| 5 | Compatibility |
| 5 | Recovery Rate |
| 5 | Usability |
| 5 | File Type Support |
| 5 | Speed |
| 200,000 Found files Good 100% Corrupted 0% Lost 0% | Found files and Recovery quality |
$75 $89 / Perpetual SAVE 15% TODAY | PRO Version |
| Read full Disk Drill review | Read full |
Compare We streamlined our evaluation parameters into several clear categories. | ||
| Compatibility | 3 | 5 |
| Recovery Rate | 3 | 3 |
| Usability | 3 | 4 |
| File Type Support | 3 | 3 |
| Speed | 4 | 4 |
| Found files and Recovery quality | 138,752 Found files Good 0% Corrupted 69% Lost 31% | 200,000 Found files Good 63% Corrupted 37% Lost 0% |
| PRO Version | Freeware | $59.99 / 1 month Subscription + Lifetime |
| Read full Recuva review | Read full Wondershare Recoverit review |
Introduction
Are you looking for the best data recovery software for Windows and can’t decide between Recuva and Wondershare Recoverit? Then you’re not alone! While the two applications have a lot in common, there are several significant differences you need to consider to determine which one can meet your needs better and recover your lost files. Let’s take a closer look at them, shall we?
Recuva is often recommended as the best free data recovery solution for Windows simply because you can download it without paying a single dollar and use it to recover an unlimited amount of data. Sure, PhotoRec, for example, can do the same, but it doesn't have a convenient graphical user interface like Recuva.
The Windows version of Windershare Recoverit isn't completely unlimited (it can recover only up to 100 MB of data for free), but it offers a modern user interface and useful video repair capabilities to justify its price. It also promises better data recovery performance than Recuva.
Top Recuva Pros
Top Recoverit Pros
Pricing • Business model
| 1 | Distributed as | Freeware | Freemium |
| 2 | Trial version available | pros | pros |
| 3 | Trial version limitations | Freeware. No limits | Recover up to 100 MB for free |
| 4 | Number of devices per license |
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| 5 | Starting price | Free | $59.99/ 1 month |
| 6 | License model | Subscription + Lifetime | Subscription + Lifetime |
| 7 | No credit card to try | pros | pros |
| 8 | Money back guarantee | cons | pros |
| 9 | See Plans & Pricing | Pricing details | Pricing details |
When it comes to pricing, Recuva is without a doubt a more attractive solution than Recoverit because the free version can recover an unlimited amount of data. The only extra features you can unlock by purchasing a Pro license are virtual hard drive support, automatic updates, and priority support. Personally, we don’t find any of these features worth the cost, especially considering that you don’t get a money-back guarantee.
Wondershare Recoverit is a freemium software application with several paid subscription options and lifetime licenses that unlock unlimited recovery and additional features, such as the ability to repair damaged video files.
The least expensive Recoverit subscription plan, called Essential, costs $59.99 a month, but it’s so limited that it’s difficult to recommend it. The most expensive plan, called Premium, on the other hand, costs just $20 more, and it comes with all the features described in this article, making it a much better deal.
Data Recovery Performance
So far, we’ve established that Recuva can restore an unlimited amount of data for free, whereas the free version of Recoverit is limited to 100 MB. Of course, unlimited free data recovery capabilities are useful only if the software that offers them can actually find and recover lost data. That’s what we’re here to find out.
Clever In-Depth Scan of File Systems
| 1 | FAT32 partitions | Partial support | Partial support |
| 2 | exFAT partitions | Not supported | Partial support |
| 3 | NTFS partitions | Not supported | Partial support |
| 4 | EXT4 partitions | Not supported | Not supported |
| 5 | HFS+ partitions | Not supported | Not supported |
| 6 | APFS partitions | Not supported | Not supported |
As a user, you should always choose data recovery software that can retrieve a lost file table and analyze its entries to recover not just lost files but also their metadata, specifically their original names and paths. Unfortunately, neither Recuva nor Recoverit excels in this regard, but the latter application is clearly better.
Recuva delivers at least some results only when scanning FAT32 partitions, but you can expect all root data to be missing and the folder structure to be damaged. Recoverit also doesn’t preserve the original folder structure, but at least it partially supports exFAT and NTFS partitions.
Quick Scan of File Systems
| 1 | FAT32 partitions | Partial support | Poor performance |
| 2 | exFAT partitions | Partial support | Poor performance |
| 3 | NTFS partitions | Partial support | Full support |
| 4 | EXT4 partitions | Not supported | Not supported |
| 5 | HFS+ partitions | Not supported | Not supported |
| 6 | APFS partitions | Not supported | Not supported |
As expected, Recoverit is able to deliver better results when it’s used to recover permanently deleted files from the existing file table. What is surprising, however, is that Quick Scan mode in Recoverit works well only when used to scan NTFS partitions. All other partition types are not supported or the results are extremely poor.
Other Scan Types
| 1 | The number of file types supported by signature scan | Few (≈100) | Many (≈1000) |
| 2 | BitLocker support | Partial support | Partial support |
| 3 | Windows shadow copies scanning | Full support | Not supported |
| 4 | Scan for lost partitions | Not supported | Partial support |
| 5 | Recovered files' labeling | Partial support | Not supported |
| 6 | Partial file recovery | Full support | Full support |
| 7 | Disk images: scan and recovery | Full support | Not supported |
It has been a long time since Recuva has received the last major update, and the low number of supported file formats is a clear reflection of this. Because Recoverit can recognize 10x as many file formats, it’s far more likely to find your missing files, especially if they have less common file extensions.
With Recoverit, you can scan for lost partitions, but only Recuva can scan Windows shadow copies and disk images, so you really need to decide what your priorities are.
Real-Life Recovery Challenge
| 1 | Raw photo recovery | 24% | 65% |
| 2 | Video formats recovery | 23% | 57% |
| 3 | Document formats recovery | 57% | 58% |
Our real-life recovery challenges are designed to reveal how data recovery software applications perform in the real-world, and they include collections of sample photos, videos, and documents.
Here, Recuva failed as a photo and video recovery solution because it doesn’t support many newer file formats, such as cr3 (Canon raw version 3), jp2 (bitmap image format JPEG 2000), or mov (advanced video coding H.264), just to give three examples.
Recoverit certainly isn’t perfect (it also doesn’t support jp2, for example), but its overall performance is much better when used to recover lost images and videos. It lags behind Recuva only when recovering documents created by Apple’s office suite and various open-source alternatives to Microsoft Office. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents can be recovered just fine.
It’s also worth noting that Recoverit is a speedy data recovery software application that won’t keep you waiting for data recovery results to be available.
Feature Comparison
Wondershare Recoverit performs better than Recuva, but does it also offer more features, better user experience, and customer support? Those are just some questions we answer in the following feature comparison.
Karma
53% | 84% | ||
| 1 | Update frequency | base-cons | base-pros |
| 2 | Updated recently | base-pros | base-pros |
| 3 | Changelog available | base-pros | base-pros |
| 4 | Latest Windows release supported | base-warn | base-pros |
| 5 | Genuine or clone? | base-pros | base-pros |
| 6 | Brand name popularity | base-pros | base-warn |
| 7 | Online market share | base-warn | base-cons |
| 8 | Maturity | base-pros | base-pros |
| 9 | Extensive knowledge base | base-pros | base-pros |
| 10 | Helpdesk support | base-cons | base-pros |
| 11 | Live chat | base-cons | base-pros |
| 12 | Phone support | base-cons | base-pros |
Recuva and Recoverit both are trusted data recovery applications that have been reviewed countless times. That said, many Recuva reviews are old and don’t fully take into account how much has the entire data recovery software market evolved since the application was first released in 2007. Such reviews often come from the Windows XP or Windows 7 era, which is when Recuva’s popularity and development peaked.
The popularity of Recoverit has arguably yet to reach its peak, and the developers of the data recovery application are doing a lot to attract new users and keep existing ones happy. Updates are released frequently, customer support is provided via helpdesk, live chat, and phone, and there’s also an extensive knowledge base with plenty of how-to articles.
Usability
61% | 74% | ||
| 1 | Modern user-friendly interface | base-cons | base-pros |
| 2 | Dark mode | base-cons | base-cons |
| 3 | Easy-to-locate features | base-pros | base-pros |
| 4 | Automatic implementation of multiple appropriate scanning methods without user interaction | base-cons | base-pros |
| 5 | Auto-resuming scans of failing drives | base-cons | base-cons |
| 6 | Auto-resuming backups of failing drives | base-cons | base-cons |
| 7 | Convenient source selection on start | base-warn | base-pros |
| 8 | Convenient file-by-file preview of recoverable items | base-pros | base-pros |
| 9 | Convenient thumbnail preview of recoverable items | base-warn | base-pros |
| 10 | Mount recoverable items as disk | base-cons | base-cons |
| 11 | Built-in updater | base-pros | base-pros |
| 12 | Multiple view modes in scan results | base-warn | base-warn |
| 13 | Hex view for recoverable items | base-warn | base-cons |
| 14 | Filter recoverable items by type | base-pros | base-pros |
| 15 | Search recoverable items by file names | base-pros | base-pros |
| 16 | Sort results | base-pros | base-pros |
| 17 | Multilingual UI | base-pros | base-pros |
| 18 | Simple deployment | base-pros | base-pros |
When Recuva was released in 2007, it felt very modern. Over the years, the user interface design of Windows applications has evolved a lot, and user expectations have evolved with them. At the time of writing this comparison, Recuva no longer feels modern, especially not when compared with Recoverit, whose user interface is beautifully designed.
But just because Recoverit looks beautiful doesn’t mean that the UI is perfect because it isn’t. For example, Dark Mode isn’t supported, and you can’t sort scan results properly. Unfortunately, Recuva isn’t any better in this regard. For a good example of a modern and highly functional user interface, take a look at Disk Drill for Windows.
Device support
41% | 65% | ||
| 1 | Internal and external HDD | base-pros | base-pros |
| 2 | Internal and external SSD | base-pros | base-pros |
| 3 | USB thumb drives / Classic iPods (non-iOS) / FireWire devices | base-pros | base-pros |
| 4 | Memory cards | base-pros | base-pros |
| 5 | iOS devices | base-cons | base-cons |
| 6 | Android devices | base-cons | base-cons |
| 7 | Recovery from RAID arrays | base-cons | base-cons |
| 8 | Unmountable partitions | base-cons | base-pros |
| 9 | NAS (Network-attached storage) RAID devices | base-cons | base-warn |
| 10 | Remote SSH (secure shell protocol) Linux based devices recovery | base-cons | base-warn |
Recuva and Wondershare Recoverit can scan internal and external storage devices like hard-disk drives (HDDs), solid-state disks (SSDs), USB flash drives, memory cards, and so on.
The two data recovery software applications don’t support mobile devices, and they also can’t recover data from RAID arrays. Recoverit wins by a slight margin only because it supports unmountable partitions.
Other notable recovery features
29% | 37% | ||
| 1 | Overall non-intrusive read-only algorithms | base-cons | base-cons |
| 2 | Network recovery | base-cons | base-warn |
| 3 | Effectively filters out corrupted scan results | base-warn | base-cons |
| 4 | Byte-to-byte device backups | base-pros | base-warn |
| 5 | Bootable recovery drive creation | base-cons | base-pros |
| 6 | Convenient scan session management | base-cons | base-cons |
| 7 | Bad sector management | base-cons | base-cons |
| 8 | Recovery chance prediction | base-warn | base-cons |
| 9 | RAID reconstructor | base-cons | base-cons |
| 10 | Disk vitals monitoring and tracking during scan | base-cons | base-warn |
| 11 | Data protection | base-cons | base-cons |
| 12 | Links to in-lab recovery service for physically damaged devices | base-cons | base-cons |
| 13 | Scan speed | base-warn | base-warn |
| 14 | Scan free space only | base-cons | base-pros |
| 15 | Start file recovery without interrupting the scan | base-cons | base-pros |
| 16 | Preview recoverable items without interrupting the scan | base-cons | base-pros |
| 17 | Forensic features | base-cons | base-cons |
The presence of additional recovery features can improve data recovery outcomes and make the overall user experience more pleasant. Because Recuva and Recoverit both focus on the basics, they support only a small handful of them.
Recuva can create byte-to-byte device backups and, at least somewhat, filter out corrupted scan results and predict recovery chances. Wondershare Recoverit can create bootable recovery drives, scan only free storage space, start file recovery without interrupting the scan, and preview recoverable files while scanning.
Extras
20% | 13% | ||
| 1 | Disk space mapping | base-cons | base-cons |
| 2 | Disk clean up | base-cons | base-cons |
| 3 | Corrupted video repair tool | base-cons | base-pros |
| 4 | Corrupted photo repair tool | base-cons | base-cons |
| 5 | S.M.A.R.T. | base-cons | base-cons |
| 6 | Duplicate finder | base-cons | base-cons |
| 7 | Built-in disk space secure eraser | base-cons | base-cons |
| 8 | Disk cloning | base-cons | base-cons |
| 9 | Disk surface test | base-cons | base-cons |
| 10 | Secure data shredding | base-pros | base-cons |
The most expensive edition of Recoverit features Wondershare’s video repair algorithms, which can make even badly damaged video files playable. Recuva can securely delete sensitive files to make them impossible to recover.
As you can see, neither of the two applications is loaded with extra features, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. After all, Recuva is completely free, and Recoverit is part of Wondershare’s large library of software applications and is often included in discounted bundles with them.
Wrapping Up
If you need to recover only a handful of small files, then we recommend you start with Wondershare Recoverit because it has a more modern user interface, scans faster, and recognizes far more file formats. The free version can restore up to 100 MB of data, and that’s plenty for dozens of documents, images, and maybe a short video. Should Recoverit fail to deliver the results you’re looking for, then give Recuva a try—it’s completely free, so it won’t cost you anything.
A well-rounded freemium data recovery application with useful video repair capabilities.
Visit developer's websiteWhy choose Recoverit
Read full Wondershare Recoverit for Windows reviewWhy choose Recuva
Read full Recuva reviewMore software comparisons
Recuva and Wondershare Recoverit are not the only two data recovery software applications that are worth considering. Here are more of our detailed comparisons for you to take a look at:
David Morelo is a professional content writer with a specialization in data recovery. He spends his days helping users from around the world recover from data loss and address the numerous issues associated with it.
When not writing about data recovery techniques and solutions, he enjoys tinkering with new technology, working on personal projects, exploring the world on his bike, and, above all else, spending time with his family.
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- Houston, Texas, United States
Nikolay Lankevich has over 15 years of strong experience in various fields and platform includes Disaster Recovery, Windows XP/7. System analysis, design, application (Inter/Intranet) development, and testing. Provided technical supports on desktop and laptops on Win-XP and Macintosh for about 2000 employees.