Active@ File Recovery vs Disk Drill
Active@ File Recovery
lsoft.net
Disk Drill
cleverfiles.comSide by side
| Figure | Active@ File Recovery | Disk Drill |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $7.42/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 7 | 8 |
| Spec score · RAID Data Recovery Software | 8.4 (#4) | 9.1 (#2) |
| Founded | 1999 | 2011 |
| Headquarters | Mississauga, Ontario, Canada | New Castle, Delaware, USA |
| Purpose | Recovers deleted or lost files and data from damaged, formatted, or deleted partitions and volumes. | Disk Drill scans storage devices to find and recover deleted, lost, or damaged files. |
| Support | LSoft offers a Customer Communication Center, a knowledge base and ticket system, email support, and phone support. | CleverFiles says its technical support team operates in CES and EST time zones and provides do-it-yourself recovery support worldwide. |
Plans
Active@ File Recovery
- DemoFree
- Standard Personal$29.95, paid once
- Standard Corporate$39.95, paid once
- Professional Personal$44.95, paid once
- Professional Corporate$64.95, paid once
- Ultimate Personal$69.95, paid once
- Ultimate Corporate$89.95, paid once
Disk Drill
- BasicFree
- PRO Subscription$89 a year
- PRO Lifetime License$149, paid once
- EnterprisePrice not published
- Disk Drill BasicFree
- Disk Drill EnterprisePriced on request
- Disk Drill PRO Lifetime LicensePrice not published
- Disk Drill PRO One-Year SubscriptionPrice not published
In their own words
Active@ File Recovery
Active@ File Recovery recovers deleted or lost files and data from damaged, formatted, or deleted partitions and volumes on Windows. It supports file systems including NTFS, ReFS, FAT, exFAT, HFS+, APFS, XFS, JFS, UFS, BtrFS, and Ext2/3/4. The software can scan for files by signature, including user-defined signatures, and works with listed storage such as HDDs, SSDs, USB drives, NVMe devices, flash drives, and memory cards.
For damaged arrays, it can virtually rebuild RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and Span. It can create and open raw or raw-compressed disk images and work with VMware and VirtualPC HDD images. The Ultimate package adds a WinPE boot disk and Linux-based LiveCD for recovery when a computer will not boot. The downloadable demo allows free recovery only for files up to 64 KB. Paid licenses are one-time purchases: personal licenses are for non-commercial use, while corporate licenses cover business, academic, or government use. LSoft Technologies has operated since 1999 and is based in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
Disk Drill
Disk Drill scans storage devices to find and recover deleted, lost, or damaged files. It runs on macOS 10.15 or later and Windows 10 or later, and supports internal and external drives, SSDs, USB drives, memory cards, cameras, RAID arrays, virtual disks, and disk images. The free Basic edition scans storage and previews recoverable files; Windows users can recover up to 100 MB without upgrading. PRO provides unlimited data recovery and recovery methods including Quick & Deep Scan and Lost Partition Search. It also covers both supported operating systems under one license, with activation on up to three devices by one user. The free edition includes Recovery Vault metadata protection and byte-level backups. PRO costs $89 a year for an annual subscription or $149 as a one-time purchase for a lifetime license. PRO is for personal use, while Enterprise is listed for multiple users and includes priority technical support and forensic data export. PRO purchases are non-refundable except where consumer protection laws require refunds.