernoteIf your scans sit in Evernote notebooks rather than Apple Notes.
- Emergency contact and check-inWhat the person you name receives, and when, if you stop signing in.
- Search that knows what a document isType “car insurance” and get the policy, whatever the file was called.
- Emergency binder checklistPrint the list of documents your spouse would reach for first.
- What Granite encrypts, and what it doesn'tPer-file keys, encrypted details, and why it isn't end-to-end.
Set it up before your spouse has to go looking.
Start with what your spouse would reach for if you were out for a week: insurance, the car, the house. The first 25 documents cost nothing, and you won't need a card. Sharing the vault and naming an emergency contact come with Granite Paid, $99 a year.