Livedrive Review Online Backup Service
Livedrive Review Online Backup Service is an excellent online backup service for individuals, small businesses, and home users. It offers a lot of features for a budget-friendly price. One of the best things about this service is that it can be accessed from anywhere.
Table of Contents
What is Livedrive
Livedrive is an online backup service that offers two different unlimited backup plans, each of which may be tailored to fit your specific needs. As of this writing, there are more than a million users of Livedrive, which has been in operation since 2008. Get more information on the plans and features Livedrive offers and our comments on how it worked for me by reading through this article.
Costs and Plans for Livedrive
Livedrive is a new cloud unlimited storage space service that promises to be cheaper and more reliable than Dropbox and iCloud. The company has released a beta version of the service and plans to launch it in early 2016. The Livedrive has two options for limitless data storage.
- Livedrive Backup
- Livedrive Pro Suite
Livedrive Backup
Livedrive’s most affordable plan is this one. Using this service, you may back up all of your files from one computer to an infinite number of locations. To save money, you may sign up for the yearly plan for $89.90 ($7.50/month).
Livedrive Pro Suite
There’s no limit to the number of machines you can back up with Livedrive Pro Suite’s limitless storage. The monthly fee for Livedrive Pro Suite is $25. The annual package costs $240, which pays $20 each month.
Briefcase’s built-in plan provides 5 TB of cloud storage space for storing files online, which you may utilize with the Pro Suite.
Unlike the Pro Suite’s built-in backup tool, Briefcase doesn’t back up files automatically. Instead, you use Briefcase as a second hard drive connected to your computer, and whatever you copy to it is automatically transferred to your 5 TB account.
The files and folders you save in your Briefcase are automatically copied to all of the other computers you’ve connected to your account at your home or office. Additionally, the Briefcase lets you trade and transfer files from your Pro Suite account into your Briefcase.
You may purchase Livedrive Briefcase without the Pro Suite package, but it is not a backup solution in its own right. For $16 a month (or $13 a month if you pay $156 for a year upfront), you can obtain 2 TB of cloud storage service; otherwise, the Pro Suite comes with 5 TB of cloud storage service.
Another Livedrive package, Livedrive Business plans, and business package is geared at the entire workplace and includes cloud collaboration, additional users, a central admin control panel, FTP access, etc.
However, Livedrive does not provide a free backup plan, but you may test any of its premium plans for a 14-day free trial before purchasing a subscription. Activating the trial requires payment information, but you won’t be charged until the trial ends.
See our selection of free online backup options if you’re just getting started with online backup and want to see if it’s right for you.
Features of the Livedrive
As a backup service should be, Livedrive promptly uploads all of the files you’ve backed up to your online account with unlimited backup storage space. Here are other elements that are included in Livedrive’s plans:
| Livedrive Features | |
| File Size Limits | No |
| File Type Restrictions | Yes |
| Fair Use Limits | No |
| Bandwidth Throttling | Optional |
| Operating System Support | Newer versions of Microsoft Windows, as well as Mac OS |
| Native 64-bit Software | Yes |
| Mobile Apps | Windows Phone, Android, and iOS |
| File Access | Web, desktop, and mobile applications |
| Transfer Encryption | AES with a key length of 256 bits |
| Storage Encryption | 256-bit AES |
| Private Encryption Key | No |
| File Versioning | Limited, 30 days |
| Mirror Image Backup | No |
| Backup Levels | Folder |
| Backup From Mapped Drive | Yes |
| Backup From External Drive | Yes |
| Backup Frequency | Continuously, hourly, and exclusively at particular hours |
| Idle Backup Option | No |
| Bandwidth Control | Yes |
| Offline Backup Option(s) | No |
| Offline Restore Option(s) | No |
| Local Backup Option(s) | No |
| Locked/Open File Support | No |
| Backup Set Option(s) | No |
| Integrated Player/Viewer | Only a few files are supported on the web and on mobile devices. |
| File Sharing | Only with the Briefcase plan can this be done. |
| Multi-Device Syncing | Yes, but only through the Briefcase plan |
| Backup Status Alerts | No |
| Data Center Locations | Europe |
| Inactive Account Retention | 30 days |
| Support Options | using email and self-help |
What We’ve Learned about Livedrive
Livedrive isn’t the cheapest backup service on the market, but it does come with a great set of options. In addition, the plans’ versatility should make it simple for you to pick one that suits your needs. However, like with everything, there are certain benefits and drawbacks to consider before purchasing a Livedrive subscription.
Features we Like About Livedrive.
Livedrive’s right-click context menu in Windows Explorer makes it easy to back up folders to the cloud. You don’t have to access the settings and pick the folders you wish to upload to back up your data.
You may instruct Livedrive to stop backing up the file it’s now uploading if it takes a too long while back up your data. The upload space will be freed up for something else if you don’t want to back up that particular file immediately.
As we were uploading data to our Livedrive account, we discovered that it was consuming all of our available bandwidth at total capacity (through the bandwidth controls).
Generally speaking, we found Livedrive’s upload speed comparable to that of most other backup providers. Despite this, it’s essential to remember that upload times might vary greatly depending on your network’s capacity and other variables.
We also appreciate Livedrive’s mobile applications. You’ve saved music files to an account that may be found and played again using the app’s built-in music player.
Most users will like the app’s ability to stream and view many media types. The mobile device may be set up to automatically backup Files like photographs and videos, which is ideal if you like keeping your mobile media assets safe.
Features we Don’t Like About Livedrive.
First, it’s important to point out that Livedrive can only back up folders. When it comes to backing up your data, you can’t pick a whole hard disc, nor can you select an individual file. Only folders may be specified in the software.
A hard drive’s root folders must be checked to verify that all of its files are backed up if you’re backing up an entire hard drive. What’s more, unlike other similar services, Livedrive does not back up all data, regardless of file extension, which is something we don’t appreciate.
It’s impossible to back up certain types of data (such as cookies) since they’re no longer accessible. Before signing up for a backup service, it’s essential to know that Livedrive doesn’t back up all of your information.
Moreover, we dislike that Livedrive only allows you to save 30 copies of your stuff. If you make more than 30 alterations to a file, Livedrive will begin deleting earlier copies of the file from its servers, so you can’t rely on a limitless number of versions of your files as you can with some other backup space services.
In addition, deleted data are only retained by Livedrive for 30 days. There are only 30 days left before your backups will no longer be able to restore a file that has been deleted from your computer or the drive where the file was initially housed.
You can’t utilize the Livedrive online interface to download folders while recovering files since it only allow restoring files. Using the desktop app is the only way to restore folders.
Another thing to keep in mind before signing up for Livedrive is that some users have complained that the Livedrive support crew isn’t as responsive as it should be. This may be purely subjective, but it’s worth considering.
Conclusion
Even if you don’t need unlimited cloud backup services or storage, Livedrive is an excellent option because it offers a wide range of services that you won’t get in a more expensive plan (i.e., Livedrive Briefcase). Livedrive may not be what you’re looking for. See our evaluations of the other two services, such as Carbonite or Backblaze. Please share your comments pertaining to livedrive review in the comments section below.
