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#9 - FlipDrive Review
Features
FlipDrive offers a simple system for those who wish to be able to store their files online and share them with other users. There are however some serious limitations with the system which make it impractical for use as a serious backup solution, most notably the manual nature of the system. Instead it is really only useful for home users with a limited hard drive who wish to store files which are relatively stable and are not updated regularly.
FlipDrive allows users to easily share their files and allows user privileges to be set to control who can access which files. This is a great feature as it allows you to share some files without compromising the security of others which you don’t want people to see. This is good if you need to regularly share files with people which are too big for e-mail.
An added feature of FlipDrive which is not currently offered with many services is that it has settings to automatically save your bookmarks, contacts and other settings. Although you can do this by saving the appropriate files with other services, FlipDrive makes this easier for those who know less about computers.
FlipDrive also offers remote access to files, which means that if you need to recover your files, you can do so from any computer. This is also good if you need to access files from home while you are away from your desk, as you can simply log onto the Website, find the files you want and then download them to the computer you are working from.
FlipDrive also has a specific online photo album feature, but photos are not automatically sorted like they are with some of the other services which have this feature. A nice additional feature is that each photo is assigned a URL which can be used to access that specific photo, which makes it easy to share photos with family and friends.
Security - 
There is no information given at all as to how secure the FlipDrive system is. Although the site states that 128-bit SSL encryption is used for data transfer, there is no information as to how the data is stored.
Price/Value -
FlipDrive is not the cheapest option out there. The lowest amount of storage available is 20GB, which costs $4.95 per month or $49.50 per year. Next up is the 50GB plan, for $9.95 per month or $99.50 per year. The highest plan is the 100GB plan, which is quite expensive at $19.90 per month or $199.00 per year.
The limited amount of storage available may be quite off-putting for many business users. The site does state that larger storage limits may be arranged, but this would put the cost of the service beyond that of many others which offer better advanced features.
You can try FlipDrive for 30 days free on the 20GB plan, which should let you get a feel for the system, even if you think that this is less storage than you really need.
Ease of Use -
Setting up sub-accounts is easy to do, which lets you easily share folders with other users. You simply set up the sub-accounts, choose the files which you want to restrict access to, send the details to the other users and you’re away.
Unlike most of the other backup systems which we reviewed, FlipDrive works solely as an online service. This means that there is no need to download an application. Although you may think that this would make the backup easier, it is actually the opposite.
As there is no client on the computer this means that the system does not automatically back up your files. Instead you must manually upload your files to your online account each time you need to back them up. This also means that as well as manually selecting files for backup, you need to manually upload them at the end of every day, which is very frustrating if you have more than a couple of files which you need to backup. This could of course also cause major problems should you forget to backup your files on any particular day. On the other hand, if you are diligent about manually backing up, this would be one less piece of software on your system.
Although the backup of files is very long-winded, the restoration of files is actually much simpler. Should you need to restore, you simply need to log onto your online account and then select the files which you want to restore. As the system does not automatically sort your files, they should be in the same place which you yourself placed them. This should then make it quite easy to be able to locate the files you require.
Support -
The FlipDrive site claims that support for FlipDrive is available 24/7, which is great if you run into an issue which you need resolved immediately. However, this support is only via an online contact form.
There is no phone support, no live chat and not even an actual e-mail address to contact them through. So this actually means that you are at the mercy of however long it takes the support team to answer the form. This is likely to be extremely frustrating for business users who hit an issue and need access to their files in a hurry. This is another of the main reasons that we rated the service lower than others, which offer the kind of support which business customers should expect from this type of service.
FlipDrive Review 2012 Conclusion
The lack of automation of the FlipDrive system means that it is not a system which most users should consider unless they need to store fairly static files, or they loathe the idea of yet another piece of software running on their computer. The system allows for easy sharing with others, and also allows for sub-systems to be set up to control user access on different files. The FlipDrive system is however without the advanced features which allow for syncing, so this is only really useful if you don’t want users to work on files simultaneously, or you risk not having the most recent version available.
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