IDrive Review

IDrive’s appeal is that it offers great flexibility in terms of what you can back up. Most will use IDrive to create and schedule computer backups. However, you can also create image-based backups or network drives, use a NAS device, protect your mobile devices or back up the contents of an external hard drive.

With IDrive, you are not limited to one device or even one type of device. You can back up multiple computers, such as your PC or Mac. Additionally, IDrive offers a courier service called IDrive Express with which they send a physical external hard drive to you. IDrive can upload the contents to your account when you send it back, or you can use it to recover lost data.

IDrive differentiates itself from competitors by offering traditional cloud storage features, specifically file sync and file-sharing capabilities. Your account has different tabs for your backed-up devices and for data you add to your cloud drive folder. Additionally, the desktop app comes with a sync folder.

IDrive does a good job with file sync. It’s one of the reasons why it’s an excellent Acronis alternative. However, if you need a service with more synchronization options, check out our best cloud storage with sync article.

Using the desktop app gives you access to selective sync with the contents of your cloud drive folder. You can only choose folders, as selective sync does not work at the file level. However, if there is a folder you don’t want synced with your account, you can deselect it.

You can share data in your cloud drive folders and files in your cloud backup. Sharing is a simplified experience — you don’t have to worry about directly adding emails to invites. IDrive lets you create a link to share with anyone. It also has a few advanced settings to add a password, limit the number of downloads or determine how many days the link stays active.

Overall, IDrive’s sharing is limited, especially if you opt for a private encrypted account. The following sections cover this in more detail. For better sharing cloud services, see how OneDrive compares to IDrive in this aspect or read our article on the best cloud storage for sharing.

There are plans with specific features to help businesses and teams manage corporate data and multiple users. The dashboard includes a “users and groups” tab with the tools needed to add, edit or delete users and teams. Additionally, IDrive supports single sign-on, simplifying the login process. 

IDrive offers assistance to keep your organization in compliance with regulations like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). Additionally, you can back up servers, including:

• Windows Server
• Microsoft SQL Server
• Microsoft Exchange Server
• Microsoft SharePoint Server
• Oracle Server
• Linux Server

IDrive Business Versioning

IDrive has a generous versioning policy, keeping the previous 30 versions of a given file. There is no time limit to how long it can keep these versions. However, if you go over 30 versions, it will delete the oldest one.

Additionally, enabling continuous data protection (CDP), which is an option in the desktop app, will keep any changes you make to files in a backup updated. CDP automatically detects and backs up file changes in real-time, ensuring minimal data loss in case of system failure by maintaining up-to-the-minute copies of your most important files.

IDrive provides some other measures to protect against data loss beyond versioning. IDrive’s bare-metal disaster recovery (BMR) enables a backup of an entire hard drive, complete with the operating system (OS), to an on-site server.

Snapshots is another tool that provides a historical view of your account’s data. With it, you can perform point-in-time recovery.

IDrive offers the opportunity to perform cloud-to-cloud backups of your Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 accounts. Both of these options are paid add-ons that are separate from a paid subscription. Using either of these options will protect the data associated with these services, including emails, calendars and contacts.

To get the most out of your account, you’ll want to download the desktop app for your chosen OS — either Windows, Mac or Linux. 

1. Download Installer

   Navigate to the IDrive website and sign up for a plan. Then navigate to the download page and click on the download button for your OS.

   

2. Install the App

   Follow the prompts on your device to install the desktop app. Then, sign in to your account.

   

Using the IDrive desktop app is the best way to get the most from your account. We will walk through each tab and highlight what they do.

1. Create a Backup

   The backup tab shows you the current folders you have backed up on your device. Unlike on the web interface, it does not show you all your backups. You can opt for local, WiFi or Express device backup for your files, or keep them backed up to your IDrive account. There’s also a “backup now” and a “schedule” button. The “change” button lets you choose the folders to back up.

   

2. Restore a Backup

   You can restore files to your device by choosing the folder you want to restore. A dropdown menu lets you decide where you want to restore from. Other options include changing the location, viewing snapshots or viewing trash. You can also restore files from a local, WiFi or Express device backup.

   

3. Schedule a Backup

   The scheduler tab lets you customize when and how often you back up your device’s contents. A dropdown list offers “online backup,” “local backup” and “network and external drive.” You can choose the day and time when backups run, run one immediately or set a cut-off time. If you want an email notification, you can set that up, too. A link at the bottom lets you view all your scheduled jobs.

   

4. Sync With Cloud Drive

   The cloud drive tab’s main feature is a large button that takes you to your sync folder. From the sync folder, you can move, download or upload files. You can also click on “selective sync” to choose the folders you want to sync with your account. Another option lets you change the location of your sync folder.

   

5. Create a Server Backup

   If you connect to and set a server backup, you can back up or restore from this tab. Examples include MS SQL Server, Oracle Server and MS SharePoint Server.

   

6. Tweak the Settings

   The settings tab has many options to choose from that control what your account does. You can enable “continuous data protection,” optimize CPU resources or upload multiple chunks simultaneously, among others. The exclusions tab gives you granular access to the folders you can back up. “Archive cleanup” deletes data from your device, and “throttle” lets you control bandwidth usage.

   

There’s very little difference visually or functionally between the Windows and Mac desktop applications. The Windows app has more options, like server backup and clone/computer backup.

The cloud drive sync folder works the same for both operating systems. Right-clicking on a file does not bring up any additional IDrive-specific options. As long as you enable the sync button in the app, you’ll see the contents in your cloud drive folder.

The IDrive mobile app, available for iOS and Android devices, gives you full access to your backups and the contents of your cloud drive folder. You can schedule backups specific to your mobile devices, including contacts, videos and your calendar. Additionally, you can enable automatic camera uploads for images and back up any existing photos.

Another mobile app option is called IDrive Photos. It works similarly to the photo backup in the original mobile app, with added options to edit, share or create favorites. The editing features aren’t overly robust and won’t replace a dedicated photo-editing studio. However, you can crop, adjust the orientation and apply filters.

The backup functionality extends even to your social media content. You can safeguard content from platforms like Facebook and Instagram, preserving your digital memories even if you decide to delete your social media accounts or if your access is restricted.

As of the writing of this article, IDrive no longer offers its 10GB free plan. However, prospective buyers still have recourse if they want to trial the service for free before making a purchase.

IDrive offers free trials for some of its plans. The Enterprise plan, intended for server and workstation backup, has a 30-day free trial. IDrive 360 is an endpoint cloud backup service that comes with a seven-day free trial. Additionally, both the Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 services have seven-day free trials.

IDrive has two personal plan options based on whether you pay annually or monthly. IDrive Mini costs $2.95 per year and has 100GB of storage space. IDrive Mini is not available as a monthly plan.

IDrive Personal costs $69.66 for the first year for 5TB of storage. If you opt for a two-year plan, it costs $149.25. You can increase the storage space in increments of 10TB, 20TB, 50TB or 100TB, with a corresponding price increase. These options come in one-year and two-year plans, with the two-year plan offering the best deal.

If you choose to pay for the personal plan by the month, it will cost $9.95 per month for 5TB and up to $99.95 per month for a maximum of 100TB.

No, IDrive does not offer unlimited storage space. If this is something that you need, check out our articles on the best unlimited cloud providers and the best unlimited cloud backup.

Teams and businesses have two options. The IDrive Team plan focuses on the number of computers or users you need to support. The minimum is five computers or users and comes with 5TB of storage. It costs $69.65 for the first year or $149.25 for two years. The IDrive Team plan can scale up to 500 computers or users.

IDrive Business does not limit the number of users, computers or servers on a plan. It scales shared storage space, starting at 250GB for $69.65for one year or$149.25 for two years. Storage amounts scale to 500GB, 1.25TB, 2.5TB, 5TB, 12.5TB and 25TB. The maximum storage allotment is 50TB, which costs $8119.65 for one year or $17399.25 for two years.

IDrive has many plan options and different pricing structures. To learn more, check out our IDrive pricing article.

When you first set up a backup for your device using the desktop app, IDrive provides a set of common folders as a default that includes pictures, videos and documents. You can change this by selecting the “change” button and choosing the folders and files you want to include in the backup.

Alternatively, if you want to back up immediately, click the “backup now” button and IDrive will include everything in the default folders.

The scheduler tab on both the web interface and the desktop app provides excellent flexibility to determine how often you conduct a backup. You can set specific days or times and include notifications of when your backup begins. 

There’s even a schedule cut-off time feature that allows you to specify when backups should automatically stop. This will prevent them from running during peak usage hours or interfering with other system processes, so your computer remains responsive when you need it most.

IDrive also supports incremental backups that employ block-level file copying technology, which transfers only the modified portions of a given file rather than the entire file. This significantly reduces bandwidth usage and speeds up subsequent backups after the initial one. 

If you need to restore data from a backup, navigate to the “restore” tab and choose the items you want to restore. Clicking the “restore now” button begins the process. You can change the destination if you don’t want to restore to the original location.

You have plenty of flexibility with the types of backups available. The most common is to back up files and settings from your device. Another option is to create a disk clone (read our full guide on how to clone a hard drive). With this option, you can create a backup of the drives and a system image, including applications. 

IDrive’s disk image backup creates a complete copy of your entire drive, including the operating system, applications and settings. This allows you to restore your computer to exactly the same state it was in when backed up, which is invaluable for complete system recovery.

Mobile device backup works for both iOS and Android. With iOS, you are limited to contacts, photos, videos and your calendar. Android adds in music files, texts and calls. If you have a server, you can back that up as well by choosing from a list of possible options, as we covered above in the IDrive Business Features section.

If you have a large amount of data to back up and the process may take hours or even days via an internet connection, you can take advantage of the IDrive Express service. With this courier service, IDrive sends you an external hard drive.

When you receive the hard drive, load up your data and send it back to IDrive when it’s ready. IDrive will then upload the data to your account. This can be significantly faster than downloading terabytes of files over the internet, especially in disaster recovery scenarios.

You can begin backing up your data with IDrive in a few quick steps. 

1. Open the App

   Open the desktop or mobile app on your device. The backup option is the first tab on the desktop app. Click the “backup” button on the mobile app.

   

2. Select Files and Folders

   If you need to change the folders or files that are selected, click the “change” button and choose the items for backup. On the mobile app, you’ll see a list of available choices to back up.

   

3. Schedule Backup

   To immediately back up on either device, click “backup now.” To schedule a recurring backup, click the “schedule” button and choose the day, time and frequency for your updates. When you’re done, save your changes.

   

Upload Speeds

⏫	1st Test	2nd Test	Average
Upload Speeds	0:06:43	0:06:40	0:06:42

Download Speeds

⏬	1st Test	2nd Test	Average
Download Speeds	0:07:11	0:07:03	0:07:07

We uploaded and downloaded 5GB of data from a remote virtual server capped at 100 Mbps. Uploads went very fast, quickly hitting the max speed. CPU usage was low, with only a few spikes. Downloads performed similarly, with fast speeds and low CPU draw. Clicking through each file was a bit tedious, and IDrive stuttered a bit with larger files during downloads.

IDrive protects your data at rest and in transit with AES 256-bit encryption in CBC (Cipher Block Chaining) mode, which is a military-grade encryption standard that ensures your data remains secure.

With this encryption, your data is protected against brute-force attacks that use repeated attempts to guess your credentials. Protection while data is in transit helps stop man-in-the-middle attacks that try to intercept your data transfers.

IDrive’s data centers are SOC 1/SOC 2 compliant and feature redundant power supplies, climate control, fire suppression systems and 24/7 surveillance to ensure the physical security of the servers hosting your backed-up data.

Additionally, enabling two-factor authentication from your account settings enhances personal account security. Two-factor authentication adds another step to the login process, which protects against anyone who may have your login credentials. 

File Status	Encryption Protocol
At Rest	AES-256
In Transit	AES-256

IDrive’s servers are in the United States in secure facilities that include smoke detection, fire suppression, motion sensing and 24/7 secure video monitoring. 

You can set up zero-knowledge encryption for your account, but it is not automatic. We will go over the details in the next section.

If you have an account with zero-knowledge encryption, you don’t have to worry about unauthorized access from outside entities or even from employees at the cloud service. Unless you share your password or it is compromised in some other way, zero-knowledge means only you have the password needed to decrypt your account.

The good news is that you can activate zero-knowledge encryption for your IDrive account, but only during the initial account setup. If you miss this step during signup, you cannot retroactively change your account to have a private encryption key.

Another important note is that if you choose to have a private encryption key, you will not be able to share files or folders from your account. This is a somewhat restrictive byproduct of having a protected account.

We reviewed IDrive’s privacy policy; here’s what you need to know. IDrive does collect data when you use its service, as does every cloud provider. It collects some personal data like your name and credit card. It also stores your password if you opt for its default encryption setting. IDrive also collects the files and data you transmit between your devices.

We’ve read many privacy policies and found nothing in IDrive’s that gives us cause for concern. The data it collects on you is to provide the services you expect from IDrive. IDrive does not share your personal information with outside entities without your consent or unless compelled by law.

On the support page, you can fill out a form to receive an email response or send an email directly to the support email address. For those who like to research, IDrive has an FAQ section with helpful information that runs the gambit of its services. 

During our testing, it took IDrive some time to reply to our submission using the form on the support page, but not longer than two business days. The live chat connected straightaway to a real person who answered our questions.