IDrive offers a free version with 10GB of storage space. You don’t need to enter payment information to use it. Most people won’t be able to back up their entire computer with 10GB, but it’s enough space to store a lot of documents and images. It’s a generous move on IDrive’s part, since most backup apps I’ve tested lack a free version.
(Credit: IDrive/PCMag)
The entry-level plan, IDrive Mini, starts at $2.95 per year for 100GB of storage. That’s an exceptionally low price, though anyone with a large collection of videos, photos, documents, and audio files may fill up that space quickly. Still, it’s an excellent tier, especially if you don’t have a lot of multimedia files. It supports a single user account.
For most people, though, IDrive Personal is the better option for individual users. Personal starts at $99.50 per year for 5TB of storage, and covers multiple computers. You get a discount on the first-year price ($69.65, down from $99.50).
Competitor SpiderOak One offers 5TB to individual users for $320 per year. Backblaze offers unlimited storage for $99 per year, but that plan supports only a single computer and doesn’t support mobile devices. This means that IDrive represents the best value for most individual users, especially if they only need 100GB of storage.
IDrive’s Business plans start at $99.50 per year for 250GB of storage shared among unlimited users, computers, and servers, and they scale up from there (you can max out storage at 5TB for $1499.50 per year). It’s competitive for business-grade backup and medium-to-large companies. Need backup for a smaller company? IDrive Team provides five users and computers with 5TB of storage for a low $99.95 per year (scaling up to 500 users and 500TB of storage for $6999 per year). Both plans offer first-year discounts, like IDrive Personal.
In a nice touch, all IDrive tiers, including the free version, can back up files locally to an external or network drive. Many services don’t offer local backup; others, including Carbonite Safe, charge extra for the feature. There’s no device limit, so you can back up as many devices as you like with any IDrive plan.
IDrive offers desktop clients for macOS and Windows. There’s also a command-line-only version of IDrive for Linux, but it’s intended mainly for servers.
