iCloud Family Sharing iCloud between 200GB and 2TB

[twr7cx]

Our family currently has a 2TB iCloud subscription set to Family Sharing. We are currently using a total 248.5GB between the four of us. Clearly this is too much for a 200GB plan, but far less than the current 2TB plan. Apple don’t seem to offer anything in between:

Australia3 (AUD)
50GB: $1.49
200GB: $4.49
2TB: $14.99

iCloud+ plans and pricing – Apple Support (AU)

When you sign up for iCloud, you'll automatically get 5GB of free storage. If you need more space in iCloud, you can upgrade to iCloud+.

support.apple.com

Is there any avenues to reduce our monthly cost? 2 x 200GB plans would be $9.98 ($5.01 saving per month) - is this possible to do and share the 400GB data pool?
Alternatively I think we‘ll have to look at individual (not Family Shared) subscriptions - 200GB or myself and I think 3 x 50GB for the other three - total cost $8.96 ($5.03 saving per month).

 

[danmart]

I can’t answer your question, sorry, but I wonder if I could ask your experience of having a shared iCloud account?

Does each member of the group have a separate area for their files (so they cannot access another person’s files within the group)?

And is the space allocated dynamically as long as you have capacity? Or do you manually allocate some space to each person?

To try to address your question, could you move to the $30 tier of Apple One when it launches and at least get more for your money?

 

[tardman91]

Our family currently has a 2TB iCloud subscription set to Family Sharing. We are currently using a total 248.5GB between the four of us. Clearly this is too much for a 200GB plan, but far less than the current 2TB plan. Apple don’t seem to offer anything in between:

Australia3 (AUD)
50GB: $1.49
200GB: $4.49
2TB: $14.99

iCloud+ plans and pricing – Apple Support (AU)

When you sign up for iCloud, you'll automatically get 5GB of free storage. If you need more space in iCloud, you can upgrade to iCloud+.

support.apple.com

Is there any avenues to reduce our monthly cost? 2 x 200GB plans would be $9.98 ($5.01 saving per month) - is this possible to do and share the 400GB data pool?
Alternatively I think we‘ll have to look at individual (not Family Shared) subscriptions - 200GB or myself and I think 3 x 50GB for the other three - total cost $8.96 ($5.03 saving per month).

No, they do this because they know a lot of people are like you. They may have just over the limit, but nowhere close to the next tier. And they charge nearly triple for it. It's purely a money grab. I'm sure they concocted those tiers after a lot of careful calculation as to how much storage families and individuals use.

I can’t answer your question, sorry, but I wonder if I could ask your experience of having a shared iCloud account?

Does each member of the group have a separate area for their files (so they cannot access another person’s files within the group)?

And is the space allocated dynamically as long as you have capacity? Or do you manually allocate some space to each person?

To try to address your question, could you move to the $30 tier of Apple One when it launches and at least get more for your money?

I just finally turned it on after years of resisting because my wife is ditching her MacBook Air and moving to an iPad Pro as her primary device, necessitating a need to move things to the cloud. After talking to someone in the Apple Store and my own experience so far, everyone's data is separate, and your storage space is dynamic until you run out of space. Then you either upgrade or remove some things from the cloud.

 

[rneglia]

they charge nearly triple for it. It's purely a money grab

I'm in the same boat and I'm extremely unhappy about it. We need a $4.99 USD storage tier! (sorry, I don't know AUD conversion rate).