FlipDrive Review
The FlipDrive experience is marred by issues big and small. Though it has a few redeeming features, by and large we recommend users stay away.
With many excellent cloud storage services available, we hold them to a high standard. FlipDrive, however, continues to be a massive letdown. In this FlipDrive review, we’ll discuss the features it has or — more often — lacks. We’ll compare it to other services and explain why we don’t recommend using it.
Key Takeaways:
- FlipDrive is too expensive, given its lack of features and practically nonexistent support.
- Unlike other cloud storage providers, FlipDrive does not allow syncing.
- When using this cloud storage service, you will encounter many bugs and broken pages.
- It lacks adequate security, and the privacy policies are not ideal.
FlipDrive is missing many of the main features that make cloud storage worthwhile. It’s priced high, especially considering the ways it falls short compared to its competition. The interface is confusing and buggy; furthermore, security and privacy are dismal, and there is hardly any support.
If you are looking for cloud storage for your files, we recommend you look elsewhere. There are many better cloud storage options available. If you are determined to try FlipDrive, though, be sure to sign up for the free version or the 15-day trial first, so you can see if you like it. If not, you’ll be better going with a reliable cloud storage service like Sync.com or pCloud.
FlipDrive is a cloud storage service provider that allows you to upload, download and share files remotely. It is available through a web interface and mobile apps.
There are no signs of past security breaches, and the connection uses 256-bit encryption with HTTPS. However, the service doesn’t appear to encrypt your files at all and has a questionable privacy policy.
FlipDrive offers a free plan with 10GB of storage. Paid plans start at $5 a month for 100GB and go up to $20 a month for 2TB.
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Strengths & Weaknesses
Pros:
- 10GB free plan
- Decent download speeds
- Mobile apps available
Cons:
- No syncing & limited sharing
- Poor security & privacy
- Lack of customer support
- Buggy & confusing interface
Features
The first thing we’ll be looking at in this FlipDrive review is its feature set. We already mentioned FlipDrive’s dearth of features, so let’s start off with the most glaring omission.
A feature completely missing is a desktop sync client. Unlike most other services, FlipDrive has no sync folder that you can move files into on your computer — all uploads and downloads go through the web interface or apps.
Another feature missing is file versioning, which would keep backup versions of your data available in the event that you need to recover it. If ransomware encrypts your data, or you accidentally delete or change something, versioning lets you retrieve your files from the backup. If this is a feature you want, check out our best cloud storage providers for versioning.
FlipDrive has mobile apps available for Android and iOS. On a Windows PC, you can use either the web interface or download the app from the Microsoft Store. Unfortunately, there are many bugs in both, though.
Bookmarks, Photo Albums, Contacts & Groups
Other apps you can get on the FlipDrive website include “bookmarks,” “photo albums” and “contacts & groups.” Both bookmarks and “contacts & groups” are pretty simple; FlipDrive simply saves your browser bookmarks and your contacts’ phone numbers, email addresses and other important information.
The “photo” option is a bit more interesting. With it, you can not only backup your original photos, but you can also share them easily with friends, family members or even strangers. You can choose to keep your photos private and password-protected, or public for anyone to see.
However, FlipDrive is missing too many features to be worth your time. There is no syncing, and the interface has many issues. The lack of a desktop client and the buggy messes that are its apps and web interface are the last straw for us, which is why it gets a low score here.
FlipDrive Features Overview
 | |
|---|---|
| Sync | |
| Sync Folder | |
| Block-Level Sync | |
| Selective Sync | |
| Bandwidth management | |
| Sync Any Folder | |
| File Sharing | |
| File Link Sharing | |
| Link Passwords | |
| Link Expiry Dates | |
| Folder Sharing | |
| Folder Permissions | |
| Link Download Limits | |
| Upload Links | |
| Productivity | |
| File Previews | |
| Edit Files | |
| In-App Collaboration | |
| Office Online | |
| Google Docs | |
| Notes App | |
| Media Playback | |
| Mobile Apps | |
| Deleted File Retention | |
| Versioning | |
| WebDAV | |
| Security | |
| At-Rest Encryption | |
| In-Transit Encryption | |
| Encryption Protocol | |
| Zero Knowledge | |
| Two-Factor Authentication | |
| Server Location | US |
| Support | |
| 24/7 Support | |
| Live Chat Support | |
| Telephone Support | |
| Email Support | |
| User Forum | |
| Knowledgebase | |
| Misc | |
| Free Plan |
Pricing
FlipDrive is priced unreasonably high, considering the lack of features, the service’s broken pages (more information on this later) and challenging support.
- File size limit: 25MB
- 10GB
- File size limit: 1GB
- 100GB
- File size limit: Unlimited
- 1TB
- File size limit: Unlimited
- 2TB
FlipDrive Pricing & File Size Limit Options
You get 10GB of storage space in the free version, but the file size limit is 25MB. You can earn up to 10GB in extra space by inviting other people to use the service, but if a referral deactivates their account, you do lose the extra space. Despite this, we don’t recommend FlipDrive in our best free cloud storage list, due to its poor quality and many limitations.
The FlipDrive Personal plan gives you 100GB of data storage for $5 a month or $50 a year. For more space, the Pro plan gives you 1TB of data for $10 a month or $100 a year. If you need even more storage, the Business plan offers 2TB of storage for $20 a month or $200 a year.
Compared to other providers, FlipDrive lacks both storage space and features. For example, it offers 1TB for $10 a month, while Sync.com has a 3TB plan for the same price — and a 2TB plan for $2 less. Plus, Sync.com offers many great features and excellent support; see our Sync.com review for more on why we recommend it.
Business users would be wise to avoid FlipDrive. The Business version has all the limitations of the Pro plan and no special features for businesses. See our review of the best cloud storage for business for other higher-quality providers.
If you are looking for expensive, poor-quality storage with few redeeming features, consider FlipDrive. Otherwise, keep looking, as there are better options. See our comparison of the best cloud storage for ideas.
Ease of Use
Overall, FlipDrive is challenging to use, compared to other providers. It forces you to use the Windows app or buggy web interface instead of giving you a full desktop client or syncing folder to help with backups. There’s very little guidance on how to use the interface, and you’ll need to figure out most of it by trial and error.
FlipDrive Interface
Compared to the rest of the app, signing up for the service is easy. The signup screen is well-designed and looks modern. The process of entering your information and credit card to sign up for a free trial is straightforward.
After logging in, the first screen you see is the dashboard, where you’ll see a menu for your apps. The menu includes “my drive,” “photos,” “contacts,” “bookmarks,” and “my account.”
Once you click through to the drive, you will see a simple, streamlined interface that looks like it should be easy to use.
While using the web app, though, you will encounter frequent errors and broken pages in menus. For example, returning to the main screen and going to the account screen from the top menu resulted in a very messy, broken page.
Bugs, Bugs, Everywhere
The Windows app, released in 2017, and its interface are slightly more polished than the website, but they still have bugs. Unfortunately, you must download it from the Microsoft Store, since there’s no proper Windows client.
The site confusingly labels the Windows app as a mobile app, but clicking the link will let you download the app on your desktop via the Microsoft Store.
Based on our testing, the Windows and mobile apps are pretty laggy, and the menu options don’t always take you to the right screen.
Additionally, there are many user reviews online that say users have lost data or access to their accounts and that customer support didn’t reply or offer a resolution.
Overall, its web, Windows and mobile apps are challenging to use and confusing. With frequent bugs, misdirects and a complete lack of guidance, the FlipDrive user experience is a flop.
File Syncing & Sharing
As we’ve mentioned, FlipDrive doesn’t have a desktop sync client for Windows. You can upload and download files, but you can only do this via the web interface or the apps. Considering that most other cloud storage providers allow file syncing, this is a pretty big miss.
User Permissions
FlipDrive’s ability to share files and folders is similarly lackluster. You can share folders with “read only,” “read & write” and “full access” permissions available from a dropdown menu.
The “read & write” permission only allows the person you are sharing with to add new files to the folder; they cannot actually edit the documents, which limits the value of the feature. However, the “full access” permissions allows users to read, add and delete files from the folder.
One annoying issue we found was that if you didn’t have the proper permission and tried to do something within a shared folder, the service would return a server error — it wouldn’t tell you it was due to permissions. Also, when we tried sharing folders via email, we never received any emails at that address prompting us to access it or sign up.
File Sharing Links
In the paid versions, you can generate links to your files to share them with others. You do this by clicking the ellipses next to the file and choosing “direct link” from the menu. Unfortunately, this option isn’t available for folders.
There seems to be no way to revoke sharing once you enable it on files or folders, but at least you can deactivate direct links from the menu. Unless you use a link (not available on the free plan), sharing is limited to other FlipDrive users. For both free and paid plans, it does show you what you have shared and what others have shared with you.
With no syncing and limited sharing, FlipDrive does poorly in this category. Fortunately, there are many better cloud storage services with solid sharing abilities if you need to share files.
Speed
FlipDrive had a decent download speed in the tests we did. Upload speeds were all right as well, but sometimes did not work for larger files. We tested using a connection with average speeds around 20 Mbps download and 1.7 Mbps upload.
For this FlipDrive review, we attempted to upload and download a 1GB file twice. The download time of our 1GB file had a good average speed of 8 minutes and 19 seconds — a bit higher than the seven minutes we expected.
For uploads, the first attempt took 1 hour and 32 minutes. This time is decent, considering the speed of the connection, as we would expect it to take a bit under an hour and a half. However, on the second attempt, the upload failed at 622MB after 1 hour and 50 minutes.
| First Attempt: | Second Attempt: | Average: | Expected time: | |
| Upload | 1:32:08 | Failed at 622MB after 1:50:00 | 1:32:08 | 1:24:00 |
| Download | 00:07:41 | 00:08:57 | 00:08:19 | 00:07:00 |
What happened when the upload failed the second time was disturbing. The interface showed the incomplete file as if it had been uploaded successfully. However, when we tried to do anything with it, like downloading or deleting it, a useless error page was displayed.
FlipDrive’s overall speed performance was acceptable, with reasonable upload and download speeds. Uploading large files from a slower connection, though, may take many tries or be downright impossible. Additionally, the service doesn’t handle failed uploads well.
Security
The FlipDrive website claims the storage is secure, but there is little evidence that it is. The FAQ states that the website uses 256-bit encryption (we assume AES), which is standard for HTTPS. While this is accurate, other services provide encryption of your data while it is in transit and stored on the server.
FlipDrive doesn’t offer two-factor authentication, either, which is a standard security practice now. Two-factor authentication requires you to confirm a code or app on your phone before you can access your data. This extra check would protect you in case a hacker gets your password, but unfortunately it’s missing from this service.
In summary, the only genuine security feature it offers is an HTTPS connection. Your files aren’t protected by data encryption and two-factor authentication, and that’s not even mentioning the lack of zero-knowledge encryption. For providers with outstanding security, check out our list of the most secure cloud storage.
Privacy
The FlipDrive privacy policy, last updated in 2017, has some questionable parts. It states that the company can share your data with third parties to provide services. These third parties include companies that may display ads within its apps.
The third parties can also store cookies on your computer, although FlipDrive claims that this is strictly for the purposes of displaying ads. The policy doesn’t indicate exactly what these third-party cookies track, which is disturbing.
FlipDrive’s servers are in New York in the United States. By signing up, you agree that they can disclose your information to law enforcement when requested. Other data storage providers offer you more privacy, as many have servers in Europe, where regulations like the GDPR protect your data. For example, pCloud has servers in Switzerland, which has some of the best privacy laws.
If you want your data to be private, FlipDrive is not an ideal provider. Here is an article that explains cloud storage privacy policies in more detail, so you can make a more educated choice when choosing a cloud storage service.
Customer Support
Support and customer service with FlipDrive services is severely limited. You will find very little information on how to use it online. There is no phone support, chat support, knowledgebase, tutorials or forum for users. However, there is a short FAQ, and at the very end, there’s an option to contact customer support if you have any more questions.
We attempted to ask questions through this form, but never received email confirmation that they got the messages. At the time of writing, we still haven’t received answers to our questions. Other customers using the service also claim they never got replies.
So, in addition to being buggy and hard to use, the customer support is practically nonexistent. You are on your own if something breaks.
The Verdict
As you can see from this FlipDrive review, this service does not offer the quality of cloud storage we would expect today. There is no syncing of files, the interface is frustrating and it lacks security features.
Download speeds are OK, but uploading over a slow connection may fail and cause more errors. Plus, good luck getting any customer support if you run into issues.
To add insult to injury, the service is overpriced, especially given its limited features. For these reasons, we don’t recommend FlipDrive. There are superior options available, and at much lower prices.
If you still think FlipDrive could work for you, check it out and see if you have a better experience than we did. Have you used FlipDrive? Did it meet your needs? What issues have you encountered? Leave a comment and tell us how it worked for you. Thanks for reading.
