Memopal Online Backup Review: Is It Safe to Use in 2024?

Secure, Automatic Cloud Backup for All Your Devices

Memopal claims to be the only online backup service you need. It developed its own cloud platform, so it can keep its pricing competitive while providing all the features you could ever want. Sounds good, right? Well, I gave it a try to see if its services could support the claim.

One thing I liked was that Memopal’s cloud backup service includes a Sync folder. From this folder, you can easily access up-to-date versions of your files on any device and share your files with anyone.

And when I say you can access your files from any device, I mean it. Memopal works with Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, and Blackberry operating systems, and you can access backed-up files from your computer, tablet, and smartphone. It also has cross-platform functionality, so it doesn’t matter what OS you use.

The service doesn’t have a true “storage” feature, meaning it doesn’t give you added storage space in addition to your cloud backup data limit. However, its cloud backup acts like storage because it will retain every version of your files, and if you delete something from your computer, it will still be available on Memopal.

You can get a free 3GB plan, but to get more backup space you’ll have to upgrade to one of Memopal’s annual plans (Pro, Business, or White label), which are capped at 5TB.

Overall, Memopal has its advantages: it’s an easy-to-use cloud backup service that lets you connect an unlimited number of devices. But it also has its drawbacks. I’m going to take a closer look at performance, security, and features so you can determine if Memopal is the right choice for you.

Memopal Sticks to the Basics When It Comes to Features

Memopal’s feature list isn’t extensive, but some of these features are convenient to have. You can have backup status reports emailed to you, create a “favorites” list of files you access often, and manage folders within your account to organize your backups.

Let’s take a look at some of the most important features to help you decide if Memopal is right for you.

Automatic Backups for Unlimited Devices

You can use the same Memopal account to back up as many computers as you want, which is a great feature for businesses and large households. You can also back up external hard drives, as well as photos from an unlimited number of tablets and phones.

Memopal can back up any file from your computer, with no file-type restrictions, but it won’t be able to take a true mirror image of your computer. It also has data caps on its free and business plans, and a maximum file-size limit of 10GB on uploads.

If you make a change to a file on your device, Memopal will create a new version of the file, which will live forever on your backup unless you manually delete it.

By default, backups run automatically when you turn on your computer, but you can schedule daily or weekly backups if you prefer.

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Two Apps for Restoring Data

If anything ever happens to your data, you can restore individual folders and files from both the web app and desktop app. And if you accidentally modify a file, you can restore it from a previous version saved to your backup.

The web app has its limitations, though. You can only restore your entire backup from the desktop app. Restored files default to the Downloads folder on your computer, although this can be changed through your desktop app settings.

Memopal does not offer a courier recovery service or any other offline restore option.

Standard Security That Could Be Better

Memopal uses 256-bit AES encryption and server-side SSL to protect your files during transfer. It claims that this level of security is so strong that “it would take over 100 years of continuous attempts to translate a single file intercepted during transfer.”

But what Memopal doesn’t offer is private encryption. This means that all encryption and data protection only come from Memopal’s Italy-based servers. These data centers use RAID-5 technology to distribute your data in chunks across multiple servers.

Memopal also doesn’t offer two-factor authentication. If you don’t want to take any risks when it comes to security, IDrive or SpiderOak are cloud backup services that automatically provide these options.

To protect against manmade or natural disasters, Memopal’s Global File System (MGFS) creates redundant copies of files that are stored in several locations. This system also makes it impossible to determine the name of the original file or who owns the data.

Beginner-Friendly Cloud Backup

With automatic backups and simple app interfaces for personal plans, you don’t need any technical experience to use Memopal. Likewise, its Business and White label plans offer a broader but user-friendly admin panel to manage your company’s accounts.

Access Your Files from Any Computer

When you add a new computer to your account, Memopal automatically creates a Sync folder on the Desktop. Sync lets you access the same version of a file from more than one computer. Simply drag and drop files into the folder and they will be available on all your synced computers.

You can edit any file in the Sync folder from any connected device. When you save your file, Memopal Sync will automatically update your document to the latest version on every synced computer.

Multiple Ways to Share Files

If you use the Memopal web app, you can share links to your files or folders via email, Facebook, or Twitter.

You can also share links to files or folders on your computer by dragging and dropping them to the desktop client or by clicking on the Send File button and manually selecting the files or folders.

You can still share files if they’re not currently backed up. Memopal will automatically upload your selected files to its server before activating the link.

The mobile app lets you share any uploaded file in multiple ways: via text, direct drop, email, or even through social media.

Easily Organize and Share Photos

One of my favorite features is Memopal’s Photo Album. Memopal will automatically search for image files across all your folders and use the date in their metadata to organize them by year.

This makes finding your photos much easier than with most cloud backups, and you can easily share links to your images directly from the album.

Setting Up an Account

Setting up an account with Memopal is quick and painless. First, you need to install Memopal’s desktop app. Activating a free 3GB account requires just your email and a password. For its paid Pro, Business, and White label plans, you’ll need to provide your name, phone number, and address, as well as a method of payment.

Once you’re signed up, you can adjust your advanced settings, which include changing your backup schedule, backup speed, and maximum file size for uploads. If you have large files, make sure you increase the maximum file size so they will be backed up. 500MB max is the default, but you can increase the size up to 10GB.

You have two options when it comes to backing up your data. Memopal’s My Documents folder will automatically back up your computer’s Desktop, Documents, and media folders, while the Custom option lets you select any folder from your computer. You can’t back up individual files.

Memopal’s desktop app lets you backup your entire computer (if space allows), but on your tablet or mobile device, you can only back up your photos.

Average-to-Slow Speeds on Top of Technical Issues

To test Memopal’s performance, I created a 3GB folder of documents, photos, videos, and music and ran a series of backup and restore tests.

Backup Tests

According to Memopal, backup times depend on how much data you’re uploading and the speed of your internet connection. The backup speed is set to “automatic,” but you can manually throttle your bandwidth by adjusting this advanced setting. For this test, I left it on the default automatic setting.

Before running my backup tests, I checked my connection speed over Wi-Fi. My online speed test used a data center more than 200 miles from my location.

I ran my first backup at 1:00 PM on a Monday and it took 1 hour and 50 minutes. I’ve tested several cloud backup services, and for a 3GB folder, this backup was a bit longer than most.

I ran a connection speed test during the backup and both my upload and download speeds were about 12% slower than my pre-test speeds. So with speed settings on automatic, it appeared Memopal was slightly throttling my bandwidth.

I ran my second backup test on a Thursday morning at 8:30. This time, my before-and-after speed tests used a London-based server (20 miles from me) and upload speeds were almost identical, though download speeds were cut in half – suggesting there was still some bandwidth throttling going on. My Thursday backup took 2 hours and 4 minutes.

I ran my third backup test at 1:00 PM on a Sunday afternoon to see if backups on the weekend would be quicker. They weren’t. Strangely, it took nearly 5 hours for my Sunday backup to finish.

But connection speeds weren’t the issue here – the issue was the backup freezing. Frustrated, I contacted customer support about this problem. (See what happened in the Support section.)

During backups, Memopal gives you a detailed status report that includes how much data is left to transfer and estimated completion time. But what’s unique about the status report is that it tells you which files have upload errors, and Memopal fixes those errors before completing the backup.

You can access your files from the web console as soon as they’re backed up, but there are limitations. You can view images, but you can’t view videos. You can read PDFs, but you can’t read Word documents. And you can play music, but only on certain web browsers – for instance, I could play music on Chrome but not Safari.

However, you can access and edit files in your Memopal Sync folder immediately.

Another technical glitch I encountered was that Memopal put my files under two separate device names: my laptop named Josh’s MacBook Pro, which held just 7.3MB of files, and the newly created Joshâs MacBook Pro, which held the rest of my files. I reached out to customer support to see why this happened. See the Support section for their response.

Restore Tests

To test Memopal’s restoration capabilities, I ran two tests: one at 8:30 AM on a Wednesday and the other on Friday at 1:00 PM.

My Wednesday morning restore took 54 minutes. I didn’t notice any performance issues, and my internet speeds were nearly in line with my normal speeds.

I didn’t have any internet speed issues on Friday morning either, but it took much longer, clocking in at nearly two hours. Part of the reason was that more than 100 photo files in one particular folder had errors during restoration, and Memopal took some extra time to fix the errors before restoring the files to my computer.

Memopal’s Privacy Policy Is Not Quite Clear

According to its Terms of Use, Memopal is an Italian company governed by Italian privacy regulations “to the extent your local law allows.” However, its parent company, Defenx, is based in Switzerland and abides by Swiss privacy laws, which are some of the strictest in the world.

When I inquired about the policy that applies to individuals residing outside of Italy or Switzerland, customer service directed me to the Memopal Terms of Use and Defenx Privacy Policy through provided links.

What I can tell you after reading both is that Memopal adheres to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This means your personal data is only used to provide Memopal’s services and to communicate with you. If you integrate third party software, your personal data may also be shared with these services.

While Memopal complies with GDPR,  it doesn’t comply with HIPAA, FERPA, or the GLBA. And while its privacy policy meets EU standards because Memopal’s data centers are in Italy, it can’t guarantee the privacy of your data when it’s transferred to another country.

Somewhat Helpful Support… When You Can Get It

Memopal has several support options, including telephone, chat, email, and a user guide. But because it is a small company with just 10 employees, human support is limited.

The user guide has articles and video tutorials on how to set up and use Memopal, but it won’t give you answers to technical or security issues.

There are telephone support numbers for the US, UK, and Italy, but they are only available Monday to Friday, from 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM Central European Time. This means if your business is based in New York, you can reach support from 4:00 AM to 10:00 AM, and from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM in the UK. If you’re in Los Angeles, you’ll need a strong cup of coffee when you contact support between 1:00 AM and 7:00 AM.

I emailed support to ask about why my backup was split into two device names, and to see why my backup was freezing. (Memopal says that if you email support or sales, you should receive a response within 24 hours.) I got a response within 15 minutes asking me for more information. While that was great, I never received a reply and had to follow up after five days.

I received a same-day reply to my follow-up email. And while I appreciated the support team’s effort to resolve why my backup was split into two devices, I didn’t feel like much time was spent considering why my backup was freezing.

When I couldn’t find answers to my questions about security and privacy in the user guide, I turned to chat support. The live chat is supposed to be available during the same hours as phone support, but because resources are limited, this isn’t always the case. And when the chat is available, it can take a few hours to get a response.

After sending a message and waiting for a few hours, I got a reply from the same support agent who helped me over email. But rather than give me direct answers, he provided links to articles and policies I’d already read.

Finally, I tried UK phone support, but after ringing for a few minutes, I heard a generic voicemail greeting with no company name, so I didn’t feel comfortable leaving a message. I tried calling the next day and got the same result. (My guess is that if I managed to speak to someone, it would end up being the same support agent again.)

Ultimately, it seems like Memopal support is a one-person operation unless technical issues need escalation. And the user guide doesn’t offer much in terms of technical or troubleshooting support, so it’s not always easy to get help when you need it. But when you do reach support, it’s friendly and helpful (mostly).

Limited Plan Options and Low Data Limits

Memopal’s plans and pricing are a bit confusing. On its website, it lists just two options for personal plans: a 3GB Free plan for one user (with up to 10GB extra when you invite friends) and a 500GB Pro plan for unlimited users. But when you click Buy Now on the Pro plan, or try to upgrade from the Free plan, you have five options (200GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, or 5TB) – all for a single user.

When I contacted Sales, I was told you can have unlimited users on one account, but you must share the same login details.

The 5TB of backup space you get with Memopal’s most expensive plan is probably enough for small businesses, but most cloud backup services can offer more space on their top-tier plans at lower prices.

All Memopal subscriptions are annual. There are no unlimited backup plans (if unlimited cloud backup space is important to you, you may want to check out Backblaze), but on a single account, you can back up as many devices as you want until you reach your data limit.

Memopal’s Business plans start at 500GB and offer dedicated second-level support and a custom branded subdomain for your company’s web app. The top-tier White label plan lets your business use Memopal’s data centers for your cloud storage, and you can translate its software and apps into 16 languages.

You can pay for your Memopal subscription with Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, PayPal, or bank transfer.