Online backup services, like Carbonite and Mozy, are becoming the number one source for computer users to backup their systems. With the rising use of online storage, it comes as no surprise that more and more services are launching. While you should be careful about instilling all of your trust in a brand new company, once a company becomes established and makes a good name for itself, having a variety of choices is a good thing. Yet, one more online backup service recently hit the market and this service is called HiDrive.
A Little Bit about HiDrive
HiDrive comes from Strato, a top web host in Europe. Don’t let that fool you into thinking that HiDrive is only for European residents. HiDrive is available for users from all over the world, including the United States. HiDrive Free offers users 5GB of free space for storing data. HiDrive stands behind the security of their service by claiming, “where in most cases cloud service providers run their data centres in the United States where data privacy laws are of a lower standard, all data stored in HiDrive is subject to German data privacy laws – some of the strictest in the world in terms of data protection.”
HiDrive can be accessed from your computer, your Android device and even your Windows 7 phone, since HiDrive has an app for both of those devices. As long as you can get on the internet, you can access your data. You can upload documents, music, pictures, and even movies. HiDrive allows file sharing, as well, making it easy to send a link to a particular file to someone you know.
The signup process is a breeze. Just provide your email address, username, password, and accept the terms and you are taken directly to your HiDrive dashboard. The dashboard is fairly simple to navigate and the FAQ page provides detailed instructions connecting a specified drive to your HiDrive, even giving screenshots to make it easier.
Pricing
As of right now, HiDrive only offers their free account. However, paid plans are in the works and the prices are available on the website with an easy currency convertor. 100GB of space will cost a US user about $14 a month, while 500GB of space will cost about $42 a month. With the 500GB plan, up to five users can use the space. Both paid plans will include the option to upload emails, making it easy to backup your email account, something that the average computer user probably doesn’t think about doing. HiDrive is also working on premium packages of up to 5000GB of space.
As with all online backup services, only time will tell if HiDrive is successful around the world. However, since HiDrive launched in 2010, it has already had good success in Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. Strato is one of the leading web hosts in Europe, so it is probably safe to say that HiDrive will be a reliable service for US users.
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