Icedrive Review (2023) – Why I Bought IceDrive? 9 Pros & 1 Con

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About Icedrive

Icedrive is owned by ID Cloud Services Ltd, a company based in Wales, United Kingdom. Launched in January 2019, it is still a new player in the cloud storage market. 

But the steady pace at which it is growing and improving is what makes it a tough competitor for other popular cloud storage services.

The need of the hour is online security & privacy. This is where Icedrive jumps in. An interesting thing to note here is that it calls itself a ‘Privacy oriented company’. Read on to find out if this statement holds any truth or not!

Icedrive Free Storage

Icedrive features a free plan, along with very affordable premium plans! With a free Icedrive account, you get 10 GB of free cloud space, which is quite amazing! Unlike pCloud, it does not employ a reward system for unlocking storage space on completing tasks like installing the desktop app, etc.

Icedrive is a pretty straightforward service. If you sign up for a free account using your email, you get the entire 10 GB space with no hidden demands! 

The only downside is that Icedrive doesn’t provide a free trial with any of its paid plans. However, to make up for that, they offer a 14-day money-back guarantee! 

Icedrive Speed

For this Icedrive review, I conducted the speed tests from India, whereas my Icedrive server was located in Europe. I tried to upload and download an 885 MB video file on Icedrive, and these were the results I received.

• Upload Time: 1 min 51 sec

• Download Time: 1 min 15 sec

I saw the same results while uploading and downloading with zero knowledge encryption. Overall, Icedrive offered some really appreciable speeds for a cloud storage service.

I have used various cloud services including India’s DigiBoxx, Sync, Yandex Disk, Dubox, JioCloud, etc. This is why I can confirm that IceDrive is faster than most cloud storage services.

Icedrive Review Video

For users who prefer video, here’s the video review of Icedrive in the Hindi language with English subtitles. Enjoy!

Icedrive Data Centers

The Data Centers of Icedrive are in Europe (UK and Germany) and the United States. The European servers are good from the speed and privacy points. But unlike pCloud, you don’t get to choose your server location with Icedrive. They will auto-select the server for you.

Icedrive Zero-Knowledge Encryption

Zero Knowledge Encryption basically means that nobody can read or access your data stored on the cloud storage except you. If someone wants to decrypt your data, they would require your master password.

Unlike pCloud, Icedrive offers Zero Knowledge Encryption with all its paid plans, which does not cost you any extra charges!

This feature provides you with an encrypted space secured with a passcode to store all your sensitive data. You can find all the encrypted files under the ‘Encrypted’ tab.

You get both encrypted and normal storage space. But what’s unique about Icedrive is that it lets you choose which files you wish to protect with encryption.

I personally use normal storage for files that require frequent access and encrypted storage for storing sensitive and private data.

Icedrive Versioning

The versioning feature lets you preview, restore, and download the previous versions of your files. This is helpful in case your file gets accidentally changed, edited, or deleted. You can restore it to any of its previous versions with a single click! 

With the free plan of Icedrive, you can create up to 3 versions that are stored for a period of 15 days in their system. And with the paid plan of Icedrive, you can create up to 10 versions that are stored for 180 days in their system.

Once this time period is exceeded, all the file versions are purged from their systems.

This is interesting because pCloud only offers a 30 days versioning limit. However, pCloud does not restrict on the number of revisions. Whereas, with Icedrive, revisions are limited to 10 versions.

Icedrive Trash Folder

The Trash tab holds all your deleted files and folders. Unlike many other cloud storage services, the Icedrive Trash folder has no limit. All your deleted items would remain there unless you delete them permanently. 

An important thing to note is that the trash space occupied by the deleted files is included in the total storage. So if you are running out of storage space, clearing your trash bin will help! 

Icedrive Sync

Icedrive doesn’t provide a sync folder but it does have the option to selectively sync any folder on your hard disk. Using the Icedrive virtual drive, you can select folders from your devices to sync with the cloud.

The interesting feature of Icedrive cloud storage is that you can choose a sync direction while creating a sync pair – Two Way, One Way to Local, or One Way to Cloud. Once the two folders are paired, any changes made to them will remain synced.

There is no Block-Level Sync feature available with Icedrive as of now. However, they are planning to introduce it in the future.

You can find syncing options in its mobile apps where you can auto-uploading photos, videos, and files. Icedrive is not the best when it comes to Sync. In my opinion, pCloud and Sync cloud storage are much better for file syncing as of now.

Icedrive Virtual Drive

Icedrive offers a Virtual Drive feature that can be accessed when you install its software and mount the drive.

With the virtual drive, you can effortlessly sync folders from your computer to the folders on your cloud storage using its desktop application.

While creating a sync pair, Icedrive also lets you specify the sync direction. This helps you specify where the changes will be reflected if any data is changed in the synced pair of folders.

• Two Way – Changes made are reflected on both the local folder and cloud folders.
• One Way to Local – Changes made to the cloud folder are reflected in the local folder.
• One Way to Cloud – Changes made to a local folder are reflected in your cloud folder.

The best part is that this virtual drive does not take up a major chunk of space on your device. It only occupies a brief space to store the recently used files in its cache. This is necessary to avoid any lags and slowdowns in the functioning of the virtual drive.

Icedrive truly works like an external hard drive attached to your computer! All you need is an active Internet connection in order to operate it. I personally like Icedrive’s sync direction feature a lot. Every cloud storage should implement it.

Icedrive User Interface

The user interface of Icedrive is one of the best I have ever seen on any cloud storage.

It is extremely easy to use and comes with a modern design. The color theme of Icedrive is very pleasing along with the adorable polar bear logo. It’s so simple that I can even recommend it to my Dad.

The left sidebar comprises all the important features that you’d need. This includes Icedrive folders, Encrypted Storage, Shared files, Favorite Items, Recent files, and Trash folders.

File Management and Customization options are available on the top when you select any file or folder. The sharing options are easy to use and identification of shared data is effortless with tiny on top of every folder.

A drag-and-drop upload feature makes it even more convenient. You can also color-code your uploaded folders for efficient sorting, which reminds me of Notion. Overall, this is a very well-organized interface. It is easy to use, modern, and elegant!

They have recently introduced the dark mode on their desktop app. It’s great for preventing strain on the eyes and gives Icedrive a premium feel.

Icedrive Devices and Apps

Icedrive has dedicated desktop apps for Windows, Mac, and Linux; Mobile apps for Android and iOS, and a web interface that works pretty smoothly on all the major browsers. 

The mobile app has a lovely and clean interface along with integrated players for all document types, audio, and video files. It comprises handy features like automatic backup, password protection, 2FA, marking files for offline access, media background play, and dark mode.

As per the latest update, the Android app of Icedrive also lets you access password-protected PDFs, which is a very convenient feature. However, it doesn’t work on the web app yet. Overall, my experience on all the devices was very satisfying. 🙂

Icedrive Customer Service

Icedrive offers customer support through live chat and email. However, the live chat team is mostly away and unresponsive.

So, the only way to contact support is through email. You can contact them with your queries through an email ticket system where the average response time is two days! 

You can also find short but informative FAQ-style articles on their Help Center to solve your basic queries. Overall, the support is a bit slow. But I found their replies to be quite informative, kind, and positive.

Icedrive Sharing and Collaboration

After the recent updates, Icedrive now supports a range of sharing and collaboration options. All your collaborations can be viewed under the collaborations tab. They are neatly arranged in three different tabs.

• Shared With Me: It features a list of files or folders shared with you.
• Public Links: It comprises a list of links that you’ve shared with others.
• File Requests: It keeps a list of folders where you’ve requested others to upload files.

Now, let’s look at all the important sharing and collaboration features below.

Public Links

With Icedrive, you can create public links for any of your files and share them with anyone you wish.

The paid plans of Icedrive also let you specify a link expiry limit, set a secure access password and enable/disable downloads for your file.

File Access Control

If you wish to collaborate with another user on your file or project, Icedrive lets you share files along with access controls. To share a file with someone, you simply need to enter their email, and specify an access level – Read Only or Editor.

Finally, you can also add a comment along with your shared files. The collaboration activity can be viewed from under the Collaborations tab.

Commenting and Discussion

Now, Icedrive also lets you add insightful comments on shared files.

This is helpful in case you wish to leave any feedback or remarks for your designers or team mates. You can conduct full-fledged discussions through the comments feature, which is great!

File Requests

With the File Request feature, you can request any user to upload files to your folder. In order to request files, you simply need to generate a file request link for your folder and specify an expiry date.

Then, you can share the link to your folder with other users. The best part is that the user doesn’t need to have an Icedrive account to upload files. They just need to mention their name and start uploading files.

Overall, the Sharing and Collaboration features of Icedrive are really impressive. I’m really happy to see that they’ve introduced all the advanced functionalities on their cloud storage platform.

Icedrive Documents

Icedrive lets you view all file types including word documents, presentations, spreadsheets, PDFs, audio files, videos, etc. But the catch is, you cannot edit them in the web version. It does not have any integrated editing apps at the moment.

With the desktop application, you can edit your files with the native apps on your device and when you click on Save, your file will automatically be re-uploaded to the cloud.

In simple words, if you want to edit a .doc file, you can install the Icedrive desktop app. This way, the doc file will automatically open in your local editors like MS Word. Once you make all the changes and close the file, the latest updates will automatically be re-uploaded to the cloud.

Icedrive Playback Features

Icedrive has integrated players for audio and video playback on the web version and mobile apps. You can vary the speed of your audio playback. If you use the desktop app, it will use your internal players for playing media.  

Though there are very few customization options available here, it’s pretty decent.

Icedrive WebDAV Access

Quite interestingly, Icedrive offers WebDAV access for developers. With this feature, users can access their Icedrive storage without installing any additional software on their devices.

Basically, WebDAV access helps developers move, edit, copy, or share files via a web server. All you need to do is browse the WebDAV server URL and enter your access key as the password. This will help you operate your cloud storage through the web server.

The Icedrive team was going to remove this feature previously. But I guess it’s going to continue!

Icedrive Security

Icedrive calls itself a ‘Privacy Oriented Company’ which is true. This is because it uses the TwoFish client-side Encryption protocol for encrypting its users’ files. Whereas, other cloud storage services use AES 256-bit, which is the industry standard encryption protocol. 

Client-side encryption means encrypting all your files before transferring them from your local device to the Icedrive servers. They also have Zero Knowledge Encryption for securing the private and sensitive data of their users.

Wondering why they have used the Twofish encryption? Well, Icedrive believes that because it is a lesser-known protocol, it would guarantee enhanced security, because hackers are unfamiliar with it. 

They have recently introduced Two Factor Authentication (2FA) on their cloud storage. So, you can use enable 2FA through Google Authenticator, FIDO/U2F, or Text Message/SMS. I’m really happy that they finally decided to introduce 2FA for additional security! Better late than never.

Icedrive Privacy Policy

The Privacy Policy of Icedrive is very transparent. They do not share any of your data and don’t make use of Google Analytics either. 

Apart from this, Icedrive is completely GDPR compliant, so you have the option to download or erase all of your data that they possess. I found these privacy measures very reassuring.

Icedrive Pricing

Icedrive offers some really advanced features at very affordable prices starting from just $1.67/month! Apart from their monthly and yearly plans, they also have lifetime plans that are 100% value for your money.

Annual Plans

The Annual plans start at a pocket-friendly price of $1.67/month. With this plan, you get 150 GB of cloud storage along with secure client-side encryption.

Lifetime Plans

I really appreciate their Lifetime plans. The Lite Lifetime plan starts at $99 for 150 GB of storage space. You can easily recover the entire amount spent on the lifetime plans within the first 3-4 years, which makes it a good value-for-money option.

Other than this, they also offer a 14-days money-back guarantee on all the premium plans!

Icedrive Pros

Icedrive offers lots of exceptional features, giving neck-to-neck competition to other popular cloud storage services.

1. Clean Interface

Icedrive comes with a clean, appealing, and organized user interface. It’s extremely easy to use, which is why beginners won’t have any trouble operating Icedrive.

2. Excellent Speeds

The upload and download speeds of Icedrive are truly outstanding. I live in India and I’m getting good speeds from Icedrive with or without zero-knowledge encryption.

3. Powerful Sharing and Collaboration

After the latest updates, Icedrive now supports advanced features for sharing and collaboration. It lets you share files with anyone, request file uploads, collaborate with access control, share public links, and add comments under files. All these features make it more powerful and feature-rich.

4. GDPR Compliant

Icedrive maintains good security and privacy standards. It is also completely GDPR compliant, which makes its privacy policy very reliable!

5. 2FA Support

Icedrive now supports two factor authentication through Google Authenticator, FIDO/U2F, and SMS/Text message. This is great from a security perspective.

6. Affordable Pricing

Starting at just $1.67/month, Icedrive is clearly one of the cheapest & reliable cloud storage services. Icedrive is my recommendation if you are looking for a cheap cloud storage option.

7. No Add-Ons

Unlike pCloud Storage, Icedrive has no add-ons. You don’t need to pay extra charges for availing of zero-knowledge encryption or any other features.  

8. Versioning Support

Icedrive supports file versioning. With the paid plan of Icedrive, you can create up to 10 versions of your documents that are stored for 180 days in their system.

9. Fast Development

Icedrive is a relatively new player in the cloud storage industry. They’ve been introducing updates to their features quite swiftly. I am impressed by their rate of development.

Icedrive Cons

1. Limited Sync Options

Syncing options like Block-level Sync are not available on Icedrive at the moment. Though Icedrive offers Selective Sync by creating sync pairs, pCloud & Sync have better selective sync options.

Conclusion

Icedrive is pretty new to the cloud storage market right now. But they have still provided some advanced features at an affordable price.

Along with a beautiful and responsive interface, they also offer good sharing and collaboration support and advanced security. Icedrive deserves applause for implementing all of these features in such a brief span of time!

If you have never used a Cloud storage service before and need budget-friendly Cloud storage with good privacy, fast speeds, and a simple UI, you can go with Icedrive.

But if you can hike up your budget, and need a complete cloud storage solution with all the advanced features, then I suggest you choose pCloud Cloud Storage. You might also use a combination of Icedrive and pCloud to get the best of both worlds. That is what I prefer for myself!

Anyway, I hope you liked this review article and hope it helps you purchase the best cloud storage for your requirements. What other cloud storage services have you used in the past? How has your experience been with them? Let me know in the comments section below.

Also, if you enjoy reading my blogs and wish to stay updated with the latest posts, then subscribe to my Newsletter. This is Kripesh signing off! Take care and keep learning, guys. I’ll see you in the next article. 

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