Data Backup Digest

There’s an abundance of cloud providers out there – it can get tricky to know who to choose. Now there’s another on the scene called Degoo. It bills itself as an “AI based cloud storage that helps you rediscover your best photos.”

Degoo is actually more about backup than it is storage. The two are intrinsically linked, but the difference is that Degoo isn’t about constant file syncing work productivity. It runs the backup every 24 hours and uses incremental backup, meaning only files that have changed will be sent for upload. However, it does send the entire file, rather than using block-level architecture that only submits the parts of files that have changed.

Degoo works on all popular devices, with clients available for Windows and Mac desktops, along with Android, iOS and Kindle. The only downside is that there’s no browser access, which could be inconvenient when trying to access your files on a temporary system (like a friend’s computer.)

The biggest draw of Degoo is that it offers 100GB of storage space absolutely free. That capacity can even be increased to 500GB by referring friends, with 5GB for every person who signs up. You can also let Degoo use processor resources (used for things like digital currency mining and scientific computations) for an additional 10GB.

There are some limitations to free accounts, as you might expect. You can only use one desktop device and your account is removed if inactive for 90 days. Also, only the paid plans have zero-knowledge encryption. While you get end-to-end encryption on the free accounts, that could still be accessed by Degoo if the law required them to.

There are two paid plans. Pro costs $2.99 a month and gives you 500GB, while Ultimate is $9.99 a month for 10TB of space. The latter plan lets you use an unlimited number of mobile and desktop devices.

Degoo has a smooth mobile app which will automatically backup your photos, documents, videos and more from your phone. The Ultimate plan includes a photo optimiser feature, which compresses your photos for quicker viewing on a phone. The original photos are still accessible from a tap of a button. It’s a handy feature for those who find themselves in areas with slow network connections.

It’s also very quick at uploading your data, on both the desktop and mobile apps. It has a ‘Turbo’ mode to make it quicker, which apparently uses more system resources. You should keep this on regardless because the difference in speed is staggering – using Degoo without the Turbo mode enabled isn’t worthwhile.

In their review of Degoo, Cloudwards found their customer support non-existent. The company only lists an email address for support and they apparently answered none of the emails they were sent. While this might be acceptable when using the free plans, it’s definitely not if you’re a paying customer.

If you need vast amounts of free storage space from a cloud backup, Degoo might be the way to go. But its limited device usage and poor customer support might give you pause.