Disk Drill vs RecoverHelper
Disk Drill
cleverfiles.com
RecoverHelper
recoverhelper.comSide by side
| Figure | Disk Drill | RecoverHelper |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $7.42/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 8 | 3 |
| Spec score · Data recovery software | 9.1 (#2) | 8.5 (#18) |
| Spec score · Photo recovery software | 9.2 (#2) | 8.9 (#4) |
| Spec score · Photo Recovery Software | 9.1 (#2) | 8.4 (#10) |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Headquarters | New Castle, Delaware, USA | Seoul, Republic of Korea |
| Recovery methods | PRO includes Quick & Deep Scan, Lost Partition Search, and other recovery methods. | It offers Quick Scan, Deep Scan, and Carving Only modes for different recovery scenarios. |
| Support | CleverFiles says its technical support team operates in CES and EST time zones and provides do-it-yourself recovery support worldwide. | Support is provided by email and the site publishes numerous step-by-step recovery guides. |
Plans
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
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.
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.