Amazon Cloud Drive Review

Amazon is one of the most recognizable names in the industry, as they are literally everywhere. You can shop on Amazon, you can recharge your Mobile on Amazon, and now they have their own Amazon Cloud Drive (also known as Amazon Drive.) But wait, there are dozens of other Cloud services, why do I choose Amazon? Well, you must try some of them to see which suits best for you, and today I will talk about Amazon Cloud drive, which I’ve been using for quite some time to write this review for you.

Amazon Cloud Drive Performance and Features

The first thing I noticed here and I immediately fell in love with, is unlimited storage. Well done, Amazon. But, it’s not all in quantity; quantity is relatively easy to achieve. What about the quality and the speed? Well, as always, I’ll use 1TB of data to simulate and measure the time it would take to be uploaded and downloaded. The backup first. In my testing results, 1TB of cloud data could be backed up in around two weeks. Well, not exactly two weeks but around 13 days, which isn’t the fastest results I’ve seen, but again, it’s faster than the most Cloud services, so props to that.

Now, about the restore speed. The restore tends to always be a little slower in some Cloud services, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that Amazon Cloud Drive didn’t disappoint me, restoring 1TB of data in less than 10 days. To wrap it up, when it comes to speed, Amazon Cloud Drive performed among the best in my tests, and although it isn’t the fastest Cloud service out there, it’s easily in my Top 6 Cloud services I’ve used.

Feature-wise, Amazon doesn’t shine too much, offering a file backup and restoration on a consumer level. But other reviewers are happy about this feature. Check out CloudStorageAdvice’s take on file back up and restoration. The Whispersync function is also indeed worthy of a mention. But, as there is an unlimited storage, I really can’t say anything bad. This is, in the end, all I want from my Cloud storage, to be unlimited! Other than that, Amazon Cloud Drive is one of the largest Cloud services at the moment, and they are very reliable in terms of restoration and backup. But, is it simple to use? Let’s find out in the next section.

Amazon Cloud Drive Ease of Use

I’m the type of person that likes everything nice and simple. I don’t like too many options, either a very small amount of them. Yes I know it’s hard to make my day, but let’s see how Amazon performs here. I must say I’m very satisfied with the Ease of Use, and it easily gets the highest grade from me. First, there are two tabs, one of them being for downloading and the other for uploading. You simply can’t get lost in these two features, as the features aren’t hidden either; it’s all in your face.

The settings can be easily located, as there is a dedicated icon for that, displaying a cog symbol and a text; you can’t miss it. Whether you want to upload or download, there are just a few steps, I counted three to four steps maximum to do that, which is fairly simple. The great thing here is that even a newbie will find a way to comprehend the exact workflow of this service, which is, I repeat, very simple.

Amazon Cloud Drive Pricing

When it comes to the pricing, Amazon will not blow you away with its subscription plans, but what more do you need when there is an unlimited space? That being said, Amazon Cloud Drive offers two subscription plans: Unlimited Photos and Unlimited Everything. As you’ve probably guessed, I reviewed the latter one, as I want to test every kind of data, not just photos. I’m definitely impressed by the pricing, as Unlimited Everything costs just $59.99 per year, plus you can install it in all of your devices. Sounds, and works great, believe me!

Now, more about family plans. As there are big families and small families, which are five and three PCs respectively, Amazon also created subscription plans tailored to them. For a large family consisting of five PCs, Amazon Cloud Drive costs around $12 per year. Multiply it by a five, and you’ll get the price from above. For a small family of three PCs, the cost is around $20. When I compared the prices with the other Cloud services, I was amazed to see that Amazon is LOT cheaper.

For example, most Cloud services charge around $30 for a big family, while Amazon charges just $12, which is more than amazing. So, to wrap this section up, Amazon has one of the best and the cheapest offers I’ve seen, and I’m glad I bought my subscription plan.

Amazon Cloud Drive Security

Security and privacy is a big issue here, and while the files are protected with SSL encryption during upload/download, there isn’t much of a high-class protection when the files are on the server. Plus, Amazon’s privacy policy is concerning. They can at any time access YOUR files, see them and modify them for “backup purposes” as Amazon’s privacy policy says. I mean… that’s some serious security problem here, especially the editing part. Plus, the whole security thing is on YOU as a user, and you are responsible for the security of your files, so Amazon did a really bad job here, letting the users carry all the load when it comes to security. However, you can use some third-party apps to encrypt your data.

Verdict

Amazon is proof that nothing is perfect. It’s all fun and games until it comes to the privacy, which is one of the worst I’ve ever seen. However, the speed and ease of use are fantastic, and I was having a great time using Amazon Cloud Drive. I could easily upload and download my files with just a few clicks, and that’s very good. The pricing is one of the cheapest I’ve ever encountered, and that’s a big plus. BUT, as long as the privacy issue is at large, I won’t upload my important business files and pictures to Amazon Cloud Drive.

Go to Amazon Cloud Drive