ElephantDrive is a capable cloud storage platform for all your devices, including network servers. The service offers top features, including end-to-end encryption, seamless syncing, and easy file recovery. However, ElephantDrive is pricey enough that it’s hard to recommend. Several of the best cloud storage services offer a similar product at a much lower price point.
- Want to try ElephantDrive? Check out the website here
In our ElephantDrive review, we’ll help you decide whether this cloud storage service is worth the cost.
Plans and pricing
ElephantDrive offers three pricing tiers. The Home plan includes 1,000 GB of storage for $10 per month or $100 per year. That’s not overly expensive—but if you need more storage you can only buy increments of 1,000 GB for an additional $10 per month or $100 per year. So, expanding your storage can quickly become prohibitively expensive. Another limitation is that you can only upload files up to 2 GB in size.
The Business plan offers the same amount of storage, but for $20 per month or $200 per year. The difference is that you can have up to 25 devices, whereas the Home plan only enables 10. In addition, you can create up to 10 sub-accounts for your business.
The Enterprise plan costs $30 per month or $300 per year. It enables you to upload files up to 200 GB each and includes up to 100 devices. You can also create up to 20 sub-accounts for your business.
ElephantDrive offers a 30-day trial, although a credit card is required.
Features
ElephantDrive offers all of the high-end features we’d expect to see from a top-tier cloud storage platform.
To start, this platform enables you to automatically sync files across all of your devices to the cloud and between each other. ElephantDrive automatically retains old versions of your files and organizes them by date, making it easy to restore an archive of your data after a malware attack. Of course, you have precise control over version retention, so you can limit how much of your storage space your archived data takes up.
On top of that, we liked that ElephantDrive makes sharing files simple. You can share entire folders to have them sync between users. Alternatively, ElephantDrive enables you to share individual files using links, which can be password-protected for security.
One small complaint, however, is that you cannot share multiple files using a single link. If you want to share multiple files, your only option is to create a new folder.
The thing that stands out most about ElephantDrive is that it works across virtually all devices, including Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android devices. Importantly, ElephantDrive can back up data from external hard drives and network-attached storage (NAS) devices, so you can use this service to archive data from both Windows and Linux servers.
Interface and in use
ElephantDrive wasn’t particularly easy to get started using. After creating an online account, you have to download the client for each of your devices in order to upload files. You cannot simply drag and drop files into your browser, and there isn’t a browser-based upload tool you can use.
That said, we did like the way that ElephantDrive approaches backup and sync. The client installs two folders on your computer: Backup and Everywhere.
Files in the Backup folder are simply uploaded to the cloud at the time they are put into the folder. Files in the Everywhere folder are synced between the cloud and your computer, as well as being made available in the Everywhere folder on your other devices or in the ElephantDrive mobile app.
The ElephantDrive mobile app is a little clunky because it’s designed to mirror the folder structure built for desktops. That said, it’s not hard to navigate, and we liked that the app automatically backs up photos and other media from your device.
Support
ElephantDrive offers surprisingly limited support. Home users can only get in touch by scheduling a conversation over live chat, while Business users must schedule a phone call. Only Enterprise users can simply call the support team at any time.
The company’s online knowledge base is fairly comprehensive, but that might not be much consolation if you have a problem with your account and can’t access your files when you need them.
Security
ElephantDrive uses 256-bit AES encryption to keep your data secure. The platform uses end-to-end encryption, meaning that your files are encrypted on your device before being transferred to the cloud.
Notably, ElephantDrive doesn’t offer zero-knowledge encryption. That means the company manages your encryption key, so in theory someone at ElephantDrive could access your files. We appreciated that ElephantDrive is upfront with its privacy policy, but this is still a concern for the most sensitive storage needs.
The competition
On the whole, ElephantDrive is a high-quality cloud storage platform. But it’s hard to understand why the company is charging so much for storage. For individual cloud storage, iDrive offers 5 TB of storage for one user for just $69.50 per year. Like ElephantDrive, iDrive offers features such as end-to-end encryption and file sharing.
If you need business cloud storage, consider pCloud or Microsoft OneDrive. pCloud offers 1 TB per user for $95.88 per user per year. Microsoft OneDrive offers unlimited storage for $120 per user per year. While these can be more expensive than ElephantDrive if you have multiple users, you also get a lot more total storage space for overall better value.
Final verdict
ElephantDrive is a reliable cloud storage service with plenty of features to like. It can be especially useful if you have multiple devices or need a cloud storage platform to back up a business server.
However, ElephantDrive can be prohibitively expensive, especially when you compare its pricing scheme to what competitors are charging. We think individuals can get a lot more bang for their buck from a platform like iDrive, while business users will find more value in pCloud or Microsoft OneDrive.
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