Livedrive Review

Livedrive is a backup service based in London, UK. It has been in business for several years and has more than a million subscribers. They definitely seem to be popular, however are their services any good compared to the many other options out there?

Features

Livedrive offers a variety of features, quite a few more than their competitors. In fact there are so many that they can be a bit overwhelming at first. While you will probably not be using all of the features available, some of them can be quite handy and fun.

One unique feature that Livedrive offers is the ability to directly edit the images you back up within their as well as direct streaming of audio files.

If you sign up for the Briefcase or Pro Suite plans you can easily sync your file across several computers. The basic Backup plan does not offer this feature though, since it can only be used on one computer. If you need to backup multiple computers you can either get the Pro Suite plan or buy add-ons.

Livedrive, like most other similar services, provides 30 day file versions. This enables you to easily go back to the original state of a file if you need to for whatever reason.

The service is available for Mac and Windows (no Linux) as well as Android, iOS and Windows 8 Surface devices.

Security

Livedrive uses standard SSl encryption for transfers to the cloud. Once they are uploaded they are protected with 256-bit AES encryption, which is usually more than enough to keep files safe.

Servers are based in the US and all data is copied to geo-redundant servers. This protects the data in case a data center goes down by making it available from another location.

While the main Briefcase drive is not encrypted, this can be changed in the settings of the app.

Storage

Livedrive offers two main backup plans for individual users, with several pricing plans for each. A significant discount is applied if you buy for 2 years or more.

Their basic plan is called Livedrive Backup. It comes with unlimited space to back up as many files as you want, but is limited to just one computer. It costs $8 per month  or $84 per year.

If you want to backup several computers you will have to get the Livedrive Pro Suite plan. This plan also provides unlimited backup space and enables you to backup up to 5 different computers. It costs $25 per month or $240 if you pay for a full year

Livedrive also offers a separate service called “Briefcase” which acts like an additional drive on your computer. Files are not backed up automatically with this service, you have to copy them manually. It is mainly meant for synching files across computers and comes with 5TB of storage space. This services costs $16 a month if you buy it separately. It comes included with the Pro Suite plan.

Ease of Use

If you are used to very straightforward backup services like some of Livedrives competitors, you may find the many different menus and panes in its app slightly overwhelming. The main interface is a little less user friendly compared to other services, however selecting random files to backup is very easy thanks to its integration with the context menu.

Help/Support

Livedrive support is only available by email, but they can be reached 14/7. Emails are usually answered quickly. Their ticket tracking system lets you follow the progress of the support  exchange. A detailed FAQ section and knowledge base is also available.

What Others Are Saying:

Overall, we have mixed feelings about Livedrive. On the one hand, it’s cheaper than almost anyone else in the online backup market, and once that initial upload is completed, you can pretty much leave it running in the background and forget about it, safe in the knowledge that there’s an off-site copy of your critical files.  – Cloud Pro