CardRescue vs RecoverHelper
CardRescue
cardrescue.com
RecoverHelper
recoverhelper.comSide by side
| Figure | CardRescue | RecoverHelper |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 3 |
| Spec score · Photo Recovery Software | 8.1 (#15) | 8.4 (#10) |
| Spec score · Photo recovery software | 7.3 (#34) | 8.9 (#4) |
| Headquarters | Bradenton, Florida, USA | Seoul, Republic of Korea |
| Read-only operation | The maker says CardRescue does not write to or modify flash-card data and saves recovered photos to a folder on the hard drive. | The source drive is opened read-only and the application says it cannot write to it. |
| Support | The maker offers a support form and email, and says support staff will respond within 24 hours. | Support is provided by email and the site publishes numerous step-by-step recovery guides. |
Plans
In their own words
CardRescue
CardRescue has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
RecoverHelper
RecoverHelper restores deleted photos, videos and other files from computer drives and removable storage. It offers Quick Scan, Deep Scan and Carving Only modes, and lists support for more than 30 formats across photos, camera RAW, video, audio, documents and archives. Supported sources include internal and external disks, SD and microSD cards, USB drives and digital cameras. On NTFS, it rebuilds original filenames and folders; on APFS, HFS+ and raw volumes, recovery is by signature without original names. The desktop app opens the source drive read-only and requires recovered files to be saved to another drive. Each scan produces a SHA-256 manifest, an HTML report with per-format statistics and a live hex visualizer. The maker says scan results, file contents, filenames and metadata are not sent to its servers; pairing sends a token and hashed machine ID. The software is free, with no paid tiers, subscriptions or license fees. JPG and PNG recover immediately; pairing the free mobile app unlocks other formats.