N-able Cove Data Protection vs iDrive comparison

IDrive Inc. and N-able are both solutions in the Cloud Backup category. IDrive Inc. is ranked #23 with an average rating of 9.0, while N-able is ranked #16 with an average rating of 7.7. IDrive Inc. holds a 1.0% mindshare in CB, compared to N-able’s 2.3% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IDrive Inc. users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of N-able users who would recommend it.

iDrive

Read 2 iDrive reviews

592 Views
586 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

N-able Cove Data Protection

Read 23 N-able Cove Data Protection reviews

3,635 Views
2,363 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

iDrive

N-able Cove Data Protection

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 3, 2024

N-able Cove Data Protection and iDrive compete in the data protection and recovery category. iDrive seems to have the upper hand due to its feature versatility and competitive pricing, appealing to a broader audience.

Features: N-able Cove Data Protection provides cloud-first backup solutions, seamless data recovery, and management simplicity tailored for IT providers. iDrive offers extensive storage options, supports multiple devices, and emphasizes cross-platform functionality, catering to both individual and business needs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: N-able Cove Data Protection ensures straightforward deployment with comprehensive service support designed for professional use in IT management. iDrive has a user-friendly, quick setup process, but may not match the dedicated professional support level of N-able Cove, focusing more on a broader customer base.

Pricing and ROI: N-able Cove Data Protection might involve higher costs due to its professional-grade services, affecting ROI. iDrive is competitively priced with scalable options for personal and business use, offering substantial value and flexibility, attracting cost-conscious buyers.

To learn more, read our detailed N-able Cove Data Protection vs. iDrive Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

N-able Cove Data Protection vs. iDrive

September 2025

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Helped 869,760 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

iDrive

Ranking in Cloud Backup

23rd

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

N-able Cove Data Protection

Ranking in Cloud Backup

16th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Backup and Recovery (41st), SaaS Backup (7th), MSP Backup (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Cloud Backup category, the mindshare of iDrive is 1.0%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of N-able Cove Data Protection is 2.3%, down from 2.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Backup Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
N-able Cove Data Protection	2.3%
iDrive	1.0%
Other	96.7%

Cloud Backup

Featured Reviews

Jose Francisco Rosario

President at JOFCO

A reliable platform with good encryption process for data security

Setting up iDrive is straightforward and easy. The local software can be installed after setting up everything in the cloud. The deployment process can take a few hours or more depending on the complexity of the structure you want to create. Integrating iDrive into our ecosystem was not complex. I handled the deployment process by myself and did not need much workforce for deployment. Our IT technicians handle all implementations and changes. The maintenance process for iDrive is smooth, but often faces challenges in terms of sensitivity to internet bandwidth variations. If there's a large variation, it might pause the backup process. But in such cases, the notifications keep us updated as it is very swift and reliable.

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Per MøllerJacobsen

Senior consultant at Azend A/S

Delivers cost-effective data backup with room for search improvements

The challenges I face especially are those I've mentioned, that finding some specific data in N-able Cove Data Protection is not as easy as it is in some other systems. You cannot just search for something—you need to know where it was and when it was there to restore it, plus it would be nice to take out data from Microsoft 365 in some portable format, which is currently not an option. I would like to extract the data from Microsoft 365 in a portable format, something like a database or maybe just to take out a PST file or SharePoint and Teams files to the file system. Especially in these times, where we discuss potential risks with the Microsoft cloud for European companies, companies would want to know how to access their data from the backup if they suddenly don't have a tenant. I believe there should be the ability to take out data from Microsoft 365 in a portable format. I know that Cohesity is working on making such a thing. It's not there yet; I asked last week for something for forensics, and the support team said it's not possible yet, but I know from our technical account manager they are working on some solutions.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The encryption process is the most useful part of using iDrive for data security. I also use the background backup feature which helps me to clone and conduct computer backup. These features are very reliable, especially when restoring images from damaged servers. But I don't use the real-time backup feature; I always use the scheduled backup."

"iDrive will keep up to 30 versions of a file."

"The user interface is the most valuable. It gives us the ability to check everything. With more than 100 endpoints running that software, I like the ability to quickly check that everything is working correctly. That's one of the biggest selling points."

"What I like the most about it's the ease of use and the reliability that it has when copying information to the cloud."

"The most valuable feature of N-able Cove Data Protection is its ease of use."

"The solution has reduced backup times by an immeasurable amount. Its backups are incremental, so you are only backing up data changes based on the last 24 hours or so. If you are also maintaining the stored images, the restores are also only incremental, happening in minutes. Whereas, with a lot of the other solutions that we have looked at, each time it goes to refresh the restore, then it has to build a completely new image. That takes forever. This solution also improves recovery time."

"The initial setup of N-able Cove Data Protection was very easy."

"We use a neat feature called VDR status, Virtual Disaster Recovery status. It only works on servers... It's automated. Once or twice a month it will virtually mount the backup and provide a screenshot and advise whether or not there have been any errors."

"It's extremely important that Cove provides cloud-based data protection with backup, disaster recovery, and archiving. That is a necessity for my insurance. As an IT company, my insurance would cost more if my backups were not offsite and off-network."

"Because the package includes cloud storage, we don't need to worry about hosting it inside. That was very important to us. And because the vendor has data centers worldwide, our reps in Europe and other places can get to what they need quickly and easily."

More N-able Cove Data Protection pros

Cons

"I’ve had issues like the scheduler mysteriously erasing my settings. I have to babysit it."

"The disadvantage of using real-time backup in iDrive is that it significantly impacts server performance, causing considerable speed issues. The archiving process needs improvement along with the management of bandwidth and CPU. There should also be more options for creating conditions to manage the workload of the environment, making the system easier to balance."

"The one thing they don't are Linux servers, it's Windows only. I understand that directive. I have another product that I use for our Linux servers and stuff, but it would be nice if they had that flexibility on the Linux side. I understand the development and the world is geared towards Windows in 365, I know that's where the clienteles are and the business and the money is."

"A better default view on my dashboard would be great. There is a lot of useless information there that it pulls up. They could present the dashboard slightly better, in terms of the extra information after the first five columns. The first five columns are awesome. After that, I don't care about the rest, and there are another seven things after that."

"N-able Cove Data Protection for Microsoft 365 is an area with shortcomings that need improvement."

"A disaster recovery console would be an improvement for the product."

"The only area that needs improvement is that it is a little bit difficult when you get into virtual machines. The initial deployment of Cove is a little tedious, not for standard machines, but when you get into specialty stuff, like Hyper-V."

"This solution is not very good for image restores, mainly just files. The solution also does not allow you to enable or disable backups. Sometimes, our users will connect via mobile device and it will use their data to perform the backup. If they were able to enable and disable the backup, they would not have this issue."

"An area for improvement that would really work out well would be if there were a little bit more of an elegant handshake relationship between SolarWinds RMM and the PCs that are being backed up, to advise regarding "up" status... Since RMM is an agent that feeds back that a machine is alive and on, I don't see any reason why they can't either tap into that one feature or build the same exact polling within the backup agent, to update right away and say the system is online or offline."

"We don't use the solution’s automated recovery testing because SolarWinds made me cross. When they released it, I went, "Oh, well, that's quite good." Because if you use the system, then it supposedly spins up, and on the portal, it gives you a screenshot of the booted device. So, I phoned up, and I said, "Oh, that's really quite cool. How much is that?" They said, "No, no, no. It's all included in your license." I went, "Okay then," and went and deployed it on about half the fleet. One of the options that our customers have is they can pay us a small amount every month for us to test the recovery just to prove that it's viable, and I thought, "Well, this will do that for us. Nice." Then, in the next invoice, we got a charge for it. While It was not a huge amount, I took offense at the fact that we were told that it would be a no extra cost option that was part of our license, but it turns out that it's chargeable. Therefore, we haven't used it since."

More N-able Cove Data Protection cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"According to our evaluation done five to seven years ago, iDrive is cheap and it covers a lot of our needs."

"The cost is around ten dollars per workstation a month and that includes a certain amount of data."

"The pricing is affordable. N-able Cove Data Protection has a direct-to-cloud architecture, but it also allows saving backups locally without extra storage costs."

"Cove only takes the data you have on the physical server. I can back that up for long periods of time, and I don't accrue high charges to have the data in the cloud. It stays at one rate. This allows me to forecast payment for the next one or two years and show clients their estimated growth."

"The pricing of SolarWinds seems to be fair compared to the rest of the industry."

"The pricing is very competitive and it's well worth the price."

"The price isn't extreme, but I'd love to pay less."

"N-able Cove Data Protection is an averagely-priced product."

"The pricing, for now, is good. The package that they gave us recently is pretty good. It depends on how many clients you have, and you pay for certain terabytes per license. These terabytes, if not used, are pooled together."

More N-able Cove Data Protection pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

12%

Non Tech Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

16%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Real Estate/Law Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	19
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	1

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for iDrive?

The pricing’s really good for the amount of backup space you get. I get five terabytes. I think it’s, like, eighty bucks a year, something like that.

See all answers

What needs improvement with iDrive?

I’ve had some issues with iDrive. I don’t have an updated version of Windows, so that might have something to do with it. I’m running a 2018 version of Windows 10, and I haven’t had any issues with...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for iDrive?

We have a wide variation of use cases.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for N-able Backup?

In terms of pricing, N-able Cove Data Protection is neither cheap nor expensive compared to other competitors.

See all answers

What needs improvement with N-able Backup?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for N-able Backup?

Our main use cases for enabling N-able Cove Data Protection include backing up our customers' data on servers hosted in data centers and servers hosted in our own data center, as well as a few onsi...

See all answers

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Compared 13% of the time

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Compared 6% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cloud Backup

September 2025

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Buyer's Guide

N-able Cove Data Protection

September 2025

Download N-able Cove Data Protection product report

Also Known As

No data available

N-able Backup, SolarWinds Backup, SolarWinds MSP Backup & Recovery, SolarWinds MSP Backup

Overview

iDrive is a reliable and user-friendly cloud storage solution that securely stores and backs up important files and data. With efficient backup and restore capabilities, seamless syncing across devices, and robust security measures, iDrive is expertly designed for personal and business use. Users appreciate its ease of use and the ability to access files from multiple devices, making it a valuable tool for efficient data management.

IDrive Inc.

Cove Data Protection, from N-able, is a comprehensive solution designed to safeguard critical business data. It offers a range of features including backup and recovery, disaster recovery, and endpoint protection. With automated backups and flexible scheduling options, it ensures data is protected and easily recoverable.

The solution also includes advanced security measures such as encryption and ransomware detection to prevent unauthorized access and data breaches. Cove Data Protection provides seamless integration with various platforms and offers centralized management for efficient monitoring and control.

With its user-friendly interface and robust capabilities, Cove Data Protection is an ideal choice for businesses seeking reliable data protection.

N-able

Sample Customers

1. BMW 2. Audi 3. Mercedes-Benz 4. Volkswagen 5. Ford 6. General Motors 7. Toyota 8. Honda 9. Nissan 10. Hyundai 11. Kia 12. Volvo 13. Jaguar Land Rover 14. Porsche 15. Subaru 16. Mazda 17. Mitsubishi 18. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles 19. Tesla 20. Peugeot 21. Renault 22. Citroën 23. Skoda 24. Seat 25. Mini 26. Bentley 27. Rolls-Royce 28. Lamborghini 29. Aston Martin 30. Ferrari 31. Maserati 32. Alfa Romeo

Computer Depot, Leading Edge Computers, IT Logic Australia

Buyer's Guide

N-able Cove Data Protection vs. iDrive

September 2025

Free Report: N-able Cove Data Protection vs. iDrive

Find out what your peers are saying about N-able Cove Data Protection vs. iDrive and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

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