iCloud subscription (plus other options) question

[Eggtastic]

So my parents have iPhones and being they are older they struggle to keep up with the basics (cleaning out old texts, deleting multiple photos, etc.). I can do it for them of course but I also figured it might be a good time to invest in a cloud backup service to take care of it.

Option 1: Buy and set them up with the lowest iCloud + plan (50 gb month at $.99) and run it for them (I have their logins to help them with any tech issues).

Option 2: Buy a bigger plan and jump on it with them and be the main account (200 gb a month at $2.99). I routinely back up manually to my mac then back up the mac to an external hdd. I only use the bare minimum base close storage for like calendars / notes. My messages and photos are too large for the base storage.

Option 3: Shop for more affordable / reasonable storage options (google, dropbox, etc.) but run the risk of it being not as seamless as iCloud +.

Bonus question: Is syncing messages to icloud worth it? I have 20 gb. of message data (I know, a lot ) that I need to sift through and I just never got to it. I figured I could just turn it on and have them sync across my phone and mac. My messages on my mac do work but some texts are missing.

Thanks.

 

[iStorm]

My mom does option 1. She is good about clearing things out on her own though, but needed extra space for photos and videos. My dad is just using the 5GB plan, which is more than enough for him. He doesn't do much with photos/videos.

If both of your parents are needing more storage, you can't go wrong with option 1 or 2. I feel like option 1 would be easier, but that's just because I don't have experience with a family plan nor do I really want to have to manage one.

I use Messages in iCloud so that deleted messages and conversations would get removed from all of my devices and be the same everywhere (iPhone, iPad, & Mac). If you don't want that behavior and want to control what stays on each device, then it may not be for you.