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File Storage · head to head

IDrive vs LucidLink

IDrive logo

IDrive

File Storage

Affordable online backup with multiple device support

From
$2.5/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
LucidLink logo

LucidLink

File Storage

Cloud filesystem that streams large media files on demand instead of syncing them

From
$7/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: IDrive the advertised annual rates are first year introductory prices, with standard pricing applying from the second year onward; LucidLink additional storage at $7 to $8 per 100GB per month is roughly three to four times raw S3 pricing, so teams with large cold archives pay a heavy premium for data they rarely touch.
  • They diverge on capability: IDrive covers Multiple device backup, LucidLink covers Filespaces.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which IDrive and LucidLink actually diverge.

Attributes where IDrive and LucidLink differ
AttributeIDriveLucidLink
Starting price$2.5/month$7/month
Pricing modelsubscriptionPer member per month plus storage
PlatformsWindows, Mac, Linux, WebmacOS, Windows, Linux, iOS
Founded1995Unknown

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (File Storage).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in IDrive

  • Multiple device backup
  • True archiving
  • Continuous protection
  • IDrive Express
  • File sharing
  • iOS
  • Android
  • Windows Server

Only in LucidLink

  • Filespaces
  • On-demand streaming
  • Client-side encryption
  • Customer-managed keys
  • Bring your own storage

Both cover

  • Snapshots

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

IDrive

  • Online backup for computers, servers and mobile devicesnot LucidLink
  • Backing up multiple machines under one accountnot LucidLink

LucidLink

  • A post house with editors in three countries cutting from one shared 4K rush library without shipping drivesnot IDrive
  • A broadcaster giving freelancers access to a project for a fortnight without provisioning VPN and a NAS mountnot IDrive
  • A game studio sharing multi-gigabyte asset builds where syncing every file to every workstation is impracticalnot IDrive
  • An architecture practice opening large point cloud and BIM files from a laptop on a hotel connectionnot IDrive

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

IDrive

  • The advertised annual rates are first year introductory prices, with standard pricing applying from the second year onward
  • The two year offer discounts only the first year, so the second year reverts to the full rate
  • Team plans tie user and computer counts to the storage tier, so 10 TB means exactly 10 computers
  • Business storage costs far more per terabyte than Personal, at $719.88 a year for 1.25 TB against $143.88 for 5 TB

LucidLink

  • Additional storage at $7 to $8 per 100GB per month is roughly three to four times raw S3 pricing, so teams with large cold archives pay a heavy premium for data they rarely touch.
  • Included storage is pooled per member, so adding a seat is also how you buy capacity, and teams with a few heavy users and many light ones buy seats purely for the gigabytes.
  • Performance is bounded by the network link and local cache size, so a workstation with a small cache on a poor connection performs far worse than the demonstrations suggest.
  • Small-file and metadata-heavy workloads such as code repositories, node modules trees or build outputs perform badly, so it is not a general-purpose file server replacement.
  • Customer-managed keys and bring your own storage are Enterprise-tier options, so organisations that cannot let a vendor hold their keys cannot use the published pricing at all.

Pricing, plan by plan

IDrive

$2.5/month
  • IDrive Personal$2.5/month
    • Promotional pricing: $2.50/month (billed annually)
    • Regular pricing: $6.99/month
    • 50% savings with annual billing
  • IDrive Team$null/month
    • Cloud backup service for small business
  • IDrive Business$null/month
    • Backup for computers and servers
  • IDrive 360 Enterprise Backup$null/month
    • Endpoint, servers, and SaaS cloud backup
    • For MSPs and IT teams

LucidLink

$7/month
  • Starter$7/month
    • 100GB included per member, pooled across the team
    • Additional storage $7 per 100GB per month
    • Client-side encryption
  • Business$32/month
    • $27 per member per month billed annually
    • 400GB included per member, pooled across the team
    • Additional storage $8 per 100GB per month
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Custom pricing and storage terms
    • Customer-managed encryption keys
    • Bring your own object storage bucket

Which should you pick?

Choose IDrive if

  • You need multiple device backup.
  • You work on Windows, Mac, Linux, Web.
  • You also want true archiving.
IDrive review

Choose LucidLink if

  • You need filespaces.
  • You work on macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS.
  • You also want on-demand streaming.
LucidLink review

Questions people ask

Is IDrive or LucidLink better?
Neither clearly leads. IDrive starts at $2.5/month and LucidLink at $7/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, IDrive or LucidLink?
IDrive starts at $2.5/month and LucidLink at $7/month.
Does IDrive or LucidLink run on more platforms?
IDrive runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, Web. LucidLink runs on macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS.
What is IDrive best used for?
IDrive is most often used for online backup for computers, servers and mobile devices, backing up multiple machines under one account. Of those, online backup for computers, servers and mobile devices and backing up multiple machines under one account are not what LucidLink is typically brought in for.
What can IDrive do that LucidLink cannot?
IDrive covers Multiple device backup, True archiving, Continuous protection, IDrive Express. LucidLink covers Filespaces, On-demand streaming, Client-side encryption, Customer-managed keys. Both handle Snapshots.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

IDrive: How much does IDrive Personal cost?

IDrive Personal starts at $2.50/month when billed annually, representing a 50% discount from the regular price of $6.99/month. A 7-day free trial is available without requiring a credit card.

Source
LucidLink: What does storage actually cost?

$7 per 100GB per month on Starter and $8 per 100GB per month on Business, above the pooled allowance. Model this separately from the seat cost.

IDrive: What is the price for IDrive Cloud Applications Backup?

IDrive Cloud Applications Backup costs $20 per seat per year with unlimited storage. This covers backups for Microsoft 365, Microsoft Entra ID, Google Workspace, Salesforce, Dropbox, and Box.

Source
LucidLink: Can we hold our own encryption keys?

On the Enterprise tier, yes, along with pointing the filespace at your own S3 or Azure bucket. Not on Starter or Business.

IDrive: How much does IDrive e2 cloud object storage cost?

IDrive e2 starts at $29.75 per year for 1 TB (first-year promotional pricing; regular price $59.50/year). IDrive markets this as 90% cheaper than AWS pricing for equivalent storage.

Source
LucidLink: Does it work for source code?

Not well. It is built for large sequential reads. Many small files is the workload it handles worst.

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