SpiderOak ONE Review

SpiderOak ONE is a backup solution focused especially on security and privacy, featuring great encryption, a zero-knowledge policy and a clear-cut privacy statement that includes few vague statements and caveats. 

It also comes with some unusual features, such as file syncing and sharing capabilities. That said, there are also some things missing, so keep reading this SpiderOak review to learn all about its pros and cons.

Among the missing features are image-based, mobile backups and hybrid backups, as well as multi-threading and a courier-recovery service. Pricing could also be a lot better, as SpiderOak is relatively expensive compared to other services, such as Backblaze. 

That said, the ability to sync and share files across devices and with other people is a great inclusion more commonly found withing our best cloud storage review software. 

If this all sounds interesting to you, keep reading to get the full breakdown of SpiderOak’s service, and be sure to check out our list of the best online backup services. It also comes with a 21-day trial, so there’s no risk involved if you want to try it out for yourself.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Alternatives for SpiderOak ONE

Features

Despite missing some features, such as hard drive cloning and a courier-recovery service, SpiderOak ONE is still a feature-rich service. You have a great degree of control over the backup process, both in terms of scheduling and throttling, as well as the ability to sync files across devices and share them with other people.

When it comes to the online backup itself, SpiderOak ONE supports external drive backup, which means that you can backup an external hard drive or other removable devices, and SpiderOak will not move those files into the deleted items category, despite them not being present.

SpiderOak Command-Line Interface

There’s also command-line control of the backup process, allowing advanced users to entirely bypass the user interface and perform direct commands such as initiating backups, changing the schedule and retrieving information about your storage space. The command line is available on all three desktop platforms, including macOS and Linux.

You can set up the backup to be either continuous — which is the default — or scheduled, and you can limit the bandwidth to a certain number of bytes per second, which is great if you’re worried about it devouring too much of your connection.

The backups are done with a block-level transfer algorithm, which means that if a file is changed on your drive, the program doesn’t waste resources reuploading the whole thing. Rather, it finds what part has changed and uploads that.

As mentioned, there is no way to clone your hard drive, so if this is a feature you’re looking for, you’re better of considering a service like IDrive, which includes this functionality. A courier recovery service — meaning the shipping of a physical drive containing your data — is also missing, which is something you get with Backblaze.

There’s also no support for hybrid backup — meaning a combination of local and cloud backup — which can be useful because it provides a way to rapidly secure your data locally while also storing parts of it on the cloud. If this is a feature you require, consider checking out CrashPlan instead.

SpiderOak Share Rooms

SpiderOak ONE does come with excellent file sharing functionality, as you can create multiple “share rooms” that you can invite others to, giving them access to certain files. Bear in mind, however, that unlike your regular backed up data, anything placed in a share room is not protected by encryption.

You’re provided with a download link for each share room you create, and each room can contain one or multiple folders from your backed up data. However, this does mean that you’ll only be able to share folders that you’ve already backed up with SpiderOak.

Finally, SpiderOak ONE also supports connecting through an HTTP proxy server, making it a good choice if this is functionality that you require.

SpiderOak One Versioning

One of SpiderOak ONE’s greatest strengths when it comes to features is its excellent file versioning. When a file is changed or removed, SpiderOak keeps a permanent record of the file, allowing you to restore past versions at any time. Although you can’t automatically restrict the number of past versions, you can manually delete past ones by moving them to the bin.

SpiderOak One Sync

Although the sync functionality is an interesting addition for a cloud backup provider, it does fall a bit short when in a SpiderOak vs Tresorit matchup or when compared to other dedicated cloud storage solutions. 

Unfortunately, you can only sync files and folders that are included in your regular backup process, which is a bit of a limitation. Furthermore, once you’ve set up your hive folder, there’s no way to change its location, which is something we would’ve liked to see from this kind of feature.

If a sync service is something you’re after, but you don’t need the core backup functionality of SpiderOak ONE, then pCloud and Dropbox are good options, and you can check out the Dropbox free trial to see if it’s for you. You can also head over to our cloud comparison tool to compare all the different cloud storage services available.

SpiderOak also has an enterprise version which for the most part functions similarly to the regular SpiderOak ONE. The only real difference between the two is that enterprise users gain access to a separate “Groups” application (as well as an accompanying web dashboard) that lets them set up additional users and groups and manage them from a central administrator account.

SpiderOak ONE Features Overview

Pricing

SpiderOak ONE is on the expensive side of things, with the various plans being quite a bit more costly for what you’re getting when compared to competitors like Backblaze, which offers unlimited backup for a lower price than SpiderOak’s most basic plan. You do get what you pay for in terms of security, though, as when comparing SpiderOak vs. Backblaze, the former wins out (check out our Backblaze pricing guide).

Luckily, SpiderOak ONE offers a 21-day free trial with 250GB of storage capacity, which lets you thoroughly test the service before spending any money.

150GB Plan 150 GB Storage	1-month plan $ 6.00/ month 1-year plan $ 5.75/ month $69.00 billed every year
400GB Plan 400 GB Storage	1-month plan $ 11.00/ month 1-year plan $ 9.58/ month $115.00 billed every year Save 13 %
2TB Plan 2000 GB Storage	1-month plan $ 14.00/ month 1-year plan $ 12.42/ month $149.00 billed every year Save 11 %
5TB Plan 5000 GB Storage	1-month plan $ 29.00/ month 1-year plan $ 26.67/ month $320.00 billed every year Save 8 %

If you’re just looking to backup a few folders or file types that don’t require a lot of space, such as text documents, the basic 150GB plan for $6 per month will probably be more than enough. 

Although there’s no plan that offers unlimited backup, the 2TB and 5TB plans (priced at $14 per month and $29 per month, respectively) are so large that you’re unlikely to ever run out of space, unless you happen to have a whole lot of devices you want backed up.

Regardless of what backup plan you choose, you get an unlimited number of devices and access to all features, including file sharing and the SpiderOak hive syncing system. 

As for SpiderOak Enterprise, there’s no set price. Instead of providing a predetermined price-tag, SpiderOak prompts users interested in its enterprise software to contact their sales department with their requirements, from which the company will create a custom licensing cost based on their needs.

Ease of Use

While not terrible, per se, SpiderOak definitely leaves a bit to be desired in terms of user-friendliness. With a dated look and feel, and sometimes a confusing layout, SpiderOak would benefit from a redesign of its desktop client, or at the very least a thorough tutorial to make it less confusing for new users.

SpiderOak ONE’s desktop client runs on Windows, Mac and Linux, and it also has mobile apps available for both iOS and Android. In fact, SpiderOak ONE tops our list of the best online backup for Linux. 

Although the mobile apps don’t allow you to backup your smartphone or tablet, you can access your files on the go and manage your backup settings within the apps.

Although online backup services aren’t known for their  pretty designs, SpiderOak’s interface feels quite dated. For new users it can be difficult to understand exactly what goes where, which leads to a somewhat confusing user experience. The client is divided into five main tabs: “dashboard,” “backup,” “manage,” “sync” and “share.”

In the “dashboard” tab, you’re given an overview of your backup, your sync and share activity, as well as a list of all your devices. You can also pause your uploads and clear the queue, should you need to stop the backup process or cancel it entirely after its begun.

The next tab over, labelled “backup,” is where you set up the backup process itself and choose what files and folders you want to upload. Here you can see a tree structure of your entire device, and there’s also a handy button for hiding system files, which is nice because these types of files can result in a lot of clutter, making it difficult to find what you’re looking for.

In the “manage” tab, you’re given an overview of all the files you’ve already backed up, as well as buttons for downloading the files to the current device and removing them from the server. You can also choose to hide or show the full file paths for an easier overview of where exactly the files came from on the original device.

Over in the “sync” tab, you can manage the SpiderOak hive folder, which is responsible for the syncing feature. As mentioned earlier, this is something you don’t see all too often with cloud backup.

Finally, the “share” tab gives you access to your share rooms, which is where you can place files or folders that you wish to easily share with other people. This space is protected by a password, which you’ll have to give out to anyone you wish to share with.

SpiderOak Mobile Apps and Web Client

Although SpiderOak ONE has mobile apps available, their functionality is somewhat limited. You can’t backup your mobile device, but you can access backed up data from your desktop and download anything you’ve placed in your hive folder.

The web client functions in a similar way to the mobile apps, only allowing you to manage your devices and data, plus download your backed up content. 

The client is easy to use, but like the desktop application, it feels somewhat dated, as if not much effort was put into the interface design and user experience. That said, it does what it needs to do, so we can’t complain too much.

File Backup & Restoration

Backing up and restoring your files is the main purpose of SpiderOak ONE, and it does this well, despite some missing features like image-based and mobile backups. There are plenty of options for how you want your backup to run, and once you’ve gotten used to the layout, it’s easy to manage your uploads.

To set up your backup plan with SpiderOak ONE, you first need to head over to the “backup” tab (shocking, we know). Here you’ll see an overview of all the files on your device, and you can select or deselect anything to either add it to or remove it from your backup library.

On the left-hand side of the screen, you’ll see some of the most common categories of files, including movies, pictures and music. By selecting these, you’re basically just selecting the default Windows libraries, so if you’re not using this structure for your files already, they’re not going to do much.

By default, SpiderOak ONE runs a continuous backup, meaning it will start uploading the moment you select something and press the “save” button at the top. 

However, if your device has limited resources or your connection has a data cap, you’ll probably want to change this to a scheduled backup. Otherwise SpiderOak ONE might end up devouring all your data very quickly.

The scheduling gives you a few different options. You can choose one of the predefined intervals — ranging from every five minutes to every 48 hours — or set a specific time of day or day of the week that you want backups to run.

You can also set limitations on what SpiderOak ONE backs up within your selected folders. These limitations take the form of file size, file age and file type, giving you plenty of control over what you want to commit to storage. For example, you might want to avoid backing up huge folders or files that are very old in order to save bandwidth and storage space.

If continuous backup is turned off, you can use the “run now” button in the bottom-right corner to initiate the upload, or simply wait for the scheduled time. Next to this button you’ll see a “progress bar,” of sorts, that shows you how much of your online storage space is being used, as well as an option to clear all your backed up data.

Tracking SpiderOak

To see the progress of your current uploads, you can head over to the “dashboard” tab, where you’ll see a section labelled “backup.” If an upload is currently in progress, it will say so here. It will also tell you how much of your data is yet to upload and how frequently it will do so. 

If you move over the the “activity” subtab, you’ll see a detailed breakdown of all the files being uploaded, their size and how far along they are.

To restore or manage your backed up data, you will need to open the “manage” tab. Here you’ll see a full list of everything you have backed up, and you can switch between devices using the menu on the left-hand side of the window.

Simply select the item you want to restore and click the “download” button near the top of the window, and SpiderOak ONE will subsequently prompt you to choose a download location. By default this will your download folder, but you can change this to any folder you wish or have SpiderOak ONE restore the files to their original location on your device.

Should you wish to delete anything you’ve backed up, simply select the item and click the “remove” button. There’s also a “changelog” function, which will give you an overview of all the changes made to the file or folder, as well as when the change was made and the size of each file.

Speed

Speed is one of the most critical features of a backup service because it can make the difference between a solid user experience and a terrible one. SpiderOak does reasonably well here, especially when it comes to downloading your data, but the upload speed could be better.

To test this, we uploaded and downloaded a 3.51GB folder filled with various file types, including text and video on a 25 megabit/1.5 megabit connection. This means that in a perfect world the download should take about 15 minutes (without accounting for server-side compression), and the upload would take about five and a half hours. 

However, this is just in theory, as it’s rare for speeds to reach maximum capacity in this way, especially because actual connection speeds can vary depending on the network load. To ensure the most accurate results, we ran both the upload and download twice, and included the average time of each in our results below.

Given the connection speed of our test, these results are not bad at all. The SpiderOak download especially performed at a lightning-fast speed, which we attribute to the files being compressed server-side, making the actual download quite a bit smaller than it would first appear.

Although we would’ve liked to see the initial upload happening a bit faster, our test was performed from the other side of the planet from SpiderOak ONE’s data centers, so this delay is not entirely surprising. For connections originating in North America, you can expect better results.

Regardless, once your initial backup has completed, things will speed up significantly. This is due to the block-level backup offered by SpiderOak ONE, which analyzes altered files and only uploads the parts that have changed.

Security

Security is one of the areas where SpiderOak ONE really shines. The service uses solid encryption to protect your files both at rest and in transit, and significant measures are taken to ensure that your data is safe in the event of an outside attack.

Your data is protected with end-to-end AES 256-bit with a private encryption key, meaning that even if SpiderOak wanted to decrypt your data on its own, it would not be able to. 

SSL is used to safeguard your data while it’s in transit (check out our SSL vs TLS guide to learn what this means), preventing any potential man-in-the-middle attacks from collecting your data during the backup process.

It’s worth noting that files you’ve placed in one of your “share rooms” does not enjoy this level of encryption, as they are not protected by your encryption key. If you’re interested in learning more about how your data is protected, be sure to read our description of encryption, which provides a great rundown of various standards.

SpiderOak Passwords

When logging in to the web client or mobile app, your password isn’t stored anywhere on the company’s servers, but rather temporarily stored in its memory. 

Although this is excellent for ensuring that a data breach on the server doesn’t compromise your account, it also means that there’s no way to reset your password in the case that you forget it.

This means that you should seriously consider using one of the best password managers to ensure this doesn’t happen. To learn more about our top pick, check out our Dashlane review, or you can try out SpiderOak’s own Encryptr password manager.

SpiderOak’s data centers also come with top-notch security, with staff present 24/7 and compliance with both HIPAA and GDPR, although there are currently no compliance officers employed for self-certification of these standards. The data center is rated tier 3 by the Uptime Institute, and it is SAS 70 Type II compliant and hardened against natural disasters.

The biggest flaw in SpiderOak ONE’s security is the complete lack of two-factor authentication. Given the otherwise extensive security measures, though, this is a minor complaint in the big scheme of things.

Privacy

Like with security, we have practically no complaints when it comes to SpiderOak’s privacy. Despite hosting its data centers in the U.S., SpiderOak has taken significant measures — including private encryption, an excellent privacy policy and limited collection of metadata — to ensure that your data remains confidential.

SpiderOak ONE received a great piece of PR when it was recommended by Edward Snowden back in 2018 as one of the superior alternatives to Dropbox (check out our SpiderOak vs. Dropbox comparison), and there are good reasons for this. The site sports an excellent privacy policy that’s clear and easy to understand, without any squirrely caveats that companies often sneak in.

There is no centralized metadata database, as this is stored locally on your device rather on the company’s servers. However, it collects some personal metadata relating to your account and payment details, primarily for billing and quality control purposes, as well as to help the company with further development of the service.

SpiderOak Server Location

SpiderOak ONE is open about the fact that its data centers are located in the U.S., which would normally be a bit of a problem, given the country’s poor stance on digital privacy and its various laws and governmental programs, such as the Patriot Act and PRISM. 

With the U.S. being the primary beneficiary of the infamous Five Eyes spy network, it’s easy to see why this could be a problem for privacy.

Luckily, SpiderOak ONE’s implementation of private end-to-end encryption means that the service is “zero knowledge,” meaning that even if the U.S. authorities flex their muscles and decide to force the company to disclose information, SpiderOak is physically incapable of decrypting your backed up data.

Going back to the privacy policy, it states outright that no personal information about users is sold to third parties or shared with advertisers. 

However, information may be shared in certain specific circumstances, such as with authorities to comply with a law, with trusted third-party partners, with another company in the event of a merger and with the admins of other SpiderOak products, like Semaphor. 

Your username, share ID and/or first and last names are also shared with other users, and aggregate information stripped of personal identifiers are used to analyze SpiderOak’s products.

In the case of any of these circumstances, SpiderOak will notify users of their information being shared, unless the company believes the disclosure may result in bodily harm of another person.

Customer Service

Although SpiderOak’s customer support is decent, it does leave a bit to be desired, as there’s no support forum or way to quickly reach out to the support department. 

There’s no chat or phone support available, so you’re left with sending an email request and waiting for a response. The support office is only manned from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, so this means that you might end up waiting upwards of a full day for a response.

To test its responsiveness, we sent an email request regarding trouble with our connection to the SpiderOak ONE servers. We received a response in 10 hours, which is not bad at all, as our request was sent outside of opening hours, and was answered within just 10 minutes of the support department opening for business in the morning.

There is also a searchable support page full of common problems and fixes, which can help you out in a pinch if you’re not willing to wait for your email request to be processed. Although we would’ve liked to see either a chat or a phone option, the quick and helpful nature of the response to our email query does go some way to make up for this.

The Verdict

That concludes our SpiderOak ONE review. Although SpiderOak ONE is undoubtedly a great service, its comparatively steep pricing and lack of certain features, such as hard drive imaging and courier recovery, means that it falls a bit short of some of its competitors.

That said, both its security and privacy are top notch, despite lacking two-factor authentication. Thus, if you’re especially concerned with the security and anonymity of your data, then SpiderOak ONE is an excellent choice for a backup storage service.

What do you think of our review of SpiderOak ONE? Do you agree that it’s a great choice if you’re looking for a safe and secure backup solution with access to unusual features, such as syncing and sharing? Otherwise, do you think it falls short of other options on the market? Let us know in the comments below. As always, thank you for reading.

SpiderOak ONE FAQ

• How Secure Is SpiderOak?

  SpiderOak gets top marks in security, as it protects your data both at rest and in transit with private encryption keys, resulting in a zero-knowledge policy where SpiderOak ONE is unable to compromise or share your backed up data with anyone else, even if it wanted to.

• How Much Does SpiderOak cost?

  Depending on the plan you choose, SpiderOak ONE has a price tag ranging from $6 to $29 per month, or $69 to $320 per year.