Zoolz Home Cloud Backup Review

Zoolz Home Cloud Backup is an easy-to use-online backup solution that has Amazon Glacier as its backend. It's pretty good overall, but doesn't have mobile apps and a weird hsitory with its lifetime plans. Read our full Zoolz review for the details.

By Aleksander HougenEditor
— Last Updated:
2020-08-05T09:38:53+00:00
(Editor)
Starts from $ 583 per month for 1000 GB

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Zoolz Home Cloud Backup is an easy-to-use backup service that gives you a great degree of control over your files as well as excellent security, privacy and customer service. You also get quite a lot of storage space for the price, though most of it is “cold.” If this sounds like an interesting package, keep reading our Zoolz review to learn everything you need to know.

It’s not all good news, as there are also some significant weaknesses. There are no Zoolz mobile apps, as well as no option for creating a full disk image. 

The pricing scheme is also difficult to figure out, as there are several different pages on Zoolz’ websites showing entirely different plans. Furthermore, because most of the cloud storage is “cold,”  in most cases you can’t instantly restore your files from the servers.

If these weaknesses sound like deal breakers to you, you can check out our list of the best online backup services for alternatives.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths:

  • Good speed
  • Great security & privacy
  • Easy to use
  • Great customer service

Weaknesses:

  • No mobile app
  • No disk imaging
  • Most plans offer only cold storage
  • Confusing pricing scheme

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  1. 1
    • Continuous Backup
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    • External Drive Backup
    • NAS Backup
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Features

65 % – Decent

While some backup services opt to pack the client full of features, from social media links to traditional cloud storage, Zoolz instead focuses on providing a well-functioning but basic backup solution without too many advanced features to speak of.

The core pillar of Zoolz is its dual cloud approach to backups that uses both regular and cold storage. 

Similar to Amazon Glacier, cold storage allows Zoolz to offer relatively cheap storage space subjected to certain limitations. Most significantly, anything you place in cold storage will not be instantly accessible. Rather, when you start the restore download from cold storage, you’ll need to wait anywhere from three to 12 hours before the download can start.

Zoolz-Cold-Storage-Restore

Although this is a significant limitation, it’s not the biggest deal if all you need is to backup files you rarely use, such as old photos and rarely used documents. Furthermore, a lot of cold storage solutions — such as Amazon Glacier — will charge you money for every restore you do, which is something that Zoolz does for free.

Zoolz-Cold-Comparison

In terms of device types, you can use Zoolz to backup servers and computers, but not mobile devices. There is also a hybrid backup option, which allows you to store your files both on the cloud and a local destination at the same time.

We’ll talk about these features in more depth in the “file backup and restoration” section further down in the review, as well as the courier recovery service that Zoolz offers.

Unfortunately there’s no disk-imaging option, meaning you can’t clone your entire system. This is a feature you can get with a lot of other backup solutions, such as IDrive or CloudBerry, so if this is a feature you require, you can check out these services instead.

Zoolz Versioning

Versioning is one of Zoolz’ greater strengths, as you can choose exactly how many past versions of files you want to retain, as well as how long deleted files should remain in the archive. There are no limits imposed by Zoolz in this regard, so you can choose to keep an unlimited number of past versions of files and hang on to deleted ones forever if you want to.

Zoolz-Versioning-Settings

Outside of the backup functionality itself, there’s not a whole lot to say about Zoolz’ features. However, you can share files that you’ve uploaded to its servers through the web client, either by email or via a custom link.

Zoolz-Share

Unfortunately, there is no Zoolz app for Android or iOS, which means that you can’t use the service to backup your mobile devices, nor can you even access your backed up files without going through the browser client. 

At the very least, mobile apps for file access is something that most other backup services (such as Degoo or Backblaze) offer, even if they can’t backup the mobile device itself, like for example IDrive.

Zoolz Business Features

Zoolz also offers a business version of its backup software that comes with some additional features. Where the personal plans only offer cold storage, Zoolz business instead uses what it calls “instant storage” which is more like what you’d expect from a backup service in that you can recover your data instantaneously.

With Zoolz for business you are also not limited in terms of how many users you can have. You can create as many users as you want, and even add them by bulk via a CSV file. The number of computers per user is also upped from just one to three.

Versioning is also improved, as with the business plans you can retain as many previous versions of a changed file as you want, instead of the regular 10. Support for server backup is also added, which isn’t surprising as this is pretty much a must for any business backup software worth its salt.

Zoolz for business also includes a file sharing system that lets you easily send a link to any backed up file to other people so that they can download it. Finally, you can generate detailed activity reports for all of your users to see everything that’s being uploaded to or downloaded from the cloud.

Zoolz Home Features Overview

  • Backup

    • Backup Scheduler
    • Continuous Backup
    • Incremental Backup
    • Image-Based Backup
    • External Drive Backup
    • NAS Backup
    • Server Backup
    • Hybrid Backup
    • Mobile Device Backup
    • Unlimited Backup
    • Unlimited Devices
    • Speed Throttling
    • Block-Level File Copying
    • Multithreaded Backup
  • Restore

    • Courier Recovery Service
    • Browser Access
    • Mobile App Access
    • Versioning
    • Deleted File Retention
  • Security

    • Private Encryption
    • At-Rest Encryption
    • In-Transit Encryption
    • AES 256-bit Encryption Protocol
    • Two-Factor Authentication
    • Hardened Data Centers
    • Proxy Server Settings
    • HIPPA Compliant
  • Support

    • 24/7 Support
    • Live Chat Support
    • Telephone Support
    • Email Support
    • User Forum
    • Knowledgebase
  • Misc

    • File Sharing
    • Device Sync
    • Unlimited Free Trial

Pricing

70 % – Decent

Although it’s certainly not the cheapest option out there, Zoolz offers a whole lot of storage space for all of its plans with few differences between them in terms of features. That said, finding the actual plans themselves is a confusing process because there’s no unified pricing page.

The first two home-user plans that Zoolz offers are the Family plan and the Heavy plan, both of which allow for five users. 

The only difference between the two plans in terms of features is that Family accounts can backup three external/network drives, while Heavy accounts have no limits in this regard. Neither plan lets you pay per month, meaning you have to sign up for a full year.

Zoolz-Family-And-Heavy

The Family plan gives you access to 1TB of cold storage for $69.99 per year, and the Heavy plan provides 4TB for $249.99 per year. These plans are currently on a heavy discount though, which means you can get them for $39.95 per year and $99.95 per year if you sign up now.  

Although this certainly isn’t the cheapest option out there, especially if you have a lot of data to backup, it’s roughly in line with some other providers like IDrive, where you get 2TB of storage for $69.50 per year or $5.79 per month.

Besides these personal plans, Zoolz also offers several options intended for business users. Unlike the plans mentioned earlier, these all come with only “instant storage,” rather than a mix between instant and cold storage. Another difference is that these plans offer monthly billing, meaning you’re not forced to sign up for a full year.

There are six of these plans, and the only difference between them is how much storage space you get. You can opt for 1TB, 2TB, 5TB, 10TB, 20TB or 50TB, which will run you $15, $30, $75, $150, $300, or $750 per month respectively. If you choose to sign up for a full year instead, you’re given a discount so that you essentially get two months for free when compared with the monthly subscriptions.

 

Zoolz Pricing Table

Zoolz Home Family Plan
  • 1000 GB Storage
1-year plan $ 5.83/ month
$69.99 billed every year
Zoolz Home Heavy Plan
  • 4000 GB Storage
1-year plan $ 20.83/ month
$249.99 billed every year
Zoolz Business 1TB
  • 1000 GB Storage
1-year plan $ 12.50/ month
$150.00 billed every year
Save 17 %
Zoolz Business 2TB
  • 2000 GB Storage
1-year plan $ 25.00/ month
$300.00 billed every year
Save 17 %
Zoolz Business 5TB
  • 5000 GB Storage
1-year plan $ 62.50/ month
$750.00 billed every year
Save 17 %
Zoolz Business 10TB
  • 10000 GB Storage
1-year plan $ 125.00/ month
$1500.00 billed every year
Save 17 %
Zoolz Business 20TB
  • 20000 GB Storage
1-year plan $ 250.00/ month
$3000.00 billed every year
Save 17 %
Zoolz Business 50TB
  • 50000 GB Storage
1-year plan $ 625.00/ month
$7500.00 billed every year
Save 17 %

If you’re not sure that you’re willing to fork out this amount of cash for a backup service, Zoolz offers a 14-day free trial with 50GB of regular storage and 100GB of cold storage so that you can thoroughly test it out.

Zoolz-Free-Trial

With all that said, Zoolz is clearly on the expensive end of things if you’re looking to backup more than 1TB of data. There are several alternative services that offer unlimited storage for a lower price, such as Backblaze or Carbonite.

Zoolz also had the dubious honor of being featured in our State of the Cloud report for February 2020, in which we detailed some sneaky business practices by the company in regard to its lifetime subscribers.

You can read the full story in the article linked above, but in summary, up until a year ago you could get purchase a Zoolz lifetime plan. This got you either 1TB of storage space or 100GB lifetime access to Zoolz intelligent cloud for a one-time payment of around $30 to $40. 

This was without a doubt a great deal, and many people jumped on this offer assuming that they would retain this in perpetuity.

However, this changed in mid-January of 2020, when Zoolz sent out an email telling lifetime subscribers that starting in February, they would need to pay $1.50 per month to retain access to their backed up files. This calls the reliability of the company into question, as it’s difficult to trust it with your files after it’s gone ahead and messed with its terms once already.

Ease of Use

90 % – Excellent

Zoolz Cloud, much like its cousin BigMIND Home, sports an easy-to-use interface, thorough introduction process and a clear layout that makes it simple to find what you’re looking for. You’re also given a lot of control over the backup process, as well as plenty of information about what’s happening at any given time.

When you first sign up, you’ll be taken to the web dashboard and asked to download the desktop client. The web dashboard is simple and displays some basic information about your active devices, as well as how much space you’re using and any pending alerts.

Zoolz-Web-Dashboard

Once you’ve downloaded the client, you’re taken through an introduction that prompts you to select what you want to backup, as well as what kind of backup settings you want to use.

Picking Files

In the data selection part of the setup, you can choose files automatically based on category using Zoolz’ “smart selection” feature. These categories include default Windows libraries, like documents, desktop and videos, as well file types, like financial files and eBooks and PDFs.

Zoolz-Data-Selection-Smart

If you’d rather choose exactly what files and folders to backup manually, then you can use the second tab labelled “my computer,” which is just a basic tree-structure representation of your system.

Zoolz-Web-My-Computers

Finally, the data selection also gives you the option of placing files into cold storage. As we’ll explain in the next section, this is a separate piece of cloud storage that is cheaper but not instantly accessible.

Zoolz-Data-Selection-Cold-Storage

Once you’ve chosen what to backup, you can set the scheduling, throttling and “hybrid+” settings in the final dialog. This is also where you can set your own private key, and if you don’t do so now, you’ll have to reinstall Zoolz in order to get the option to do so again.

Zoolz-Intro-Settings

Once you’re through the setup, Zoolz is remarkably similar to BigMIND Home, which isn’t all that surprising considering they’re developed by the same parent company, Genie9. 

The main panel gives you a simple overview of your current protection level and the status of any backup currently in progress. There are three buttons on the bottom of the panel: “data selection,” “settings” and “restore.”

Zoolz-Main-Panel

The data selection menu is the same one that you went through during setup, and we’ll cover the restore menu in the next section of this review. The settings, meanwhile, are separated into six categories: schedule, resource optimization, connection, hybrid+, advanced settings and preferences.

Zoolz-Schedule

In the first two of these, “schedule” and “resource optimization,” you can change the settings for how often Zoolz will perform a backup, as well as other options like throttling, multithreading, and enabling the presentation and battery mode.

Zoolz-Resource-Optimization

The “connection” tab lets you decide what types of networks you want to upload over, including wired, wireless and mobile connections. You can also enable or disable backups over metered connections and open your device’s proxy settings, which Zoolz inherits.

Zoolz-Connection

In the “hybrid+” section of the settings, you can configure the settings for Zoolz’ hybrid backup feature. This includes setting the path for your local backup, either on the device itself or on network drives, as well as what filters and caps you want to impose on the hybrid backup.

Zoolz-Hybrid+

Over in the “advanced settings” you have a few basic functions, such as enabling image previews, showing hidden files and enabling windows context menu options. This is also where you set what file types you want Zoolz to use its VSS and block-level algorithms for, both of which we’ll explain more in depth in the next section of this review.

Zoolz-Advanced-Settings

Finally, the “preferences” section brings up a separate window where you can set up file exclusions, enable advanced logging and change the drive that Zoolz uses for caching.

Zoolz-Preferences

Aside from the desktop client, you can also use Zoolz’ web interface to backup files and manage your account. From the dashboard, you can click on “my computers” to get an overview of all your devices and storage space. From here, you can also directly upload files, though the stability and speed is much better through the desktop client.

Zoolz-Web-My-Computers

File Backup & Restoration

85 % – Very Good

Although it’s not as feature-packed as some of its competitors, Zoolz still provides a solid backup process that’s easy to configure and manage. While a backup is in progress, you’re given plenty of information about its status, so it’s always easy to see what’s going on.

As mentioned in the “features” section, you can use Zoolz to backup both desktop devices and servers, but there’s no way to backup mobile devices or even to access your data through a mobile app.

The backup process itself is very straightforward. All you have to do is select what files you want to backup, and if you opted for the 2TB plan, you can also choose what to put into cold storage and what goes into the “instant vault.”

Scheduling Your Backups

While there’s no continuous backup, per se, you can set the schedule to run every five minutes, which in practical terms is almost the same thing. The schedule can also be set to longer intervals, with options ranging from every five minutes to every 24 hours. If you’d like less frequent backups, you can also choose specific days of the week.

You can also exercise some control over the backup in terms of filters and throttling, as well as several different “modes” for uploads and downloads. First, the filters let you ignore files based on file types, size, age and their locations. Throttling, on the other hand, caps the speed of your transfer, which is good if you want to do other things while backing up.

Zoolz-Filters

The different upload modes are also incredibly useful in this regard. The “presentation mode” stops the upload automatically when you’re using the device for gaming, watching videos or giving presentations, while the “battery mode” does the same when your device is low on power.

Zoolz supports multithreaded uploads and downloads, and it also uses a block-level algorithm for certain file types to avoid reuploading an entire file when only a small part of it has changed. Similarly, the service’s VSS, short for “volume shadow copy service,” lets Zoolz upload files while they are being used.

As mentioned earlier, there’s no disk-imaging feature, which is something you can get with, for example, Acronis True Image or Backblaze. If you want to be able to restore your entire system exactly like it was on a new device, you should check out one of these alternatives instead.

Courier Service

If you’re backing up or restoring a large number of files over a slow connection, Zoolz offers a courier service called “Zoolz import/export” to save you some bandwidth. 

Here, you have two options. The first is that you can use your own hard drive, which you can use to backup or restore 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB or 10TB with a price of $160, $225, $380, $740 and $1,500, respectively.

Zoolz-Import-Export

The second option — using an Amazon “snowball” device provided by Zoolz — is a much better option for very large backups. With this option, you can send up to 100TB of data on the device or devices provided, at a flat fee of $500 plus a processing fee, which varies depending on the size of the transfer ($100 for 10TB or $300 for 50TB).

However, the import/export service is only available to Zoolz customers located in Europe, North America or Australia, so anyone else will have to backup their files the old fashioned way.

Restoring files with Zoolz Home Cloud Backup is an uncomplicated affair. All you need to do is enter the “restore” menu from the main panel of the client, which will open up a separate window.

Zoolz-Restore

From here, you can choose what device you want to restore in the dropdown list at the top of the window, which will list all of the files you’ve uploaded from said device to Zoolz’ cloud storage servers.

Zoolz-Restore-Options

Once you’ve picked what files you want to restore, the next step gives you a few options for the download. This includes what location you want to download to (either a manually defined one or its original location) and whether to use multithreading to speed up the download and filters based on the age of files.

Speed

90 % – Excellent

Speed is crucial for cloud backup services because users often need to upload and download a large number of files, especially during their initial backup. Zoolz does very well in this area, featuring fast transfer rates both for uploads and downloads, even when you’re located far away from a server.

To test the speed of Zoolz Home Cloud Backup, we ran two uploads and two downloads of a 3.51GB folder over a connection with a 20/Mbps download speed and 10/Mbps upload speed. Realistically, we’d like to see the upload finish in roughly three hours and the download in about an hour and a half.

 First Attempt:Second Attempt:Average:
Upload02:49:0001:56:0001:22:30
Download01:42:0001:24:0001:33:00

As you can see, these are pretty much the results we hoped for. While it’s theoretically possible to reach higher speeds on our connection, this all depends on network load — both on our end and Zoolz’ — as well as physical distance to the servers. For our tests, we enabled multithreading and turbo mode (which prioritizes Zoolz on your network connection) to maximize speed.

Zoolz-Data-Center-Locations

It’s worth bearing in mind that because we performed these tests from Asia, we defaulted to the data centers located in the U.S., which results in a significant distance — geographically speaking — between our device and the servers. Users in the regions with dedicated servers (North America, Europe, Australia/New Zealand and Japan) should see better results.

Security

80 % – Good

When choosing an online backup service, it’s important that you can feel confident in the security of your files, whether that’s from virtual threats, like hackers and cybercriminals, or physical ones, like theft and natural disasters. Zoolz does well concerning this, with the only notable exception being its lack of two-factor authentication.

Your files are protected using AES 256-bit encryption, which is good enough that it would take thousands — if not millions — of years to crack through brute force. For a more detailed explanation of how this works, be sure to check out our description of encryption.

Though the encryption isn’t private by default, you can set your own private key during each device’s setup process. While your files are on the move, Zoolz uses SSL to ensure that they’re not at risk from man-in-the-middle attacks.

Zoolz-Private-Encryption

On the physical security side of things, Zoolz’ data centers are really just Amazon’s, as AWS provides the server infrastructure used by the service. This means top-notch protection, including hardening against natural disasters and state-of-the-art security systems to prevent physical break-ins and theft.

Zoolz-AWS

Although Zoolz Home Cloud Backup’s cousin, BigMIND Home, offers two-factor authentication, this is not something that’s available for regular Zoolz users. This is a shame, as it’s the only security flaw in what is otherwise a very secure service.

Privacy

95 % – Excellent

Our online privacy is continuously infringed upon, so it’s important to know that an online backup solution does everything in its power to ensure your privacy and anonymity. Like with security, Zoolz does well with this, featuring strong encryption and a solid privacy policy.

As mentioned in the previous section, Zoolz uses strong private encryption that protects your files from prying eyes both at-rest and in-transit. Since the key is private, that means only you can decrypt your files.

Because Zoolz uses Amazon’s data centers for its servers, exactly where your data is stored depends on where you’re located. British and European customers have their data stored in the U.K., while data centers in Australia are used for those located in Australia or New Zealand, and Japanese users will have their information placed on data centers in Japan itself.

American users — and everyone else not mentioned above — will default to Amazon’s data centers in the U.S. This is a bit unfortunate, as the U.S. has notoriously poor online privacy laws, with some examples being the Patriot Act and PRISM. That said, most online backup services use data centers in the U.S., so it’s not like Zoolz is unique in this regard.

Zoolz-Privacy-Policy

Zoolz has a solid privacy policy that makes it clear that, while they do collect certain metadata on its users — including names, addresses and payment information — it does not sell this information to anyone and will only share it with trusted partners or with the authorities to comply with laws.

Zoolz-Compliance

Genie9, the parent company of Zoolz and BigMIND, is also compliant with both GDPR and HIPAA, as well as several other privacy regulations.

Customer Service

95 % – Excellent

You will be trusting cloud backup providers with our most important files, so it’s important that they provide proper customer service to ensure that you can feel safe knowing that your files are being handled well. With a very responsive customer service department, Zoolz excels at this, despite the lack of phone support.

For most inquires, you’re asked to send a support request through the email form, which prompts you to provide a detailed explanation of your issue. We tested the responsiveness of this several times and always received a response within a day, and occasionally within just a few hours.

Zoolz-Email-Form

The chat support is significantly more limited, as it’s mostly focused on providing sales assistance. That said, you can use it for minor technical issues, but anything more complicated will probably result in being referred to the email form mentioned earlier.

Zoolz-Chat

The Verdict

That concludes our review of Zoolz. If all you’re looking for is a secure cloud backup solution for files you don’t need constant access to, Zoolz is without a doubt a strong choice. An easy-to-use web interface and desktop client offers you plenty of control over the backup process, and security and privacy are both top notch.

That said, the lack of mobile apps and disk-imaging options, as well as the reliance on cold storage, might be a deal breaker for many. Prices are also somewhat high, especially when compared to services like Backblaze or Carbonite, which offer unlimited storage for a similar price to the 1TB plan that Zoolz provides.

What do you think of our review? Do you agree that it ticks all the most important boxes for a backup service, or is the lack of mobile apps and a disk-imaging feature — plus dodgy business practices in regards to the lifetime plan — enough to keep you away? Let us know in the comments below. Thank you for reading.

Zoolz Home Cloud Backup FAQ

  • Is Zoolz Safe?

    Yes, Zoolz Home Cloud Backup features excellent security. Although you can’t enable two-factor authentication, private AES 256-bit encryption and SSL is used to keep your data safe from virtual threats, while hardened data centers and extensive on-site security protects your data from physical ones.

  • What Is Zoolz Cold Storage?

    Zoolz cold storage is similar to Amazon Glacier, in that it provides you with a lot of cloud storage space for your money, but at the cost of instant access. Instead, you’ll have to wait between three to 12 hours for your download to commence. The main difference between Amazon Glacier and Zoolz is that the former charges you a fee for each restore.

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58 thoughts on “Zoolz Home Cloud Backup”

  1. I researched web storage using this site, and decided to give Zoolz a try. Their cold storage concept looked interesting, and the price allowed me to go out to dinner once more than I otherwise would have if I had gone with one of the better known sites like Carbonite. I don’t have a lot to compare them to, but so far I am only modestly impressed. The interface is pretty simple – a little too simple even – and not hard to use. Zoolz does seem to work right, but it works VERY SLOWLY. It took literally a week for it to back up 75 gb over a good cable connection. If my computer crashed and I wanted to restore my data, it would probably take a long time. When I emailed them a question about this, there was no reply. So I am not a big fan so far – but Zoolz is inexpensive, and it does appear to get the job done.

    Reply
  2. I have a few terabytes of data that is important to me. My internet connection speeds are consistently 110 MB/s download and 30 MB/s upload. I am, for the most of the time, the only user of the internet. During free trial, the upload speeds were around 2 MB/s to 3 MB/s. Though it was far from taking advantage of full upload speeds, I was happy to see that the time it would take to complete backup would be bearable. But the trial stopped at around 50 GB, after which I would have to sign up for a plan to continue, which I did. Unfortunately, the upload speed had an immediately drop to around 1.2 MB/s soon after I restart the backup. The upload speed has been steadily declining. I have signed up for about 30 days. Currently the upload speed is around 65 kB/s. I had contacted support and had tried very methods it had suggested. Nothing worked! It will take 84 days to upload 4 TB of data. And how long will it take if I need my data back? I would not know it, would I? Because the plan does not work the way
    I was told it would have.

    Reply
  3. I use the Business plan of Zoolz, 1 TB for $300 and I totally rely on it, I have been saved a couple of times by Zoolz, once from a hardware failure and the second from cryptolocker.

    The solution is way to easy to use and I have it running for 10 of my users and 3 servers, I contacted support once and they were very professional, they asked for logs and information, but the solved my problem in not more than 4 hours.

    I am really glad to be using Zoolz and I am satisfied with the performance and service I am getting for such a small amount of money.

    Reply
  4. I am testing it for 5 days. Here are some my comments.
    – Upload:
    The files are proceeded with “anaylzing”/”Preparing”, and then uploading. The issue is it spend too many time at the first two steps, that cause the overall upload is very slow.

    – Restore:
    I can restore files successfully from web app. But from client, I have need finished it, the client always pend there, files will downloaded, but a whole day about 45M files downloaded. And you can only request 1 restore from client until it finish.

    Although I can restore file from web, but I am not sure if I can smoothly restore file over 1G from browser, and after 1 day, the restore link will expire.

    – Price
    $3 per month, I can just say it is all right.

    – Other issue
    If you enable multi-thread function in client, you will notice, even you stop the upload, it still doing that( I install some kind system monitor software so I can see it still occupy upload bandwidth ). I think it is a bug.

    By monitoring, the two client:upload and restore, will always use high CPU and bandwidth timely.

    – Support
    I wrote some mails, but only receive Rasha’s reply, he/she is professional, but the other email to others, even a lady who mail me says she is my Home Contact, no reply.

    So I will give up it, the most reason is I cannot restore well.

    Mike

    Reply
  5. I’ve singed up with zoolz since all I need a is cold storage, where my files are saved and never got deleted till I decided to delete them. My Bell internet speed is 15Mbs down and 1Meg up. I am monitoring the upload speed in pfsense router and its constantly running at 1Mbps. I am able to upload 10GB per day and so far after a month, I’ve uploaded around 350Gb. The best thing about zoolz, its even let you upload files from NAS drives and external drives. I am extremely pleased with zoolz.

    Reply
  6. I’ve been trying to back up 120 GB from my home network since November of last year. It still has not completed after almost a year.

    I find this software flaky and I have not been able to stop it from hogging the entire house’s network traffic and grinding everything to a halt.
    I have tried throttling and scheduling.
    I have also tried Netbalancer.
    Zoolz does whatever and whenever it wants.
    Alas after almost a year I’m going to uninstall it.
    I don’t have faith that if disaster happens that I am covered.

    Reply
  7. Agree with some of the reviews here. I stay in Singapore and initially during trial the speeds were great. Once I sign up, 2 weeks later notice the speed drop.. then later 5 times slower! and now forever slow! Though I kept reading it never throttles.. but I doubt so..
    Easy to used, but not fast enough if you have got Terabytes of waiting to upload.
    Shall try their tech support and see how it goes.

    Reply
  8. I was impressed by the prices of Zoolz cold storage, I had a pull back when I read the review here regarding the slowness, I gave Zoolz a try (Trial), I was really impressed by the way you can select files, they call it smart selection, it makes the selection very easy.

    I did not have any issues with the speed or performance at all, I contacted the Zoolz support to check why some users reported the slowness, they said that all the slowness was fixed in the new builds.

    I currently use zoolz for my business usage and I am satisfied with it

    Reply
  9. Love it, we are using it for our company, we got 5 TB of data, and its supper fast, its using Amazon AWS, which is amazing for us, also we have 10 Servers and 5 TB of data on NAS Units, we uploaded everything, great work guys , Keep it up, the new users management with Labelling is amazing

    Reply
  10. Wow…I just got out of the entire zoolz experience after a year of bad tech support, glitchy software, and finally having my upload capability throttled to 20MB a day.

    The final saga started by being being zoolz-less since early June due to the software crashing non-stop. I went back and forth with tech support folks who had no clue what to do. At one point they actually told me “you just have to wait for the new build”. LOL. That didn’t work either, but eventually one of them solved the problem.

    Yet then I found another problem–the big thing zoolz sold themselves on, RAW file previews for photos, stopped working with .dng format. The universal Adobe format wasn’t recognized! Don’t worry, they said–“it will be fixed in another build”.

    So then I then proceeded to re-upload EVERYTHING for the fourth time in a year. I am a home user on a Mac, with about 2TB in files, all personal.

    Then…about 25% of my way through rebacking everything up, my uploading suddenly all of a sudden, my upload slowed to 20 MB per day. After a couple days, then I realized it wasn’t going to change…so I email the ever-so-helpful tech support.

    “Support” said it’s because other users have compromised the unlimited plan I was on (was–notice the past tense) because of uploading illegal files and using zoolz as a business repository. So therefore, they couldn’t guarantee any upload speeds. So they said they would refund me the rest of my contract so I can purchase a new plan.

    WHY was this a problem? Well I purchased a five year contract for about £100. With unlimited upload capability. I don’t need crazy unlimited, about 2TB with the room to grow perhaps (I am an avid amateur hobby photographer). So the only plan that would suit my needs (which are not much as a home users, maybe 2TB of data) would cost £200 per year.

    Hmm…so let’s strongarm the guy who purchased our low-money maker plan just before we got rid of it, get him on a plan that would cost him £900 more over five years.

    Amazon is now offering cloud storage for $60 per year, unlimited everything. Only $12 per year if you want to back up only photos. And zoolz uses the amazon glacier system anyway…

    Despicable company, bad software. Avoid. Don’t bother with these incompetent crooks.

    Reply
  11. Needed to upload about 112 GB to start with. I have HS internet. Lost exact count of time but it only took about 19 hours which really surprised me. Uploads started at about 2-3mbps and I was upset thinking it would take 15 days at that rate, but later upload speeds increased significantly and I noticed speeds of around 16-18 mbps. This works great for me since I don’t need instant restore from this service.

    Reply
  12. Stay FAR FAR away and DO NOT TRUST ZOOLZ. Complete scam. We started with an unlimited plan for $60/year, and they jacked it up to $1620 after 2 years, literally holding 5TB of data hostage unless we paid. Absolutely unbelievable, and probably illegal. Who knows how much they would charge to actually restore a lost backup. Please spread the word- this company is BAD NEWS.

    Reply
    1. UPDATE: I am sure I am just rare customer who got caught in the cracks, but we had a tough experience with Zoolz. We started with an unlimited-space plan for $60/year, but after 2 years, our price apparently increased to $1620 (we uploaded 4.5T of data). Zoolz ended our subscription without notice, and only offered to upgrade to a much more expensive service. Happily, they did finally offer to continue with the same deal we started with. I guess I wish it didn’t take complaining and threatening to post bad reviews.

      Reply
  13. I had an account for just under a year, the support was useless, these people managed to make a complete mess of 5 TBs of important documents, lost most of it due to their incompetence, I am now with Datacastle RED who are not only less on cost but actually provide support when needed, the tool is very easy to use with great performance on both uploads and downloads.

    Also did some research on this business due to all the problems as I was very concerned how secure my documents were being managed – look further up this thread for fake reviews on Zoolz from Ahmad Bushnaq 2014/06/23 at 00:50 and Mo 2015/04/20 at 22:54, one works in Zoolz sales and the second is the CEO. Not sure if there reviews are appropriate on here. Also, this is NOT a UK business, they’re based in the middle-east.

    Think very carefully before trusting your documents with these people!

    Reply
  14. I saw the Zoolz special ($39 for lifetime 500gb/500gb). I bought into it. But after comparing the files I checked off to back and the files at the site, I noticed that it only backed up about 70% of the files I marked to backup. When I checked my local files (marked files that have been backed up), they all show as backed up.. I sent a support ticket, but it look like they have never had this issue before. I even asked if there is a way to do a total reset (they don’t know.). It’s also seems that tech support doesn’t work on weekends. I’ll be asking for a refund..

    Reply
  15. What a waste of time. We went with a rigid plan to backup 3 million files about 10 TB of data to keep off premises for an emergency recovery.

    What a joke! After 3 months of running backups daily, the data has not been completed (I have 200 MB Internet up/down service).
    The tech support is USELESS. They take 24 hours to respond each time, and when they respond they ask you to run logs reports for another 24 hours and send then the logs, which you can’t because the logs are so big you can’t email them.

    After 7 days of back and forth on emails from support, their recommendation was to restart the backup from the beginning because I have “TOO MANY FILES”

    WTF ???? These F***ing geniuses sell a backup service but you can’t put too many files?

    Deduplication service doesn’t work because, (you have to laugh here) they said and I quote “It seems that you have uploaded a lot of files that you have already uploaded before (not recommended). Please be informed that the De-Duplication feature was designed to save only your bandwidth. This way, you have to delete all your files and start a new backup job.”

    GO with another service.

    Recommended – NO F***ing WAY!!!

    Reply
  16. I’ve been customer for few years Genie and afterword of Zoolz and canceled recently after I understood that:
    1. You can never downgrade memory just upgrade.
    2. Their cost is higher than their competitors.

    In addition after I canceled they charged me for an additional month.

    Reply
  17. I have bought the lifetime 500GB live + 500GB cold so that I can browse my 200GB+ of photos more-or-less anywhere. So far I have only been using the ‘live’ (‘vault’) storage. Over the last few weeks I have ‘dropped’ most of my 200+GB of files onto my ‘live vault’ under the ‘My computers’ tab of the Zoolz web page interface. I have used the Android app to spot check the upload; no problems spotted.

    The Zoolz Android app is simple and obvious in its operation and lets me browse my directory structure easily. Its speed and smoothness (lack of glitchyness) make browsing quick and pleasant. The web page interface on the other hand is clunky and I have been having troubles with browsing directories with more than 100 files.

    Though the web-based upload is clunky it has (apparently) been working well. If I drop a several thousand files on the page (limit is 1000 at a time but I have been able to drop many times) and a particular file fails it can be tedious to find it to resume the download.

    I have not been able to get the web-based browsing to operate nicely for directories with more than 100 files. Upon navigating to a directory 100 files are shown. If ‘grid’ if chosen (rather than ‘list’) I can find no way to scroll to more files (than the 100 showing). If ‘list’ is showing then ‘page down’ key will expand the length of the list when the end of the scroll bar is reached. However, I then see 2 or more copies of the same file in the list and it apparently gets worse as I use pageDown repeatedly.

    So, for a place to keep all my photos for convenient browsing *via an Android* device its it
    actually quite nice. The one-time price for lifetime storage is also very good. The laptop-based upload via a web-based app is clunky but seems to work. As things stand now I will only use an Android device (but that’s nice) to browse and will avoid browsing on my laptop since that interface is so quirky for large directories. (I have been in contact with tech support. Yes, 24 hours for an exchange seems standard but they have kept at it. Unfortunately they want remote access to my computer to explore the problem. I am not inclined to allow that – if the web interface shows the same quirky behaviour on any of my 5 computers on any of Chrome, FireFox, or Edge then I’m thinking they should be looking at the code for their interface, not one of my computers.)

    Reply
  18. Zoolz is a complete farse! This so-called “Reinventing the personal cloud. Smart and secure backup for all your precious photos, videos and personal documents.” lost over 4 terabytes of important documents.

    I sent 4 terabytes to my Zoolz home acct, which took weeks to upload. Then I noticed some documents had disappeared, I asked for help from Zoolz who came back after several weeks with nothing they could do. I also tried calling them, but got nowhere.

    I’ve put this bad experience down to my poor judgement in trusting a business that doesn’t seem to have any idea what they’re doing. I’m now with another cloud backup business who are not only cheaper, but they help me whenever I need help.

    Please think twice before choosing Zoolz Home if you value your documents.

    Reply
  19. An aquaintance had account terminated by Zoolz for copywrite infringement. But all of uploaded files were securely encrypted before leaving the computer. How is it that Zoolz can identify infringing files unless the software passes the encryption key to them, or that encryption doesn’t even happen. Vary suspicious. I would not trust.

    Reply
  20. Definitely not happy with this. It keeps stopping the backup. I have left my computer on for days trying to upload all my files but keeps stopping. I continually have to manually reset it. I wish I could get my money back. Not compatible with my OSX Sierra. Customer support is terrible.

    Reply
  21. I prefer pCloud. I have used the pCloud service for several months and it has not disappointed me.

    Reply
  22. If zoolz uses Amazon Glacier, why don’t you use Amazon Glacier directly if all you want is to store your files?

    However, Glacier becomes very expensive if your files exceed more than a terabyte.

    I have practically used every storage out there and here are my takes.

    1. Cloud storage with direct file hosting and API:
    a. Amazon AWS (fastest. I’m only using S3 and Glacier. 10,000 put/fetch so you mostly pay for storage
    b. Google cloud (10,000 put/fetch, so you mostly pay for storage
    c. Backblaze B2 (easiest & friendliest. Generous put/fetch. Cheapest cold storage)
    d. Microsoft azure (requires programming background and advanced knowledge. steep learning curve)

    2. Cloud storage with collaboration and file sharing (I don’t bother with less than 10 GB)
    a. box (best for business)
    b. pcloud (best upload speed, best virtual extension drive. Has some problems syncing sometimes)
    c. OneDrive (best for documents. I will not extend subscription. All files will be migrated to pcloud. Will keep downgraded 5 GB storage. I initially had free 25 GB but microsoft downgraded that. missed the extension request. with seagate offer, I got 300 GB, which expires this December 2017. Microsoft has 50 GB only of paid storage, which is not enough for my files. The next upgrade size is 1 TB, which is costly for things that are included which I can normally do on a pc)
    d. Google drive (storage for personal files)
    e. mimedia
    f. mega (best free storage and sharing for audio and video , 50 GB)
    g. 4shared (best for searching other people’s media files)
    h. yandex
    i. mediafire (best for sharing big files and file hosting)

    3. Private cloud storage
    a. Amazon cloud (unlimited storage. Slow upload speed. Can also share but very slow speed. Storage for bluray movies, hi-res audio)
    b. mail.ru (free 25 GB cloud with sync included in mail subscription. Sync app available. Can also collaborate)

    4. Specialized hosting
    a. adobe cloud (hosts pdf files only. slow interface)

    Reply
  23. It seems to be a great app as well of the others just depending what ur wanting as well as it comes with a lot of different ways and files that you can save them and the memory is a lot very good

    Reply
  24. I subscribed to Zoolz some months ago. The upload (at 12 mps via Comcast) was slow for 707 GB of data from one computer and several networked hard drives. However the major problem occurred when I rebuilt the computer’s Win 10 OS. While the Zoolz web site identifies my account, reinstalling the Zoolz software to my computer would not recognize the computer. Seems the service’s programming views the computer as ‘new’. Instead of having access to the current uploaded files, the company wanted me to create a new backup. So, what happens when the customer replaces their computer? How do you access the earlier files backed up?

    Reply
  25. I have tried sending emails to Zoolz and they dont reply. Makes me question how professional they really are.

    Reply
  26. Been using Zoolz Unlimited backup for 4 years now. no complaints. haven’t had to restore yet. have about 1.5 TB backed up. I did have to reimage computer where zoolz software runs, so the backups had to re-run and now my backups show 2 computers both have the same files. i didnt mind having to uplaod again as my internet is unlimited.
    Waiting to see what the renewal rate is. hope it stays the same 120$ for 5 yrs

    Reply
  27. Their lifetime storage option for home use seems to work quite elegantly. I think they are a decent enough company.

    Reply
  28. Im not using Zoolz for long but could not get pass the double 500GB lifetime for 30USD, my goal was to gave simple coud backup for my photos (about 120G 15k files) since i NEVER yet in 5years was lost a thing i want to restore i wasn’t that concerned about speed it will work with. So ofc after paymet was done i begin to test

    Backup software – very simple and clean enough, can’t think of any options i missed there, totaly good for me.

    Site – kinda so/so

    Upload speed – during upload phase it was constantly around 20mb/s so it took about 20h to complete upload… good for me

    Download speed – after i complete upload i immidiately attempt to restore everything in separate folder – delay before it strats was about 4h, then it strat stream for an average speed between 50mb/s and 90mb/s which is kinda limitation of my connection, so speed is defintly ok with my voulmes of data (it took less than 7h to download after it starts).

    Safety – PC was rebooted in the process and it “kinda” survived it, process continues when pc tirned on but resulting folder missed one file from 15k, i assume one that was downloaded during reboot, while in logs it was set as successfully restored, that is shame, but don’t be upset to much, as file was backed up ok and when i restore that specific file it was restored as it should, so no data loss here, but you might need to run restore more than once to get all you need in case PC was not online during all process.

    Vaults – works as expected, but i think there are lot of services that provide this also for free and with better GUI, even if they will not store your share for lifetime. Dissapointment that for home version you cant use instant vault storage, so double 500GB is more like single 500GB for backup + useless space for clunky sharing.

    I realy miss any client to talk with instant storage (Vault) from PC, if it can be connected as sort of drive this would have been just avesome, but it cant :/

    for me it worth what i paid

    Reply
  29. I was very lucky I got 100GB lifetime storage for free – have uploaded over 40GB in a couple of days with no problems at all. It was a special offer! I would not pay to store my photos as they are already backed up to disc and external flash drives but the extra method to save precious photos is great.

    Reply
  30. Zoolz customer service could be a bit better- they are are slow at answering emails and need reminding. I think they are a small operation. Having said that, their software is pretty good and works well (although it could be simplified for home use). They are also giving away 100GB cold storage for home users at the moment. I got a lifetime deal for 1TB storage for $30 which is good value. Overall, I would rate them as pretty good so far. Certainly good value for home users if you get a lifetime deal. You can also get free 7GB lifetime for their new intelligent storage via the website which makes file sharing easier. They seem better value than most Cloud providers and their software and mobile apps are quite elegant- automatically backing up specified folders . Restoring files worked well when i tried it.

    Reply
  31. I agree that they are probably a small company as they don’t bother answering emails. Its a problem as some level of customer service is important int he cloud storage world. The lifetime plans are good value (although if they are small they may not be around forever) but $30 for 1TB lifetime storage is a good price. Apart from vastly improving customer service, I would suggest that they try to simplify and clean up their desktop clients and web interface. The web interface does certain functions, the desktop client does others. Looks a bit gimmicky and is not that intuitive. Pcloud is simpler. I found the mobile client on iOS to be slightly buggy.

    Reply
  32. I have Zoolz Home. (my English is bad)
    Disappointed.
    Many restriction (need Crhome to Upload, no folder, no ftp, no webdav, no upload sharing, only COLD storage in app – 3-5h to restore, Instant Vault only in web, etc)

    And very slow real speed (not that shown)!!!
    Under 10Mbs (700Kbs) or under 1MB real speed transfer.

    No way. I regret my money.

    Reply
  33. Zools is terrible. I bought a lifetime subscription with them to find out that their android viewer app had not been updated since 2015. You might think you are getting a good service from them, I already don`t, but just wait until they turn on you like they di to the people bellow. Invest elsewhere.

    Reply
  34. Happened to see an ongoing promo for a lifetime storage plan with Zoolz, so I decided to read around to learn more about the service. A few reviews and articles specifically mention the fact that they store file metadata in a readily accessible format (as well as a couple of accounts being terminated because the filenames that they indexed had a “.torrent” extension), and that seems corroborated again here. I would think that would immediately negate any claims of “zero knowledge” if the company stores such info, has active processes that read it, and can take action (including termination of service) based on what they find digging through your files.

    Reply
    1. Thank you for this post. I was considering signing up, but if they’re going to play FBI and dig through my stuff, I can let google do that for free… Screw these guys.

      Reply
  35. I wish I had done some research before signing up with Zoolz.

    I loved the concept and bought a lifetime subscription. Now I know why they were selling it. Their solution to my problem – get a refund and buy our latest product. It is way more expensive, but we want your money!!

    Do not touch them.

    The product does not deliver; support is terrible at best – they blame my problems on windows scheduler. They have a very small staff and they can’t understand what one is saying, and they don’t read emails.

    I have wasted so much time and effort with them. I could write a book on my negative and extremely frustrations with them.

    Do not touch them!!

    Reply
  36. It is useless there is a dirty trick with the 1000 file download. With their app on mac you cannot touch the hot storage. Who will have only 1000 files to upload? It’s crap. I have a 1 TB hot vault I cannot use because of the 1000 file limit. They are routing you to the cold storage. Really!!? I’ve only payed like a few bucks on sale for a lifetime subscription just wonder if there are any suckers who payed like 900 USD full price for this shitty storage.

    Reply
  37. Zoolz is terrible. The backup is slow and cumbersome, and the billing and support office are infuriating and either dishonest or totally inept. Don’t give them your credit card number if you think you might ever want to cancel your account.

    Reply
  38. I have already bought lifetime Zoolz and I am enjoying it’s features. However, If Zoolz adds the feature of Virtual Drive for it’s “instant vault” just like pCloud, it will really become best and economical cloud service in the world. This feature of pCloud brings the ease of uploading, viewing (each type of files either by mobile, web or virtual drive) and downloading. I request Zoolz Intelligent’s team to upload such kind of Virtual Drive for their “Vault Storage”.
    P.S., Although I am a fan of the feature of Virtual Drive by pCloud yet their price is extra high for a 2Tb lifetime plan (Discount offers are not real like black Friday and XYZ Monday etc).

    Reply
  39. I purchased Zoolz 2TB Lifetime backup service in 2017. It’s worked well for a one-time fee. Yes, it was a bargain.

    But now, Zoolz has deprecated the service so that it’s so slow that even small files hang when backing up. I didn’t have a complete backup success for over 140 days! It’s become basically unusable … UNLESS … you pay for service.

    I did ask for an explanation and got this:

    “After checking the logs, we can confirm that the reason for the slowness and stucking issues you are having with Zoolz is that you are sharing the same upload channel with all the other Zoolz lifetime subscribers.

    Lifetime subscribers notice this issue persists more than with our monthly/annual subscribers. The reason for this is some lifetime users, who all share the same unlimited bandwidth channel, have been abusing this channel. This has led upload speeds to drop for compliant users.

    In order to combat this, we have introduced a maintenance plan for only $10 per year, which gives you your own dedicated upload channel meaning you will not be affected by other activity on the network, as well as many other benefits.”

    Seems like an intentional bait and switch to me. And if they would do that here, they will do that anywhere.

    Not as good as it seems.

    Reply
  40. They have two types of storage options. One is cold storage which automatically runs its backup. Its is a fantastic option. But the other option called “instant vault” is just useless. It can become a good option if they convert it into a sync-folder or virtual drive. For those who are deciding to buy zoolz, i’d not recommend it until instant vault is a manual feature of zoolz.

    Reply
  41. They are now charging a monthly fee for LIFETIME deals just to give the service you should get anyway, what a rip off

    Reply
  42. I have paid some time ago a fixed one-off amount for a lifetime subscription to those fraudsters and today I received the following email:

    Hello
    We Will be Increasing Our Prices as of 1st February
    As with all things in life – change is inevitable. Due to the high demand for premium services, we are no longer offering basic plans to any of our Zoolz account holders, and as such we will be slightly increasing our prices.
    Our commitment to you
    For our lifetime account holders we will be asking you to pay a very nominal fee of only $1.50 per month.
    What do you get with the premium plan?
    – GDPR, privacy and security compliance enhancements
    – Updates to Windows and Mac agents
    – Enhanced speeds for backup and restore
    – Remote assistance sessions
    – 24-hour email support
    What to learn more about these innovative new features and how they will affect you? Click here
    Users will be able to retrieve their data until the new pricing plan is activated on February 1st. Users can subscribe to the new plan at any point, or retrieve their data and store it elsewhere. We are still fighting aggressively to minimize costs for our users as much as possible, and as hard as it is to increase our pricing and as hard of a decision it was to take, we are focused on continuous innovation.
    Upgrade Now
    If you have any questions please email (their email address)
    Regards
    The Zoolz Team

    I have paid some time ago to the Zoolz fraudsters a fixed one-off amount for a lifetime subscription and today I received the following email:

    Hello
    We Will be Increasing Our Prices as of 1st February
    As with all things in life – change is inevitable. Due to the high demand for premium services, we are no longer offering basic plans to any of our Zoolz account holders, and as such we will be slightly increasing our prices.
    Our commitment to you
    For our lifetime account holders we will be asking you to pay a very nominal fee of only $1.50 per month.
    What do you get with the premium plan?
    – GDPR, privacy and security compliance enhancements
    – Updates to Windows and Mac agents
    – Enhanced speeds for backup and restore
    – Remote assistance sessions
    – 24-hour email support
    What to learn more about these innovative new features and how they will affect you? Click here
    Users will be able to retrieve their data until the new pricing plan is activated on February 1st. Users can subscribe to the new plan at any point, or retrieve their data and store it elsewhere. We are still fighting aggressively to minimize costs for our users as much as possible, and as hard as it is to increase our pricing and as hard of a decision it was to take, we are focused on continuous innovation.
    Upgrade Now
    If you have any questions please email (their email address)
    Regards
    The Zoolz Team

    I emailed them back that since this is an illegal practice, I demand to stay on my current plan for the lifetime subscription I paid them or get a refund.
    Otherwise, they will hear back from my lawyer.

    Reply
    1. Good luck with that! I agree, this is beyond the pale.

      Reply
  43. Now they want monthly fee for their “lifetime” plans.

    “We Will be Increasing Our Prices as of 1st February
    As with all things in life – change is inevitable. Due to the high demand for premium services, we are no longer offering basic plans to any of our Zoolz account holders, and as such we will be slightly increasing our prices.
    Our commitment to you
    For our lifetime account holders we will be asking you to pay a very nominal fee of only $1.50 per month.
    What do you get with the premium plan?
    – GDPR, privacy and security compliance enhancements
    – Updates to Windows and Mac agents
    – Enhanced speeds for backup and restore
    – Remote assistance sessions
    – 24-hour email support
    What to learn more about these innovative new features and how they will affect you? Click here
    Users will be able to retrieve their data until the new pricing plan is activated on February 1st. Users can subscribe to the new plan at any point, or retrieve their data and store it elsewhere. We are still fighting aggressively to minimize costs for our users as much as possible, and as hard as it is to increase our pricing and as hard of a decision it was to take, we are focused on continuous innovation. “

    Reply
    1. What? That’s ridiculous! Promising lifetime, then changing the rules of the game. Insane.

      Reply
  44. This company is a scam, they sold lifetime subscriptions only to forcing their customers to start paying a monthly fee or lose the service altogether. No honor a d shady business, they should get sued with a class action lawsuit.

    Reply
  45. ZERO STARS:
    Issues with Zoolz.com NOT honoring my Lifetime plan which will become obsolete Feb 2020.
    I paid for a LIFETIME plan for cloud services with Zoolz but now Zoolz is telling me that my lifetime plan is becoming obsolete as of 2/1/2020 and I need to upgrade to a premium plan at AN ADDITIONAL COST TO ME for services to continue. I paid for my Lifetime plan almost 3 years ago and thought that was the end of any additional fees. However, if I do not upgrade, this is what I was told “Please know that you have an old build which will become obsolete with the new windows update, so we can assure that your data is not at risk we do advise that you upgrade to the maintenance plan to make sure that all your data is safe.”
    In other words, pay up on the upgrade or lose your plan because it will be going away. I paid $29.99 for this LIFETIME plan in Febuary 2017 with the understanding it was a ONE TIME FEE. And LIFETIME needs no further clarification. There was nothing in any of the communications to me from Zoolz or in the advertising of this Lifetime plan that would indicate there would be additional fees down the road or that the lifetime plan would become obsolete if I did not upgrade at additional costs to me.

    Because they believe they are being generous and fair, they are offering the 1st year at a rate of $13.50 if I respond by 2/1/20. Otherwise, they will charge me $18 for that premium upgrade if it is after 2/1/20. Then each year after, there will be another annual fee, higher no doubt.

    I am going to report them to the BBB for not honoring our agreement and essentially as of 2-1-2020, I guess that will be the date my LIFETIME plan will become obsolete. This is unfair business practices with false advertising and offers as far as I am concerned, as well as not honoring the services offered to me in exchange for payment of that plan.

    Reply
    1. That’s our piece 🙂 The article was already updated to reflect this new information, based off of a reader’s suggestions.

      Reply
  46. Overall before 2020 I would’ve given Zoolz a four star rating as a Lifetime customer since it worked fine in my lite usage scenario. Now the most I can give them is one and a half stars. If I were a Lifetime customer with a heavier usage scenario I doubt I’d give them more than half a star. So I compromised on one star.

    Situation
    – 2016-09 purchased 500GB Lifetime Plan
    – 2018-12 upgraded with the purchase of 1.5TB Lifetime Plan
    – Fairly lite user of the cold storage ~ once/day
    – Use about 400GB of the 1.5TB of cold storage
    – Rarely if ever use the Instant Vault storage

    Experience
    – Until this year I rarely had an issue with Zoolz itself. Most “issues” could be traced to Internet or PC problems.
    – For my lite usage backup speeds were fine.

    What’s Changed – Zoolz has downgraded the service for Lifetime Plan customers.
    – According to Zoolz tech support “All lifetime users share the same backup bandwidth channel which may sometimes results in backup malfunctions and interruptions…”
    – This change explains the slowdowns and interrupts I’ve seen in archiving my files. While it’s annoying that archives take longer it’s not a large problem for my use case.
    – Unfortunately Zoolz appears to see no problem with Lifetime customers being unable to perform backups for days at a time. Even with my lite usage I’ve experienced two instances this Summer where the archive process was unable to even connect to the servers for approximately two days each time. Note these were not cases where the backup process constantly dropped the connection to the server and then reconnected. These were instances where the process could NEVER connect to the server. This problem is not that easy to just shrug off even in my lite use case.
    – Zoolz technical support apparently no longer answers follow-up questions from Lifetime customers. They still answer initial questions, but it appears their standard response will be your problems are caused by the shared bandwidth channel and you need to pay for a maintenance contract on the “Lifetime” plan you purchased.
    – A secondary problem is that Zoolz has not modified their backup software to indicate when problems a Lifetime user is experiencing are caused by this new limitation. Rather Zoolz just uses the standard message “Connection lost. Please check your internet connection.” This leaves the user unnecessarily pursuing useless troubleshooting steps when the problem is due to the shared bandwidth channel.

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  47. They have now announced again they screwing over the lifetime home users by deleting their service. It is a total disgrace when the company hasnt gone or the persons life. There should be a law against this miss selling.

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