If you’ve ever suffered from a corrupted hard drive, failed external storage device, or even just accidentally deleted important files, you will know how useful data recovery software is. When used correctly, it can help you retrieve lost or deleted information from nearly any device without advanced tech skills or understanding.
In this article, we’ve compared EaseUS vs Ontrack EasyRecovery vs Stellar, three of the most popular data recovery programs available. In order to bring you a clear conclusion about the best overall file retrieval program, we’ve analyzed their features, performance, plans and pricing, and support.
Features
Stellar, EaseUS, and Ontrack EasyRecovery all offer an impressive range of advanced data recovery features. All three are available on Windows and Mac operating systems and are compatible with a wide range of internal and external storage devices, including optical media such as CDs and DVDs.
For starters, EaseUS supports corrupted file and formatted disk recovery. Files can be restored during a scan, and the built-in file preview window allows you to view before you restore. On top of this, the Mac version supports iTunes backup recovery, smart disk monitoring, and Time Machine backup recovery.
Stellar is equally, if not more, powerful, with its support for all known file formats, alongside tools for adding custom formats. It supports data recovery from almost any storage medium and works with RAID storage, encrypted information, and virtual drives. Corrupted file recovery tools are also included.
Like Stellar and EaseUS, Ontrack EasyRecovery supports data recovery from almost any device in almost any situation. Its deep scan features are extremely powerful, and it comes with tools to help you rebuild and restore damaged, deleted, or corrupt drives as required.
Overall, it’s extremely difficult to differentiate between these three powerful programs in terms of their features. However, we’ve given the points to Stellar because of its wide file and storage medium support combined with its impressive file repair tools.
Performance
EaseUS, Stellar, and Ontrack EasyRecovery were tested on a mid-range Windows computer with 8GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive, and we were impressed with all three programs. They all offer quick and deep scan tools and were very effective in retrieving the files we intentionally deleted for test purposes.
For starters, Stellar’s quick scan took just under four minutes and found everything we expected it to (along with almost 500,000 other objects), However, the deep scan took over 12 hours, so don’t expect instant results if you need to find more challenging files. Unfortunately, both scans used around 200MB of RAM and over 75% CPU power, which means it was difficult to run it alongside other programs.
EaseUS was even more impressive. The quick scan took under a minute and retrieved 70,000 objects. On top of this, the deep scan only took just over 2.5 hours, and it delivered almost 550,000 lost objects. And, neither scan used more than 30% CPU or 250MB of RAM.
Like Stellar, Ontrack Easy Recovery performed well, but was a little slow and consumed a lot of computer resources. A quick scan retrieved just over 450,000 objects in just over four minutes, and the deep scan found only slightly more in just under ten hours. Unfortunately, it used over 75% CPU and 450MB of RAM, which would make it hard to run in the background.
All three programs perform very well, but EaseUS stands out as exceptional with its great speed and low computer resource consumption.
Support
It’s important to have access to high-quality customer support in case you run into problems. Ontrack EasyRecovery has phone support, a basic chatbot, and a range of self-help resources. EaseUS is backed by live chat (9am to 5:30pm, UTC+8), phone, and email ticket options, along with a suite of video tutorials, impressive online documentation, and a great knowledge base.
However, Stellar’s customer support stands out above the others, with worldwide English-language phone help, 24/7 live chat staffed by knowledgeable agents, and an online ticketing system. It also comes with a basic FAQ section and comprehensive visual and written documentation.
