Icedrive is a cloud storage service launched in 2019 in Wales and run since 2024 by Ice Privacy LTD in Gibraltar. It sells plans from 200 GB to 10 TB, lifetime plans paid once, and a free plan with 10 GB.

Icedrive markets itself as zero-knowledge storage, but that applies to one part of your account: a separate Encrypted section, available on paid and lifetime plans, where files are encrypted on your device with a passphrase only you know. Everything else you upload, and everything on the free plan, is stored with keys Icedrive holds. A 2024 study by ETH Zurich cryptographers found that a compromised Icedrive server could tamper with encrypted files, and, according to the researchers, Icedrive declined in 2024 to fix the issues they reported.

Encryption & Key Custody

Key custody at Icedrive depends on where you put a file. Files in your ordinary folders are protected by encryption at rest on Icedrive’s servers, with keys Icedrive holds, so Icedrive can read them; its conversion servers process them to make thumbnails and document previews. Files you put in the Encrypted section are encrypted on your device before upload. That section exists only on the Starter, Pro, Pro+ and lifetime plans.

To open the Encrypted section you set an encryption passphrase, separate from your account password. Icedrive says the passphrase is turned into a 256-bit key on your device and never sent to its servers. Each file is split into chunks, each chunk is encrypted with the Twofish cipher, and the file and folder names are encrypted with the same key. This metadata encryption stops at names: Icedrive does not say that file sizes, dates or the folder structure are protected. Icedrive calls the scheme zero-knowledge; no audit has confirmed that claim.

The ETH Zurich study, by Jonas Hofmann and Kien Tuong Truong, tested the Encrypted section against an attacker who controls Icedrive’s servers. It found that the password key is derived with PBKDF2-SHA256 and that files and names are encrypted with Twofish in CBC mode, without any integrity check. As a result, such an attacker could change parts of an encrypted file, cut off its end, reorder or remove its chunks, swap file names, move files between folders, and assemble new files from pieces of your existing ones, and the apps would not notice. The researchers did not report a way to read the encrypted files themselves.

Sharing does not work for encrypted files at all: Icedrive’s help center says they cannot be shared, and the shareable encrypted folders it mentions have no release date. Any file you share by link or with another user comes from your ordinary folders, which Icedrive can read.

The web app decrypts encrypted files in your browser with code that Icedrive serves on every visit, so in the browser you depend on Icedrive serving unaltered code; the desktop and mobile apps change only when you install an update. Files in the Encrypted section lose thumbnails, and their previews are limited to images, PDFs, audio and video in the web app and to images and PDFs in the mobile apps.

Account Recovery

If you forget the encryption passphrase, every file in the Encrypted section is lost: Icedrive cannot recover it, and resetting the passphrase erases the whole section. A forgotten account password is a separate matter. You reset it through a link sent by email and keep your ordinary files, but that does not bring back the passphrase. This is the account recovery trade-off of the Encrypted section, so keep the passphrase somewhere other than your Icedrive account. Icedrive accepts only ASCII characters in the passphrase.

Trust & Transparency

The Icedrive apps and server are closed source: Icedrive’s GitHub organisation has no public repositories, and no source code is published elsewhere. No security audit of Icedrive is published. The only outside review is the ETH Zurich study, presented at the ACM CCS conference in 2024. The researchers wrote to Icedrive on 23 April 2024 and report that Icedrive answered the same day and, after a brief exchange, “opted not to address the issues we raised”.

Icedrive was launched in Wales. In February 2024 its team announced a move to Gibraltar, a British overseas territory outside the EU, citing the UK Online Safety Act, and Icedrive became part of the Ice Privacy brand, which also sells a VPN. The terms say the service is controlled and offered from Gibraltar. Icedrive does not say in which countries your files are stored: the plans page says only that its data centers are certified to ISO 27001.

The privacy policy covers the icedrive.net website: cookies, contact forms and the newsletter, whose emails track opens and clicks. It does not describe what the storage service records about your account and files, how long it keeps that, or how Icedrive answers requests from the authorities. A separate GDPR page says Icedrive logs IP addresses and login times and will erase them on request. Whatever you store, Icedrive also sees your email address, your payments (processed by Stripe), how much you store, and the size of encrypted files. Icedrive says it uses no third-party tracking or analytics, which makes the telemetry none by its own account; the closed apps cannot confirm that. There is no known data breach of Icedrive.

Features & Sync

The desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux mounts your Icedrive storage as a drive, keeping recently used files in a local cache. Paid plans add desktop sync of chosen folders on 2 devices with Starter, 3 with Pro and 10 with Pro+, and the Encrypted section can be mounted as its own drive. Since the end of 2024 the app can also sync with a NAS, every 8 hours. The mobile apps upload camera photos automatically; on the free plan, uploads go only to ordinary folders. Icedrive sets no file size limit. It has closed WebDAV access to new users since April 2026 and plans to remove it for everyone.

File versioning depends on the plan: Starter keeps up to 5 versions for 10 days, Pro up to 25 for 30 days, Pro+ up to 100 for 90 days, and lifetime plans up to 30 for 14 days. The free plan keeps no versions.

There is no collaborative editing: Icedrive lists document and spreadsheet editors as coming soon. Public links work on every plan, and paid plans add link passwords, expiry dates, download caps and preview-only links, as well as sharing with other Icedrive users and file requests.

Usability & Platforms

There are apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS, a web app and a command-line tool. Two-factor authentication with an authenticator app is available on every plan, and paid plans add SMS codes. The Encrypted section works as a separate area with its own passphrase, so you decide file by file what Icedrive cannot read, and files there lose thumbnails and office-document previews.

Price & Value

The free plan gives 10 GB, without the Encrypted section, desktop sync or versions. Icedrive forbids running several free accounts, and a free account unused for 12 months may be deleted after a warning.

Paid plans, billed yearly: Starter costs $35.88 a year for 200 GB, Pro $119.88 a year for 3 TB and Pro+ $299.88 a year for 10 TB. Paid monthly, they cost $3.99, $12.99 and $29.99. You can pay by card, Google Pay or Apple Pay. The plans page advertises a 30-day money-back guarantee, while the terms and the help center give 14 days from the original purchase.

The lifetime plans cost $199 once for 100 GB, $229 for 500 GB and $499 for 2 TB, and can be stacked. Lifetime here means as long as Icedrive runs the service: its terms let Ice Privacy discontinue any part of it at any time. Lifetime plans also get fewer sync devices and shorter version history than the Pro plans.

Pros and Cons

Files in the Encrypted section and their names are encrypted on your device with a passphrase Icedrive never receives, according to Icedrive
Apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS, with the storage mounted as a drive on the desktop
3 TB costs $119.88 a year, and the free plan gives 10 GB
Lifetime plans from $199 for 100 GB
No file size limit

Only files in a separate Encrypted section are encrypted on your device, and only on paid and lifetime plans; Icedrive can read everything else
Encrypted files cannot be shared
A compromised server could alter, truncate, reorder and rename encrypted files, according to the ETH Zurich study, and the researchers say Icedrive declined to fix this in 2024
Apps and server are closed source, with no published security audit
The privacy policy covers only the website, and Icedrive does not say where files are stored
A forgotten encryption passphrase loses every encrypted file
No document editor, no versions on the free plan, and 10 to 90 days of versions on paid plans

Our Rating

Encryption & Key Custody4.0/10
Only files you put in the separate Encrypted section are encrypted on your device, and only on paid and lifetime plans; everything else is encrypted with keys Icedrive holds. Encrypted files cannot be shared, and a forgotten passphrase loses them. ETH Zurich researchers found that the encryption has no integrity check, so a compromised server could alter, truncate, reorder and rename encrypted files without the apps noticing.
Trust & Transparency3.0/10
The apps and the server are closed source, and no security audit is published. The ETH Zurich researchers say that Icedrive declined in 2024 to address the findings they reported, and no later fix is published. The privacy policy covers only the website, and Icedrive does not say in which countries your files are stored. The company is in Gibraltar, and no breach is known.
Features & Sync6.0/10
The desktop app mounts your storage as a drive on Windows, macOS and Linux, and paid plans add folder sync on 2 to 10 devices. Versions are kept for 10 to 90 days depending on the plan, and the free plan keeps none. There is no file size limit, but there is no document editor, and WebDAV is closed to new users.
Usability & Platforms6.5/10
Apps exist for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS, plus a web app, with two-factor login on every plan. The Encrypted section needs a second passphrase on top of the account password, and files in it lose thumbnails and most previews.
Price & Value8.5/10
Pro gives 3 TB for $119.88 a year and Pro+ 10 TB for $299.88 a year. The free plan holds 10 GB but has no Encrypted section, and lifetime plans start at $199 for 100 GB. Refunds are limited to 14 days by the terms, although the plans page advertises 30.

Overall5.0/10

Encryption & Key Custody 30% · Trust & Transparency 25% · Features & Sync 20% · Usability & Platforms 15% · Price & Value 10%

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