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PROS:
CONS:
Amazon Cloud Drive is one of the most affordable online data backup services we looked at. For just under $60 a year you get unlimited storage for all your devices neatly tied with a simple and elegant app you control everything from. Despite the fact it wasn’t the fastest service when it came to backup and file restoration speeds, Amazon still performed much better than many others in its category. The service offers two different plans with a three month trial period. If you can get pass the “shady” privacy policy (that can be overridden using third-party encryption software), Amazon Cloud Drive is definitely our top recommendation for online data backup.
Even though Amazon is a household name in the e-commerce business, it’s fairly new to the online data backup service industry. It holds one of the largest server facilities in the world with many top tier data backup services renting server space from them. Amazon Cloud Drive comes with unlimited storage across all your devices and it provides one of the best value for money services in our review.
Value for money
Amazon named their subscription options very descriptively: Prime Photos and Unlimited Storage. If you’re an avid “amazonite” and you already own an Amazon Prime subscription on its e-commerce site, then the Prime Photos online backup plan is also included with your Prime membership. Prime Photos is a great option for photographers since it offers unlimited storage of all your photographs as well as an additional 5GB for your music, videos and other files. Amazon has also developed a great app that connects all your devices and allows you full control of your cloud backup through them.
Albeit, we will focus on the Unlimited Storage plan more. Even though most online data backup services offer a free trial, Amazon took it to a new level allowing you to try out their services the first three months for free. If you wish to upgrade after the initial trial period, for $59.99 year you will have an online data backup option across all your devices. For the amazing value for money, Amazon received an A for the value for larger and small families as well as individual users.
Price: $59.99
Backup
On the backup speed test, we recorded the average MB/min speed needed to upload up to 1TB of data. We tested the Amazon service during different hours of day and night as well as busy weekends to get the most realistic result. The Amazon Cloud Drive showed it could back up a TB of data in less than 14 days. This results is still considered relatively fast with the industry average speed being over three weeks.
Restoration
Amazon showed fairly similar results when we measured the speed at which you can restore your files from the Amazon servers. The several tests we ran at different times were created to test the average speed at which one MB/min of data is transferred and how long it would take the service to finish a transfer of 1TB. Amazon recorded the result of 10 days which put it with the results received from the top scorers in its category. When we tested just how easy to use the desktop app is we came to the conclusion that it has a clean, smart design that is easily decipherable at the first try. The main app only has two tabs, one for backup and the other for restoring your files. If you need to tweak the app in any way, a small settings icon is clearly visible.
Security
When writing our reviews and testing different services, we paid special attention to the level of privacy promised by each of the reviewed services. Despite its competitive pricing and great attention to detail, Amazon secures your data with SSL encryption during backup and restoration, but not while the files have not yet been raised from the servers. Amazon also has a very “loose” understanding of privacy which is mirrored in the privacy policy you are obligated to sign before subscribing. If you want to make sure your files are exclusively available to you, you can always purchase third-party encryption software to further protect your data.
Amazon might not be the fastest online backup service on the market, but it certainly offers the best value for a very reasonable price. It has many minimalistic apps made so that the most inexperienced users can operate them with ease. It doesn’t fully encrypt your data, but that can easily be fixed with some additional software.
Email: In order to contact customer support via email, you should fill out a request through this link: www.amazon.com/clouddrive/support
Phone number: In order to contact customer support via phone, you should fill out a request through this link: www.amazon.com/clouddrive/support
Website: www.amazon.com/clouddrive/home
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Amazon/
There are many ways you can get help on the Amazon website. Once you login, you get a clear overview of your data and if you have any questions you can access the support page from there. Customer representatives are available through phone, email or live chat.
Our editorial staff evaluates products and services independently, but Best Review Guide may earn money when you click on links. Read our advertising disclosure.
By: Matt | Last updated June 5, 2017 
