Here are the best data recovery software.
Was your hard-disk corrupted? Hit by a virus maybe? Or, maybe you deleted a file by accident?
Lost the photos on your Android or iOS device? Well yes, I’ve included mobile data recovery software in this list as well.
Regardless of how you lost your data, or which device your data was on, you’ll get it back by the end of this piece.
Almost all the data recovery tools mentioned below support not just computers and phones, but also SD cards, cameras, USB-sticks and other storage devices.
The best news is, all of these offer free plans. So yes, no mandatory payments required.
Let’s get your data back then.
7 Best Data Recovery Software
| Name | Website | Supported OS | Free version | Paid plans | Refund-period | File previews | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recoverit | https://recoverit.wondershare.com/ | Windows, Mac | Yes, 100 MB | $59.00/Year | 7 Days | Yes | 5/5 |
| Steller data recovery | https://www.stellarinfo.com | Winodws, Mac, Linux | Yes, 1GB | $33.00 | 30 days | Yes | 4/5 |
| WiseCleaner | https://www.wisecleaner.com | Windows | Yes, unlimited | $44.96/month | 60 days | Yes | 4/5 |
| EaseUS | https://www.easeus.com | Windows, Mac | Yes, 2GB | $69.95/Month | 30 days | Yes | 4.5/5 |
| Ontrack | https://www.ontrack.com/ | Windows, Mac | Yes, 1GB | $79.00/year | 30 days | Yes | 3.5/5 |
| Disk Drill | https://www.cleverfiles.com/ | Windows, Mac | 500 MB | $89.00 | None | Yes | 3/5 |
Note that this list is as unbiased, transparent and honest as possible.
I’ve not been compensated by any of the brands in any way for the mentions.
These are just the best tools for the job based on my own experience, and reviews & feedback from other colleagues, friend/family and other users.
Website: https://recoverit.wondershare.com/
Recoverit is at the #1 spot on this list for good reason(s).
The primary being my personal experience with it a couple months ago.
Additionally, it’s so confident of its capabilities that you can get a 100% free version right now and recover up to 100 MB data.
Now, it’s the only data recovery software for Windows and Mac with patented, advanced video-recovery tech for corrupted videos.
It can scan your disk for video fragments, find them, match them, and re-create your original video.
The Deep Scan technology uses RAW scanning to find even the deepest sectors of your disks/drives.
If you’re searching for a video recovery software, this technically is the one of the best solutions.
Except videos, over 1,000 other file-formats can be recovered. This screenshot will show some of the supported files:
It supports DSLR, Dashcams, SD Cards, HDD, Drones, and basically any other storage media.
The recovery speed is truly one of the best in the industry.
You can recover individual files from the results, no need to recover everything that it finds.
It can even recover data from crashed PCs by letting you create a bootable media which lets you access the system.
Files can be previewed before being recovered.
It can recover accidentally deleted data, permanently deleted data, data-loss due to drive formatting/corruption and basically from any other data-loss scenario.
The free trial makes sure you don’t lose any money without “proof of work”. However, it’s limited to 100 MB free data recovery.
Three pricing plans exist; the Essential plan costs $59.95; the Standard costs 69.95 and the Advanced plan is priced at $79.95.
There also is a 7-day moneyback guarantee. So, you only pay if it works for you!
Compatible with: 
Website: https://www.stellarinfo.com
Steller is one of the more technical software for data recovery.
Note that I’ve linked to the free data recovery software version of the tool.
A paid version too is available for recovering larger files.
As is expected, you can recover photos, videos, documents, and any other file using Steller.
Likewise, the data-loss scenario doesn’t matter either. Formatting, accidental (or deliberate) deletion, data corruption, almost anything can be the reason of you losing data, right?
As for the supported devices, you can recover data from hard disks, SD cards, USB sticks and most other storage devices; even virtual machines.
It also has a repair and recover module like the other two options on this best data recovery software list.
Corrupted photos as well as videos can be repaired and recovered.
It also offers a disk-cloning feature.
There’s this “Drive Monitor” which monitors your drives and lets you know of the temperature, health and performance of your drives.
Bootable media can be created for recovering data from PCs which won’t start up.
There’s a 100% free version which allows recovering data up to 1GB.
The paid plan starts at $33.30. And yes, it’s backed by a 30-day refund policy.
Compatible with: 
Website: https://www.wisecleaner.com/wise-data-recovery.html
WiseCleaner totally has all the qualities we seek in any best data recovery software.
It supports over 1, 000+ file-types. This include hundreds of document, videos, photos and other extensions.
It can recover data from all the commonly (and uncommonly) used storage devices, including cameras, HDDs, USB sticks etc.
WiseCleaner also offers a portable version (what’s that?)
Well, the portable version doesn’t need to be “installed”. There’s a .exe file. You simply click on it, and WiseCleaner is launched.
This saves space and resources on your system. This also makes the program extremely lightweight.
It’s best for you if your system is extremely old, or of lower specs.
It does support deep and RAW scans, however, these are only offered with the paid versions.
If you need a free data recovery software, WiseCleaner offers a free forever recovery plan.
The paid plans start at a monthly price of $44.95/month, while the yearly plan costs $67.46/year.
The refund-period depends on your billing-cycle. It’s 7 days on the monthly plan and 60 days on the yearly.
Compatible with:
EaseUS Data Recovery
Website: https://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizardpro/
EaseUS is already considered by many to be one of the best data recovery software.
Its most impressive aspect is its remote-assistance feature.
They basically have a team which helps you recover your lost data remotely!
It’s capable of recovering data in almost any scenario.
Even if you deleted a file manually, formatted your storage, the drive/disk crashed, or a virus corrupted your files, it can be recovered.
It has two scan modes, quick scan and advanced scan.
The advanced scan sure takes longer, but has higher chances of recovering your files.
Files can be previewed before recovering as well.
Its ability to repair/recover damaged photos and videos is another feather in its cap.
Currently, this feature is limited to JPG/JPEG format for photos and MP4 and MOV for videos.
It too can recover files in almost any format. It essentially is a photo recovery software, document recovery software and everything in between.
Some of the supported file-types are:
Partial recovery too is possible, just select what you wish to recover, ignore the rest.
And finally, crashed systems can be accessed and files recovered by creating a bootable media.
There’s a free trial which allows up to 2GB free recovery .
*Note that “Free” and “Trial” are two different versions that it offers. The trial version only allows previewing not actual recovery.
Also, you only get 500 MB with the free version initially. Sharing the tool on social media unlocks the extra 1.5GB.
Two packages exist, both of which offer the exact same features. The pricing difference is due to the billing-cycle. The monthly plan costs $69.95 while the Annual plan costs $99.95
The money-back guarantee covers you for 30 days.
Compatible with:
Ontrack
Website: https://www.ontrack.com/en-us/data-recovery/software
In my personal opinion, Ontrack offers all of what’s expected from any of the best data recovery software.
It can be used to recover data from hard disks, virtual systems, as well as from CD/DVDs and other storage media.
Both the standard scan modes, “quick” and “deep” are supported.
It’s capable of repairing not just photos and videos, but also corrupt/damaged partitions and volumes.
The pause/resume feature for the scan allows easy scanning of larger volumes.
Obviously, partial data recovery is possible as well.
It also allows monitoring the health of your drives, and creating disk images (cloning).
Its advanced versions are also capable of recovering data from RAID 0, 5 and 6 volumes.
As is the industry standard, there’s a free version which allows recovering data up to 1 GB.
The starting sure may hurt some, it starts at $79.00. However, the 30-day moneyback guarantee does offer some assurance.
Compatible with:
Disk Drill
Website: https://www.cleverfiles.com/disk-drill-windows.html
Disk Drill markets itself as a freeware.
So yes, if you need the best free data recovery tool, this may be a potential answer.
Disk Drill isn’t limited to a few situations. It can recover data regardless of how you lost it, this includes virus infections and deletion from recycle bin.
The device-support too is impressive, everything including HDDs, SDDS, USB sticks, cameras etc. is supported.
More importantly, it also acts as an iPhone data recovery software and an overall mobile data recovery software in general.
It supports a number of mobile devices, such as Samsung, Lenovo, Google Pixel, LG etc. for data recovery. (This is limited to its Mac version for now.)
I haven’t counted them all, but, the file-type list easily contains over 300 file-types it can recover.
Unformatted RAW disks as well as RAID volumes can be scanned as well.
Disk images too can be created. Scan sessions can be paused mid-session and resumed later.
Obviously, files can be previewed during and after scans.
There also is a SMART monitor which helps prevent potential data-loss.
The free version is a bit strict and only allows 500MB recovery.
Two paid plans exist, these are the Pro plan which costs $89.00 and the Enterprise plan which is priced at $499.00
Unfortunately, there’s no moneyback guarantee either.
Compatible with:
Recuva
Website: https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva/
Recuva is a product from the popular file cleaning software on Android – CCleaner.
Although, it’s rather limited when it comes to features and capabilities.
However, it’s the perfect tool if you need an extremely simple interface.
For starters, it too, alike WiseCleaner supports portable versions.
Deep scan too is available. Another exclusive feature it offers is “deletion”.
Using Recuva, you can delete your files forever. So that, no matter which best data recovery software someone uses, the file can never be recovered.
Its data-recovery scenarios are limitless; these include recovery from formatted disks, damaged or corrupted drives, and obviously; accidental deletions.
File previews and selective-recovery are some other possibilities. The speed however isn’t as impressive as Recoverit or some other paid solutions.
The free version is free forever, and allows recovering unlimited amounts of data. The paid plan costs $19.95 and includes some additional tools which aren’t included in the free plan.
There’s a 30-day refund policy on the paid plan.
Compatible with:
Recover My Files
Website: http://www.recovermyfiles.com/
Recover My Files is on this list because of its recommended by the U.S Department of Homeland Security! Well, yes. That may sound like a privacy-breach but that’s a personal opinion. The company has no official links to the DHS though. It was just used and liked by the department.
It’s capable of recovering files which are permanently deleted from recycle bin, files lost due to hard-disk crashes, partitioning error, formatting by accident etc.
As far as device-support goes, it can recover files from USB drives, cameras, and even tech as old as a “floppy disk”. We must admit, the interface too isn’t very modern and it looks like a 90s app.
Live preview of the files to-be-recovered too is displayed. All the popular file systems including NTFS, HFS, NTSF5, FAT 12/16/32 etc. are supported. There’s a free version, paid plans start at $69.95, it’s a one-time payment.
Final Words:
In my opinion and experience, Recoverit is the best data recovery software.
Although, EaseUS is an equally reputed and established data recovery software.
Steller as mentioned earlier is better for more hardcore recoveries.
Recuva on the other hand is the simplest of these tools, best for the non-techies.
And, that should be all for this list of the best data recovery software folks.
