iphone, is free tier possible with one device backup? whatsapp

I want to get back on the free tier of the iphone.

Whatsapp separately takes about 10gb, I think what happens is the default settings means whatsapp is being backed up on icloud.

Is there a way to stop that and use google drive, or pc/mac as a backup for whatsapp?

Separarely from whatsapp I don't use icloud mail, files, photos, etc they use 0 of space yet, my backups size keeps increasing...

This problem became worse and worse as I switched iphone generations, I think there are some inefficiencies associated with transferring files from one iphone to another, and they just end up taking more space than they should, forcing you on the paid tier.