We've come a long way from the days of floppy discs or the danger of losing a lifetime's worth of photographs or files when your computer breaks down. It today's hi-tech world it's all about storing in the cloud.

Cloud storage services offer a way to make sure important files are available wherever you are and whatever device you are using, be it a smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer. When something is saved in the cloud it is not only stored on your device, but on a computer in a data centre somewhere else in the world. When you want to access a file you can go online and get it instantly.

The advantages of this kind of storage are numerous. You can take a photo on your smartphone and edit it on your PC; access work documents from home; listen to your music collection wherever you are; or share files with friends without sending them to them. Once a file is saved in the cloud, because you are always accessing the same file any edits are carried over. Another big advantage is that if you lose your phone, or your computer dies, you won't lose all your stuff.

Consumers have plenty of choice when it comes to cloud storage services, with some well-known and some less well-known names to choose from.

Dominic Baliszewski, telecoms expert at broadbandchoices, says Apple devotees may already be using Apple's online storage service, iCloud, without realising it. There are many benefits to the iCloud having all your photos seamlessly downloaded to all your devices is perhaps the most obvious one. iCloud offers 5GB of data storage for free, but bear in mind that if you use your iPhone as your main camera and upload all your pictures, it is fairly easy to burn through 5GB in a short space of time, he says.

iCloud isn't alone in offering some storage for free almost all cloud storage providers give you at least 2GB before they start charging. Google Drive is the most generous, giving users 15GB before they start paying.

So, how much space do you need? Obviously that depends on how many and the type of file you want to save. Storing and backing up documents, from Word, Excel, etc, will not take up much room at all, so a basic package [2GB-15GB] will be more than enough for you, Baliszewski says. However, items like photos take up much more room, and music and movies substantially more a two-hour movie can take up 1GB-2GB.

Calculating roughly how much storage you need will help you avoid paying over the odds, as you can then shop around for the provider that offers the best deal for that amount of space. In most cases you will need to commit to a year's storage in advance and pay either annually or monthly. Bear in mind that if you regularly create or add more files, especially big ones, you'll need more storage in the future. Think about what you will use it for, Baliszewski says. If you want to back up your entire digital life, opt for an allowance of 500GB and above.

Comparing prices isn't always easy, as some cloud providers list prices in US$, some bill you monthly and some yearly, and they offer different amounts of storage. Be aware that the value of packages priced in US$ will change if the exchange rate changes. To make comparison easier we have listed annual subscription charges and converted US$ prices into pounds (at the time of writing, using XE.com).

If you need 100GB of space, Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive, or Amazon Cloud Drive are cheapest, all charging between $52 and $60 for an annual subscription. If you need 500GB then PC World Knowhow Cloud Storage is the outright winner, charging $49 for an annual subscription that would cost you 10 times the price with rival Dropbox.

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