A comprehensive and easy-to-use cloud backup (opens in a new tab) and cloud storage (opens in a new tab) service, iDrive (opens in a new tab) can back up all your PCs, Macs , mobile phones and tablets from the convenience of a single account.
Personal plans come in 5TB and 10TB forms, and team plans are available for between five and 100 users, offering 1TB per person. Larger companies will benefit from the Business plan, which offers as little as 250GB or up to 50TB per person, with unlimited users.
The flexible and customized pricing strategy makes iDrive a very reasonable proposition, although the cost increases for those who need the business features, such as server backup. At higher tiers, it becomes a more expensive solution than Google Drive and Dropbox, though it offers a more comprehensive feature set to justify the higher price.
iDrive features
- IDrive Subscription Options:
- IDrive for €3.98 a year (opens in a new tab)
It's really hard to accuse iDrive of being short. For example, there's Snapshots, which lets you store up to 30 different versions of your files, an Express service that lets you put your data on hard drives and publish it, and the ability to create snapshots of entire drives in case you need to rebuild a computer. right from the start. All paid users have access to these physical backups via a temporary storage device, which is especially convenient for those with poor internet connections. This is capped once a year for personal customers and three times a year for Team and Business subscribers, though subsequent requests are still available for €59.95.
Then there are less obvious features as well, including how iDrive only downloads changed parts of files to reduce bandwidth usage, how data is retained until you specifically delete it, or the extensive set of logs and reports to users. that you can access. For team leaders, there are several remote user management and support services.
All of this is in addition to basic functionality, supporting an unlimited number of diverse devices (computers, cell phones, servers) under a single account. If necessary, you can also back up data on mapped drives over a network. Meanwhile, the iDrive web portal makes it easy to manage all those devices in one place. Although it is packed with features, the basic and frankly uninteresting user interface leaves users feeling a little ripped off.
In addition to the standard features that will appeal to everyone, there are several aimed at organizations with larger, more complex requirements (including cloud server backups covering Linux, Oracle, Sharepoint, MS SQL, Exchange Server, and more). iDrive includes Bare Metal Disaster Recovery (opens in a new tab), which is the professional ransomware solution (opens in a new tab). Help with new data standards, using encryption and time stamping can also be found for medical, accounting and legal professionals.
iDrive interface
Cloud storage can be accessed through the browser portal, but to get the full experience, including device backup, the appropriate program or app must be installed. Virtually all major device types are supported by iDrive, although the desktop clients are more impressive than the mobile apps in terms of finish and functionality. You can have iDrive back up your entire hard drive (or mobile device) or just specific files and folders, and run backups manually or on a schedule. The goal here is really "set and forget": set everything up just the way you want, and then let it run quietly in the background.
Another useful feature is folder sync, to keep certain files consistent across all your devices. There are intuitive menus and setup screens that clearly show you how to create the setups you need. It's also great that it's easy to use, so you don't need to have a computer science degree or even consult help pages to figure out how to do the vast majority of tasks.
iDrive programs also have a ton of settings, though the iOS versions are less impressive. While the Android client is capable of backing up things like your SMS messages, the iPhone and iPad are limited to contacts, calendar, photos, and videos (this is more of a limitation set by Apple than iDrive, though). ). The desktop client allows granular settings for bandwidth throttling, file and folder exclusion, data verification, and more. You can even pause a backup if your laptop or phone's battery level drops below a certain level.
Downloading and saving files is just as fast as the big players in the cloud storage game, like Google Drive. As such, iDrive is unlikely to be the bottleneck here, and the main restriction will come from your ISP's download speeds, which in most cases are slower than upload speeds. It should be noted that browser downloads are redirected to a new tab and the process of opening the new location may be slow. In the case of our 1 GB test file, opening the new tab took up to six times as long as the actual download process, which can be time consuming and quite annoying. The whole download process is not that simple and it took several minutes longer than Google Drive for our 1 GB file. Fortunately, this is less of an issue when using the desktop client.
One feature that particularly impresses us is that the account password is required to delete any file, which helps prevent accidental deletion when the user unknowingly navigates the portal on autopilot.
Due to the nature of the service, iDrive is designed more as a backup drive than a cloud space to work from. Therefore, it is not possible to edit documents online. This means downloading and re-uploading your files as needed, so it's crucial that you consider the somewhat complicated download process mentioned above before committing.
After contacting iDrive, it is confirmed that there is no maximum file size limit, which is great news for teams and companies working on large projects like video editing.
iDrive security
In addition to two-factor authentication, iDrive provides end-to-end encryption for your data. Note that this requires a private key that only you know, so don't forget it or you won't be able to recover anything. This also means you won't be able to share files (opens in a new tab) and folders with other people, as this will break end-to-end encryption protocols.
Another option is standard encryption, which isn't as secure, but will still protect your data from most potential breaches. In this scenario, iDrive stores the encryption key and can help you restore your data if necessary and possibly recover your files if forced to do so by law enforcement. The other advantage is that you can use file and folder sharing features with this setup.
iDrive pricing
Previously, iDrive offered 5 GB of free storage without the need to provide credit card details. Since then, it's doubled to a maximum of 10GB, which is among the best free offerings of any cloud service. However, the services and functionalities are more limited in this case.
Basic personal plans start at 5TB, costing $79.50 per year, though a $20 upgrade for double the storage (10TB) will likely provide greater peace of mind when backing up multiple devices.
Note that TechRadar readers get 10TB of cloud storage for €3.98 for the first year.
The Business plan offers unlimited users and devices, with prices starting at €99.50 for a year for 250 GB, up to €11,599.50 for 50 TB of space per user. Somewhere in the middle is the Team plan, which comes in several flavors and offers support for five to 100 users, each with 1TB of space. The cheapest plan starts at €99.50 for a year, going up to €1999.50.
Choosing the business account over the personal one also gives you additional features like server backups, multi-user management, and access to priority support. We also like the single sign-on support, which helps simplify access for non-tech-savvy employees, making iDrive a really useful service for everyone.
The prices shown above vary based on the length of your subscription and do not take into account the various special offers and offers regularly offered by iDrive; If you check the site now, you may find that the prices are lower, as we did.
iDrive verdict
iDrive scores highly for the variety of services it offers, from backing up photos on your smartphone to backing up files to your company's servers. The software packages and various interfaces aren't the best, but they get the job done without fanfare.
For those who have a lot of devices with data that needs to be protected at reasonable prices, then iDrive might be the service for you. It has an excellent feature set that covers a lot of ground, with enough security protection and extra features like folder syncing and bandwidth controls to satisfy most users.
On the other hand, the free 10GB plan only makes sense for users looking to store documents in the cloud, as space is too limited for important backups from computers, phones, and tablets. In this case, due to the long and cumbersome download process, it's hard to recommend the free version, even though the 10 GB storage space is quite valuable.
Ultimately, iDrive is best suited for businesses, from freelancers and small teams to large international corporations, thanks to the level of flexibility of three different plan types.
iDrive offers
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