Livedrive online backup review: Fast, elegant, and unlimited

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After two tire-kickings of the Windows version of Livedrive, I struggle to find anything about the service that isn’t first-rate. Signup was a breeze, the client installed quickly, and operation proved easy to both understand and use.

Most importantly, Livedrive never glitched. In fact, it never even hinted at glitching. That inspires confidence — something that’s essential when trusting your precious data to an online backup service. It also proved far faster than I expected for a service with its data centers overseas. Sweet. 

See how well Livedrive compares to the competition in our big online backup roundup. 

Note: For more about data backup, see our best Windows backup software roundup.

What are Livedrive’s features?

While I’ve already praised Livedrive for its operational solidity, the attention to detail in the interface is also outstanding. If I had a dime for every poorly rendered, scaled, or translated GUI element I’ve seen in the backup arena, I’d be well on my way to being rich. Obviously, there’s someone at the company other than backup programmers.

That said, it does use the British “centre,” rather than the American “center.” God save the Queen! (Err, King.)

Though Livedrive automatically selects everything most users want to back up (read: the User folder), you can alter the selections on your own. That’s a good thing for me as I have almost 1TB of VMs, ISO, and storage test files on the desktop — few of which really need to be backed up.

Yes, Livedrive provides unlimited backup, but for speed’s sake, you should always skip anything you can easily recreate and limit backup to anything that will produce negative emotions if lost.

Livedrive backups may be scheduled as granularly as every hour, or in multiples of hours. There’s also a daily option that should be sufficient for most users, depending on what you’re backing up. If your data set changes more often, use the hourly.

In the event you need to restore data, you my use the client software as shown below, or download the data via Livedrive’s web portal.

Livedrive (Pro Suite or separate) also offers sync in the form of the Briefcase, which is where backups from your mobile devices reside. It is accessed via a virtual network drive invoked by the Open Briefcase button on the Briefcase page of the client software.

You may add local folders to the Briefcase via drag-and-drop or create new ones. Folders dragged in are copies of the original folder, not shortcuts — i.e., you’re not syncing the original folder as is the case with folders created inside the drive.

A Briefcase-related feature is LAN transfer. This is used to sync the Briefcase among computers on your network running Livedrive. This requires the Pro Suite version, or more than one seat license, and bypasses the overhead of downloading the folder from the Livedrive online repository.

Probably my only complaint about Livedrive is that the Mac client requires the installation of macFuse for the Briefcase to function. It’s not alone in using that extension, but it does complicate the dead-easy vibe you get in Windows.

Other Livedrive options include excluding files and folders, file-type priority (which files transfer first), bandwidth allocation (performance), proxy server support (VPNs), and an integrity check (comparing local and online files).

For security, Livedrive uses transfer layer security (TLS, the successor to the NSA-supported SSL) and two-factor authentication. The service also ensures that data is distributed across multiple locations and obfuscated so it can’t be linked to an individual account.

It conforms with all EU privacy laws for Britain’s continental brethren. How this fares in light of Brexit, we can’t say. But Livedrive is secure.

Livedrive also provides Android and iOS apps so you can keep your mobile devices backed up. See below

How much does Livedrive cost?

Livedrive’s base pricing is reasonable at $10 a month for unlimited data backed up from a single PC, though it was on sale for $8.33 at the time of this review. There’s also a standalone Briefcase sync service (think iCloud, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc.) with a generous 2TB of space for $17.58 a month (currently on sale for $14.66 per month). The Pro Suite offers both Backup and Briefcase as well as five seat licenses for $27.50 a month ($22.08 on sale).

Nicely, according to the company, the sale prices are also the rollover prices so there’s no unexpected bump in cost when your plan renews.

Note that I evaluated the Pro Suite version which also includes five seat licenses.

The non-sale prices are up just slightly from those we saw at our last look in 2021.

The Briefcase options are rather pricey considering the aforementioned alternatives, many of which are free for smaller data sets. Online backup competitor iDrive offers sync as part of its standard backup plan. 

How fast is Livedrive?

I was pleasantly surprised by the 5- to 10MBps upload rate I saw from Livedrive. The company’s data storage facilities are in the United Kingdom so it’s traveling a ways from San Francisco, CA, U.S. where I reside. Of course, that speaks as much to continual improvements in internet infrastructure as the company’s operations, but the bottom line is that you don’t have to worry about backup speed as you might have once.

Nor do you have to worry about the backup’s impact on system performance. Livedrive had backed up 34.5GB of a 250GB backup without my even noticing it. Backups that don’t disturb your computing day are nice. 

Should you pay for Livedrive?

Yes. Its flawless setup, minimalist interface, and smooth operation make for a superior experience. If you value impeccability, Livedrive is an excellent choice for online backup. That said, it would be nice if the client provided a secondary backup to local storage — restore from local media, when available, is far faster.  

Editor’s note: Because online services are often iterative, gaining new features and performance improvements over time, this review is subject to change in order to accurately reflect the current state of the service. Any changes to text or our final review verdict will be noted at the top of this article.