Clover is a POS system that launched in April 2012. The company behind the product was incorporated in 2010 and was acquired after two years of existence by First Data Corporation, a well-known payments processing company. Early backers included venture capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Sutter Hill Ventures..
Under First Data’s ownership, Clover launched its first hardware solution, Clover Station, a point of sale terminal that allowed retailers to receive payments with ease. In 2016, First Data unveiled a second product called Clover Go, a card reader that works with smartphones. Clover’s point-of-sale products have earned a significant market share in the U.S. and abroad; the company processed over $200 billion in transactions in 2022.
In 2019, Clover’s owner, First Data, was acquired by Fiserv, another payment processing giant. Clover has remained under Fiserv since then but operates as an independent subsidiary.
Clover POS: Plans and pricing
The Clover Station Pro is the brand's most powerful point-of-sale system yet. (Image credit: Clover)
Clover offers four types of point-of-sale hardware; Go, Station, Flex, and Mini. You can either pay outright for a device or rent it on a monthly basis. Renting Clover Station costs $120 per month for the one-screen version and $130 monthly for the two-screen version. Flex costs $35 monthly, while Mini costs $45 monthly. The Clover Go card reader costs $49 one-time (there’s no monthly pricing option for it).
The pay monthly option allows you to get the POS system for your business with no money down, and you can cancel your subscription and return the device at any time. But, if you wish, you can also pay in full ($1,349 for the one-screen Clover Station; $1,649 for the dual-screen Station; $799 for the Mini; and $449 for Flex). The upfront costs are relatively expensive compared to the competition, which is why renting can be a better option for small businesses.
If you use Clover to process payments, then you'll pay a separate 2.3% + $0.10 or $2.6% + $0.10 for all successful card transactions depending on your monthly plan.
Clover POS is able to help you process all types of payment (Image credit: Clover)
Clover POS: Features
Hardware
Clover offers five hardware options:
Station Solo: An all-in-one POS terminal with a single 14-inch touchscreen, cash drawer, and printer. It lets you accept payments from all major credit cards.
Station Duo: The same Station POS systems but with two screens (one for the seller and the other for the customer).
Go: A compact card reader that works together with the Clover mobile app. It uses Wi-Fi or a cellular connection.
Flex: A handheld POS system with a 6-inch touchscreen, built-in printer, camera, and barcode scanner.
Mini: A full point-of-sale system yet in a compact package. It features an 8-inch touchscreen, a card slot, a contactless card reader, and a built-in receipt printer.
Clover POS can be tailored to suit multiple retail and restaurant uses (Image credit: Clover)
Point-of-Sale System
The most important part of using Clover is the software system that works with the hardware. This system makes it easy to collect payments and run your business regardless of what type, e.g., restaurant, hotel, brick-and-mortar retailer, etc. It manages every aspect of processing payments, including organizing inventory and collecting money from customer cards.
This POS system is cloud-based, so you can track your sales, deposits, refunds, and sales reports from anywhere as long as you have the correct login details. It features integrated sales reporting, so you can use real-time or past data to track your business performance and visualize it with customizable reports.
Depending on the hardware you select, your POS system can be handheld, portable, or countertop-based. Besides, you can purchase Clover-approved third-party accessories for your POS hardware, e.g., a weight scale, barcode scanner, and cash drawer. There are also many third-party apps developed for Clover’s point-of-sale hardware, e.g., a customer discount app and accounting software.
Payment Processing
You can use Clover’s payment processing system for your hardware or choose a third-party processor (Clover does not restrict its devices to its own payment system, unlike many other rivals).
If you choose Clover's payment processing platform lets you accept payments from credit cards, debit cards, or gift cards. Customers can insert their card chip, swipe the card, or tap it to pay for your products or services. You can also scan and submit paper checks or add a cash drawer to collect and record payments as easily as you would digitally.
Clover POS gets highly praised for its user-friendly terminals (Image credit: Clover)
Clover POS: Interface and in use
One of the major complaints we observed when researching for this review is that Clover can be difficult to set up initially and the user interface can be confusing at times. You may face some difficulty trying to configure and use the POS system, but with time, you should get used to it.
Clover POS offers a range of inventory and reporting options (Image credit: Clover)
Clover POS: Support
Clover offers customer support through email and telephone. There's a single support email, while telephone support lines vary depending on your country. There’s no live chat option, which we consider a disadvantage, but many customers speak highly of the company’s customer service offered via email and telephone.
Clover POS has a range of terminals at your disposal including the Mini (Image credit: Clover)
Clover POS: The competition
The Stripe Terminal and GoDaddy Terminal are two major competitors to Clover’s point-of-sale systems. Stripe offers its hardware upfront at a significantly cheaper price than Clover’s, but it has higher payment processing fees.
GoDaddy offers cheaper hardware systems and lower transaction fees. But, customers can only use GoDaddy’s payments processing software, unlike Clover which allows you to use other payment processors.
Clover is a reliable point-of-sale system to run your business with. It lets you accept payments with ease, and you’re free to choose whichever payment processor you want despite using Clover’s hardware. However, Clover’s hardware is expensive to purchase upfront and the user interface can be confusing to new users.
If you still love print magazines, then Readly makes it supremely easy to get all your favorites in one digital place for an affordable price. The advantage of this platform is you don't need to subscribe to each magazine separately – you just pay the one fee and get access to every single title available on Readly from around the world... which now numbers around the 6,000 mark!
Yes, there are magazines in several languages available on Readly and they’re all mixed in, although you can filter by language if you wish. If you don’t filter, there seems to be no apparent order in which the magazines are presented to you the first time you sign up, or when you’re browsing to discover new content.
Finding new magazines to read is remarkably simple. While Readly will throw up suggestions on what you’ve previously read, the search feature is very quick and filters only the specific category you’ve searched for, no mix-ups there. No matter what platform you’re using Readly on – PC, tablet or phone – the user interface is simple and smooth, with no apparent latency when turning pages.
Readly seems to have been specifically designed for use on handheld devices like a tablet or smartphone. You can select individual articles within a magazine, which also increases the font size, and also allows you to scroll to read through completely. This feature, however, is missing on the browser application and makes it a little harder to read on a larger screen like a laptop or desktop PC.
All in all, the ability to read as many magazines as you can digest for a small monthly fee makes Readly one of the best platforms for consuming print content in the digital age.
Double-page view on a desktop browser (Image credit: Readly)
Readly free trial and price
In comparison to subscribing to individual print editions of magazines, Readly works out to be far more affordable. As of January 2023, a subscription will cost you $11.99 / £9.99 / AU$11.99. That's a major change to the previous prices of $9.99 / £7.99 / AU$14.99 a month, with the US and UK subscribers now paying more than their Australian counterparts.
However, it's still a lot cheaper than signing up for several individual magazines that you might want to read. That monthly cost gets you access to around 6,000 magazines in different languages, plus a handful of newspapers from a few countries.
Importantly, Readly offers a free trial period, which is usually 30 days. Occasionally, however, we’ve found the trial period to be two or three months, which makes it an even better value option. There are no contracts to lock you in, so you can cancel your membership any time.
Page thumbnails and scrollbar on Android (left) and iPad (right) (Image credit: Readly)
Readly catalogue
Over 5,000 magazines
Few newspapers
Kids and adult content
Readly claims there are over 5,000 magazines in its catalogue and we didn’t stop to count. That number in itself is staggering, and offers options for every kind of reader – anglers to audiophiles, kids to pensioners, high-flyers to home-makers.
At the time of writing, we couldn’t find any gaps in topic or category. There are trashy supermarket tabloids alongside the likes of National Geographic, and you can find reads on special topics like bird watching and trains. You’ll even find bookazines that teach you about a specific topic, like coding or photography, and there are plenty of puzzle issues as well.
During our testing, we didn't find any delays in new issues of subscribed magazines arriving on Readly, at least for the titles we picked.
Comics have their own category on Readly, with titles like The Walking Dead and Commando included.
There are several kids and young adult magazines also available, like The Beano, National Geographic Kids and so on. However, there are no parental controls, so the kids' titles are sharing shelf space with trashy tabloids of the "A POLTERGEIST had SEX with our DOG" variety when you’re doing a general browsing of all the magazines available on Readly.
Single-page view on an Android tablet (left) and an iPad (right) (Image credit: Readly)
Readly apps
Available on Android, iOS, Kindle Fire, web browser
Simple, easy-to-use interface
Readly apps are available for the usual suspects of iOS and Android – for smartphones and tablets – as well as an app for the Kindle Fire tablets. You can even read on a web browser via go.readly.com. All apps are free to download.
The mobile and tablet apps, irrespective of platform, are very similar, displaying thumbnails (or tiles) of each magazine’s cover art. You can browse the Discover section to start getting some ideas of what you could read, and any title you’ve tapped on begins to download automatically for offline reading. The progress of this download is visible via a thin yellow line at the bottom of the screen on tablet and mobile (note that there is no download option when reading on a browser). If you happen to be just flicking through an issue, the download stops, and then picks up where it left off when you open the same issue again at another time. Once downloaded, you’ll see a green down arrow below the specific issue’s thumbnail.
Download speed varies, depending on the size of each individual issue, but is very quick for newspapers. Storage demands aren’t excessive – after downloading four magazine issues and two newspapers, Readly took up 516MB of space on our iPhone. If you don’t think you’ll be reading offline, there is a toggle switch in the app’s settings to disable mobile data for when you’re out and about or abroad. You can, of course, remove anything you've downloaded to free up space.
(Image credit: Readly)
In fact, Readly gives you a lot of control over how you want the app to function – you can set the maximum number of issues you can download, enabled or disable background refreshes of pages, have page-turn animations switched on and even have a sound accompany that animation, both of which are wonderful just from a nostalgic point of view when reading a digital edition.
Titles and issues you’ve read – even if they haven’t finished downloading – get added to the Recently Read section under My Content. You can Favorite any title you want for easy access later and you can even bookmark specific pages within a magazine if you need to revisit it later. Your favorites, recently read magazines and bookmarks are all listed in the My Content tab across all platforms.
If you’re reading across several devices, your content gets synced almost immediately, including which page you stopped on. If you notice the sync hasn't happened, a quick refresh of the app will do the trick. We tested Readly in a desktop browser, an iPhone, an iPad and an Android tablet and every device synced smoothly.
The display options in Readly for mobile and tablet means you don't need to zoom and scroll around (Image credit: Readly)
Reading experience
Designed for handheld devices
Not perfect on desktop
Browsing and reading on Readly is fast and fluid: it's just like swooping around a photo library, and a thumbnail viewer with a scroll bar pops up for easy navigation. If your device is in portrait mode you'll see single pages full screen, and in landscape you're given the choice of single page view and double page view. On a browser, though, you only get the double-page view, with a single zoom option via double-clicking on a page.
Two-page views on any device have very small font sizes making them exceptionally difficult to read (practically illegible on a phone). We tried reading on both a 16-inch laptop as well as a 24-inch monitor and they both were hard to read. Zooming in isn’t a great experience on desktop either as that requires a lot of scrolling up and down, as well as left and right to get the full page experience.
One-page views on mobile and tablet, though, require no such zooming. You can pinch to zoom if you wish, but there is a yellow 'page' icon below each magazine page that opens up a full article in a single file. This removes some formatting aspects of the article (although images remain untouched), as well as any background colors, but it offers a smooth scrolling and reading experience for individual articles.
Interestingly, the Readly app is intuitive enough to recognize an advertisement from the real articles, and the page icon disappears for ad placements and covers. This feature lets you read either on a white background or switch to dark mode for a black background and white text. If there are multiple articles on a single page, a pop-up is presented asking you which one you want to read.
Unfortunately, this article view feature isn’t available when reading on a browser and is our only complaint about the Readly experience.
Readly on a desktop browser (Image credit: Readly)
Verdict
If you love your magazines, we can’t recommend Readly highly enough, particularly since it offers such great value. Not only are you getting access to thousands of magazines you likely wouldn’t be able to get in your country, it also doesn’t cost much at all. You only need a couple of magazines to justify the monthly Readly subscription.
A simplified user experience, the ability to read offline and switch across different devices without losing your spot makes Readly a great experience… as long as you steer clear of the platform’s browser interface, which is missing some of the mobile and tablet app features.
Formerly known as Xenmobile, Citrix Endpoint Manager is a unified device management system that provides a simplified platform for IT departments to monitor and administer hardware of all types.
With features beyond the scope of standard Mobile Device Management (MDM) products, Citrix Endpoint Manager supports all commercially available mobile operating systems and desktop OSs. Offered stand-alone or as part of a more comprehensive selection of Citrix business software, Citrix Endpoint Manager aims to be seamless for the end user and effortless for the IT department to manage.
Citrix Endpoint Management is a feature-packed MDM solution (Image credit: Citrix)
Features
Citrix Endpoint Manager is an upgraded version of Xenmobile, offering additional features.
In addition to the usual MDM functionalities like compliance management and application control, Citrix Endpoint Manager provides all the necessary tools for end-users to carry out their tasks. It offers a comprehensive BYOD management system with hassle-free enrollment and supports handheld scanners and similar endpoints.
The system enables easy tracking and identification of both devices and users, allowing for managing content viewed on devices (whether online or on corporate servers), deployment of software and apps, and assignment and withdrawal of permissions. The comprehensive inventory can be managed and grouped by device and other parameters, and policies can be applied and adjusted across hardware and users, all from the admin screen of Citrix Endpoint Manager.
Installation and setup
The Citrix Endpoint Manager is a powerful tool that operates seamlessly within a standard Citrix Workspace environment. It offers a comprehensive suite of tools and features for managing devices and applications within an organization.
With the ability to integrate with existing workspaces, the Endpoint Manager makes it easy to enroll devices and manage app distribution or restrictions across the network. To enroll devices, a console with all the necessary tools is provided, and end users can use the AutoDiscovery feature for enrollment, making the process simpler and reducing the workload on the MDM administrator.
An Apple Push Notifications developer account is required for Apple hardware, while Android devices require an organizational Google account and a Google Play account.
With the Citrix Endpoint Manager, organizations can streamline device management processes and improve productivity and security.
Citrix Endpoint Manager works with most mobile and desktop operating systems (Image credit: Citrix)
Compatibility
Citrix Endpoint Manager offers integrated administration of Android and Android Enterprise, Chrome OS, macOS, iOS, tvOS, iPadOS, and Windows 10 devices. Only macOS and tvOS cannot be found on mobile hardware. Linux is only supported by a Citrix Ready workspace hub compatible with the Raspberry Pi 3.
Citrix Endpoint Manager can access and control these devices' management systems. So, for example, the Unified Endpoint Management capability in Windows 10 can be used to enroll and manage Windows 10 tablets and hybrids. Similarly, Citrix Endpoint Manager can access mobile device data, app information, and control security and other aspects in iOS for iPhone and iPadOS for the Apple iPad.
Additionally, Citrix Endpoint Manager supports Alexa for Business, making it the ideal choice for managing and administering mobile IoT devices and integrating those with the usual MDM hardware. Need to start a projector or dim the lights in the conference room? Those integrations can be handled from a permitted mobile device across the Citrix Endpoint Manager environment.
Usability
Citrix Endpoint Manager prioritizes both hardware and user compatibility. Rather than restricting users to specific devices, it takes a flexible approach, allowing organizations to determine the best machines, apps, and software vendors for their IT, colleagues, and overall business needs.
Citrix Workspace is a unified platform that can be accessed across devices and profiles, ensuring that users have the necessary tools on the hardware they use. Enrollment is simple and usually doesn't require repetition.
From an administrative perspective, each user and device can be easily managed through a user-friendly interface that provides analysis data. This interface allows you to monitor compliance information device statistics by platform and carrier and manage device security, apps, and permissions.
Citrix's price calculator can be quite handy for larger organizations (Image credit: Citrix)
Plans and pricing
Are you looking for pricing options for Citrix? They offer different packages that can be scaled according to the needs of your business.
The Stand-alone package integrates with other Citrix products and supports major platforms and hardware. This package costs $4 per user or $3 per monthly device.
Workspace Premium is a more comprehensive solution that costs $18 per user per month. This package offers a secure interface to access apps and files, including Citrix Endpoint Manager and other notable Citrix products.
Workspace Premium Plus costs $25 per user per month and includes hybrid deployment options for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, with cloud management.
To know how much Citrix Endpoint Manager may cost, visit their website, which provides a helpful calculator. Simply choose a plan, usage type, and quantity to get an estimation (actual prices may vary).
For instance, if you have 500 users and choose the Stand-alone package on a one-year contract, it would cost $4.83 per user per month. If you choose a three-year contract, you could save 20% and pay only $3.87 per user monthly.
Final verdict
When selecting a mobile device management (MDM) solution, many factors must be considered. One important consideration is the offerings provided by established players in organizational collaboration networks. Citrix Endpoint Manager is a strong contender in this space due to its wide assortment of features and tools and its straightforward device enrollment process.
If your network is already utilizing Citrix Workspace or requires an upgrade, then choosing Citrix Endpoint Manager would be a sensible decision. The necessary operating systems and server software have already been installed, and the server hardware is operational. If your budget permits, transitioning to Citrix Endpoint Manager within an existing Citrix environment may be your most appropriate option.
With its powerful management capabilities and user-friendly interface, Citrix Endpoint Manager can help streamline your organization's mobile device management processes, allowing you to focus on what matters - your business.
Whether managing a small team of mobile workers or a large enterprise with thousands of devices, Citrix Endpoint Manager has the tools and features you need to succeed. So why not try it today and see how it can help take your mobile device management to the next level?
The Dyson Supersonic was this brand's first foray into haircare, and quickly cemented a reputation for being perhaps the best hair dryer on the market. The four years of development and £50 million (around $68 / AU$92 million) on research paid off.
Thanks to Dyson's engineering skill, the Supersonic delivers powerful airflow in a relatively lightweight form factor. The design is sleek and streamlined compared to your traditional chunky hair dryer, and because most of the weight is in the handle, it's comfortable to hold and easy to wield. It dries hair quickly, and is just as effective for styling – mainly thanks to a selection of very well-designed attachments.
These attachments are magnetic, so snap easily on and off the barrel of the hair dryer. A special shout-out should go to the Flyaway attachment, which tames flyaways using the same hair-bending effect that powers the Dyson AirWrap. It works remarkably well, and there's nothing else like it on the market.
In 2024, Dyson launched an upgraded version of the Supersonic. The design is very similar to the original, but there are a number of fancy new features – you can get the full low-down on that one in our Dyson Supersonic Nural review.
There’s no denying the Dyson Supersonic is eye-wateringly expensive, which may limit its appeal for some, but we were impressed at how quickly we were able to create a shiny, sleek style from wet, and the effectiveness of the flyaway attachment. The faults we can find with it are so minor that we think it's worth the investment if you can stretch to the price tag.
(Image credit: TechRadar)
Dyson Supersonic review: price & availability
List price: $399 / £299 / AU$549
Launched 2026
Available globally
The Dyson Supersonic is priced at $399 / £299 / AU$549 and is available from Dyson as well as online retailers including Amazon.
This is the most expensive hair dryer we’ve tested and come in at almost twice the price of the GHD Air - the top-of-the-range hair dryer from the Salon brand that occupies second place in our best hair dryers round-up and is priced at $199 / £109 / AU$235.
Dyson also offers a hair straightener, called the Dyson Corale, which is priced at $499 / £399 / AU$699, and as we've already mentioned, the AirWrap hair styler, which will set you back $549 /£449 / AU$799.
In all cases, it's a smart move to see what Dyson promo codes are applicable so you can save more.
Dyson Supersonic review: design
Compact and lightweight
Unusual design
Comes with three speed and three heat settings
Hair dryers haven’t really changed in decades; the last significant design change happened all the way back in the 60s when the bulky motor was moved into the main casing.
This was an improvement on what we had before, but it resulted in a bulky device with most of its weight in the top rear of the device. This isn’t exactly ideal for something you hold above your head; we’ve experienced more than one thump to the head thanks to a weary arm.
Dyson has a history of throwing out the rulebook when it comes to designing products – ditching the bag in its vacuums; replacing blades with vents in its fans – so it’s no surprise its Supersonic doesn’t look like a traditional hair dryer.
By using a much smaller and more efficient V9 digital motor – the company’s smallest in fact – Dyson has been able to move the motor from the head of the dryer into its handle. This redistributes the weight, and makes the entire thing much more compact - it measures 9.6 x 3.1 x 3.8 inches / 24.5 x 7.8 x 9.7 cm (h x w d)
Instead of a lengthy barrel and a clunky system of rotors, filters and vents, Dyson has shrunk the V9 motor in the Supersonic down to slightly smaller than a quarter or a 10p coin, and placed it at the bottom of the handle with a rubber mount. This sleek, thin handle extends to a circular ring, with two buttons on the shaft – the power, and cold shot buttons – and two on the rear of the ring; one that controls its three air speeds, another for selecting one of its three temperature settings.
The rubber mount in the handle reduces the amount of vibration making it more comfortable to use for long periods. The downside to having the filter in the handle is that we often blocked it with our hand. In addition to making the dryer lighter and easier to hold, the Supersonic’s much smaller motor can propel 2.85 gallons / 13 liters of air per second, and spins around eight times faster than the motors used in standard hair dryers, which Dyson says makes it more efficient, and much less likely to overheat and burn out.
(Image credit: TechRadar)
The Supersonic also has a glass bead thermometer that monitors its temperature 20 times per second, and transmits the data back to a microprocessor to make sure the heat remains consistent.
All this means you won’t have to deal with that metallic burning smell that you sometimes get when you use other hair dryers for a long period of time. And you also won’t have to deal with the worrying smell of burning hair, as the microprocessor keeps the airflow temperature stable and under 302 degree F / 150 degree C no matter what.
Human hair is going to be damaged by brushing and heat no matter what, but past 302 degree F / 150 degree C the damage becomes irreversible and more noticeable, so by keeping airflow temperature in the optimal safe zone and instead upping the airflow pressure the Dyson Supersonic is able to prevent this.
The Dyson Supersonic also comes with a selection of attachments, including the flyaway attachment, a wide-tooth comb for coily hair, a diffuser for curly hair and a styling concentrator, although, unlike professional-style hair dryers, there’s no hanging loop on the Supersonic.
Dyson Supersonic review: performance
Fast drying times
Flyaway attachment creates a sleek, smooth finish
Balanced in use
We were impressed with just how quickly the Dyson Supersonic dried our hair. On the lowest temperature settings and fastest speed, it took four minutes and 31 seconds to take below-shoulder-length fine hair from damp to completely dry. Using the hottest of the three settings shaved over a minute off this time (three minutes and 26 seconds) - making it the quickest hair dryer we’ve tested. On all settings, hair was left looking shiny and smooth.
We initially used the fly away attachment to dry our hair from damp, but we found that it increased the drying time to nine minutes. Instead, we were able to strike the right balance between time and a flyaway-free finish by sectioning off the crown of the hair. We used the Supersonic with a barrel brush on the remainder of the hair, while the flyaway attachment was used to blow dry the crown only, and resulted in a drying time of three minutes and 58 seconds - which we think is an acceptable compromise.
The attachments connect to the barrel of the hair dryer magnetically, which is a simple design change, but it makes fitting and removing them a much smoother process. They also have solid lips on their edges through which the hot air doesn’t blow, and as a result remain cool, which makes changing the attachment a more comfortable process.
The Dyson Supersonic should feel heavier than it does, due to its 1.5 lb / 659g weight, but this repositioning of parts means its weight is spread out more evenly than with traditional dryers. We found this significantly reduced arm ache during use. We were also able to hold the dryer closer to our hair, which made blow-drying the roots fair easier than with bulkier hair dryers.
One of the most attractive claims of the Dyson Supersonic is that it’s quieter than other hair dryers thanks to the more efficient motor. It registered 74db on our decibel meter, which is around 8db quieter than the Remington Hydraluxe Pro EC9001, which is one of the noisiest hair dryers we’ve tested. That said, while it’s a level we can live with for a few minutes at a time, using it in the morning beside a sleeping partner was still not welcomed.
This is a review of Sage Business Cloud Accounting for North America. The product, and its features may vary depending on the country you're in. We will soon update this review to reflect the differences with the UK version which includes Payroll.
Sage is the British company that has been offering accountancy software solutions for many years. The business currently has its latest incarnation of Sage Business Cloud Accounting that, as the name suggests, offers the flexibility and dependable edge provided by a cloud-based solution.
The service was originally called Sage One but has morphed into a beefier package that differs from Sage’s 50cloud option. The most obvious benefit of Sage Business Cloud Accounting is that you gain the flexibility and scalability provided by having a cloud back-end.
Sage is constantly evolving too, with the UK market having its own products dedicated to small business including specific accounting, payroll and HR packages. Equally, Sage also covers the medium-sized business arena with Sage Intacct, Sage200cloud and the more specialised cloud-based ERP Sage X3. Professional accountants and bookkeepers are, of course, also catered for with partner accounting and payroll options with an increasing focus on automation.
Competitor software services worth considering include QuickBooks, Xero, Zoho Books, Kashflow and FreshBooks. All practical options in light of the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
Sage Business Cloud Accounting offers both a starter plan as well as a more advanced plan that includes invoicing and cash flow management (Image credit: Image Credit: Sage)
Sage: Pricing
If you like the look of the most recent edition of Sage Business Cloud Accounting then the good news is that there’s a free trial available. This is a great way of experiencing the cloud-based accountancy service head on, but if you want to get stuck into its products full-on then there are two options. Sage One Start is $10 per month, while Sage One Accounting is $25 per month. The Accounting package is the one to go for if you like the sound of access to over 100 connected apps that enable you to boost the potential of the Sage cloud-based service.
The other offering for small business accounting is the Sage 50cloud Accounting software. This combines “the convenience of cloud with the power of desktop accounting software.” This solution is able to integrate the Sage bookkeeping with Office 365 Business Premium and the Microsoft Small Business Productivity Suite. This enables key cloud based features, such as backing up to OneDrive, generating financial reports in Excel, and accessing Outlook contacts.
This starts at the Pro Accounting tier, via a monthly subscription of $46.83 per month, with the limitation that it only supports a single user at a single company, with the option to add Microsoft 365 for an annual subscription of $150 per year. It can also automate bank feeds, and can be remotely accessed by your accountant.
You can easily connect your bank accounts to Sage Business Cloud Accounting (Image credit: Image Credit: Sage)
Sage: Features
Sage Business Cloud Accounting gets regular updates and its latest version is perfect for small businesses that need a relatively straightforward solution. Once you’re signed up Sage Business Cloud Accounting lets you tackle accounting, but it’ll also simplify sales tracking, reporting and pull contact together. You’ll be able to accept and receive payments, create and send invoices as well as stay on top of bookkeeping chores all within the space of a cloud-based service.
The additional benefit of Sage Business Cloud Accounting is that it lets you enjoy the same powerful features on your computer, tablet or phone. That way you’re on top of your accounting no matter where you happen to be.
Users in the UK get a variation on the theme. Sage offers small businesses an Accounting package, which lets you handle invoicing, cash flow, tax, payments and more. It also has a Payroll option, which allows you to pay up to 50 employees and is fully HRMC-compliant. Sage even takes care of HR issues with its refreshed Sage HR package, which used to be called CakeHR. It is a constantly evolving picture to stay in line with new rules and regulations, along with the changing face of business.
Sage: Performance
Sage has been around long enough to realize the potential of offering a product that can be used by the many and varied users that need accountancy solutions. As a result, there are versions available for Windows, Mac, Android, iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad plus the web-based edition for anyone with access to a browser.
As you’d expect from a cloud-based solution, it depends on an internet connection but all data is stored in the cloud. Sage delivers a reliable service in that respect and the performance has been carefully honed over the years to help you enjoy a pretty decent experience.
Sage: Ease of use
Sage Business Cloud Accounting is quite a dry experience in that it’s less easy on the eyes, but certainly offers a comprehensive suite of features and functions. If you’re a newcomer to its functionality then you might find it a little hard going as there’s quite a lot to get through during initial setup. This is done via a Getting Started screen, which incidentally can be switched off if preferred.
You can, of course, import a lot of your data as well as connect to your financial institutions, which means that most of your accounting figures will self-populate the various categories. Nevertheless, there is still quite a lot to digest within the Sage Business Cloud Accounting interface, though once you’ve become familiar with it progress is much more streamlined.
Sage has done an impressive job at shoehorning the same experience into its mobile apps too, with iPhone and Android experiences surprisingly good. You can even get it for the Apple Watch.
The Sage Business Cloud Accounting layout is functional but lacks the flair of other cloud-based options (Image credit: Sage)
Sage: Support
You’ll find plenty of options available to you if you need to call upon some support. Sage has got this aspect of its business down to a fine art, with email, phone and also live support options all available.
For ongoing issues that can’t be resolved with a quick answer then there is also the provision for raising support tickets, whereby your query will be put into a queuing system and hopefully resolved as quickly as possible. You also get the benefit of a healthy community spirit within the world of Sage, while easily accessed and comprehensive FAQs also get to the bottom of many everyday questions and quandaries.
Support comes in a range of options including a powerful knowledge base for FAQs (Image credit: Sage)
Sage: Final verdict
Sage Cloud Business Accounting has been a reliable option for quite some time and proves consistently popular with many sole traders and smaller businesses. However, the interface can seem rather uninspiring even though it does offer an expansive range of features.
Some elements of the workflow seem unduly labored and with missing features such as time tracking and payroll options Sage Cloud Business Accounting is at risk from the competition. While everyone might instantly know the name of Sage this cloud-based accountancy solution doesn’t satisfy in quite the same way as something like QuickBooks Online.
We find the lowest Accounting Start tier, while well priced, somewhat limiting, and only useful for a true micro business. On the other hand, the upper Accounting tier is quite a bit more capable, and the 50cloud variant has deep integration with Microsoft365, although the cost rises considerably from the lowest plan. For a medium to larger small business, without dedicated accounting resources, these higher plans become an affordable solution.
Stripe offers online payment processing for internet businesses and is a relatively new name on the cloud-based payment-processing front, but the provider has swiftly gained many users thanks to its appeal for businesses of all sizes. With its headquarters in San Francisco and satellite offices in key cities around the world Stripe has grown a lot since its launch back in 2011.
What sets Stripe apart from many others who offer payment processing is its keenness to involve people who like to get under the hood of its products and services. It's expanded a lot too, having acquired TaxJar to home in on tax compliance as well as producing a new tool for verifiying user identities for starters.
There’s a real developer feel in the air as you get to grips with Stripe, and while that makes it dynamic and a little more interesting than your average payment processing setup, it can also be a challenging proposition if you’re looking for a simple solution for your business.
Stripe features a raft of tools and services on its website (Image credit: Stripe)
Pricing
In its basic form, before you’ve customized it to suit your needs, Stripe currently has an integrated pricing structure. This gives you access to a complete payments platform while also offering pay-as-you-go pricing according to its website. That means costs in the US of 2.9% + 30c per successful card charge (1.4% and 20p in the UK by way of a comparison).
As is often the case however, if you’re a business owner that has a lot of high-volume transactions to contend with then Stripe recommended you contact them in order to get a more tailored arrangement. Stripe is also being expanded all the time and while it is already in many countries, progress is such that it’s becoming even more widely available with well over 120 territories now offering it as a payment processing solution.
Stripe operates a clear and concise pay-as-you-go system (Image credit: Stripe)
Features
Stripe might be based around third-party processing, but it comes with a huge range of options that make it a useful route for business of all sizes. In terms of accepting payments then Stripe has a full suite of options, including online, mobile and also in-person.
The great thing is that you can also accept payments from right around the globe, with Stripe automatically converting the transaction. Keep an eye out for additional charges, though these aren't enough to dissuade you from offering the option altogether. Dig deeper into Stripe’s arsenal of tools though and you’ll find many more useful features, including smart invoicing and subscription management and multi-party payments for platforms and marketplaces.
Stripe is perhaps a lot more versatile than close-rival PayPal (Image credit: Stripe)
Performance
Stripe feels distinctly as though there are very keen developers leading the push to make it more widely known. Just heading around the Stripe website delivers a feeling of speed, efficiency and the sort of minimalism that allows you to be more productive.
You get a similar experience once you start using Stripe itself, with a dashboard interface that is similarly fast and efficient. Stripe as an experience also functions well across a range of devices, meaning that your customers should be able to pay without hassles, no matter how they prefer to do it.
Stripe has a lot of appeal for more developer-minded folks (Image credit: Stripe)
Ease of use
Stripe is by and large pretty easy to use, and that’s not just for you and your business. Customers who need to transact using Stripe don't need to have an account or sign-up, they just make their payment, it’s as simple as that. If you’re a business and running Stripe then you’ll be able to keep tabs on what’s going on transaction-wise via a cloud-based dashboard.
That also indicates payment processing and when you should get the money from each transaction. Stripe also gets you into this world with ease too, as there is basically just a minor bit of form filling to do initially before you’re up and running. More technically-minded folks though will love its other side, which is full of nuts and bolts developer appeal.
Stipe also comes with an impressive array of analytics options (Image credit: Stripe)
Support
Stripe has certainly done a great job putting together a support infrastructure that has to be one of the best there is in the payment processing arena. Online-wise there is an impressive Stripe Support Center that covers a multitude of topics, and it’s all presented in a clean and easy to digest fashion.
Boosting that is the real bonus of 24/7 staff support, which can be accessed via the Stripe website initially. Adding extra muscle to the support structure is a huge array of documentation, which covers everything and anything to do with Stripe products and services. All told, Stripe doesn’t miss a beat on the support front.
The Stripe dashboard makes it easy to keep tabs on transactions (Image credit: Stripe)
Final verdict
Stripe is a strong and sensible option that should appeal to plenty of businesses that want a great all-round performer when it comes to payment processing. While the fee structure can tend to be a little counter productive if you’re dealing with a lot of smaller transactions, and the fact that Stripe holds on to money after a transaction for 7 days as an anti-fraud measure, the service still has a lot of appeal.
You’ll probably want to have a bit of a grounding in coding in order to really exploit the potential of Stripe, or employ someone with said skills. However, even if it’s used in its most basic guise Stripe is solid, dependable and secure too.
It’s easy to see why some might bypass Stripe in favor of PayPal with its very easy to implement options, but with continual improvements being made to the way it ticks, Stripe looks set to become an even more dominant player in the payment services provider stakes.
Wise, formerly TransferWise, is a peer-to-peer money transfer service, originally started by two Estonian Fintech innovators, Taavet Hinrikus, (Skype’s first employee) and Kristo Käärmann based in the UK. It offers a variety of products and services resulting in over £5 billion being moved around every month, even in the wake of coronavirus.
Wise states it saves individuals and businesses £3 million in hidden fees every day. Currently the service is available in 59 different countries, although it is also adding to that list and now has offices in 14 different locations around the world.
Alongside its transfer service, Wise has recently added a multi-currency account, which lets you hold over 50 currencies at once and convert them when you want, along with a Wise debit Mastercard. The service is up against similar products from WorldRemit, Azimo, Venmo, Western Union, PayPal, Zelle and Moneygram to name the key players in the currency exchange marketplace.
Wise offers dependable mid-market rates for users (Image credit: Wise)
Pricing
The Wise fees page illustrates nicely how its fees are broken down. A percentage of the charge is a fixed fee, followed by a variable fee, which are both added together to give you a total fee on each transaction. There are three different transfer tiers too, with a fast option being the most expensive, an advanced middle-tier option and a low cost transfer to pick from depending on how fast you want to move your funds.
Wise does also offer Business pricing, which adds in extra features that are free, including the ability to receive money in EUR, USD, GBP, PLN, AUD and NZD currencies for free. This comes with a 0.33%-3.56% fee to convert currencies. The supporting Wise debit Mastercard comes free too, with the same currency conversion fee of 0.33%-3.56% plus a 2% fee of ATM withdrawals over £200 per month.
Much like others in this marketplace, the Wise website has a dynamic calculator so you can work out your fees in advance of moving or receiving any cash.
TransferWise has been expanding its products and services too (Image credit: Wise)
Features
If you’re moving money, particularly larger sums, then getting access to mid-market exchange rates like banks enjoy is always a bonus, which is what Wise manages to do as part of its setup. With a straightforward fee structure, that you can see displayed on its website, plus a speedy money moving service, TransferWise is a quick and simple solution.
The website works well enough on a desktop browser, but there’s also a very good supporting app for iOS and Android, which might be more useful if you’re looking to transfer money on the move, either for business or holiday needs. Wise also prides itself on being safe and secure – it uses a 2-step login process and verification procedure.
The service is additionally complimented by its business account, along with its multi-currency Mastercard debit card, aimed at keeping costs lower if you're spending overseas.
Wise works best when its being used via the mobile app (Image credit: Wise)
Ease of use
Much like similar money transfer products and services, there’s not too much in the way of inner workings, at least for the customer to see that hinders progress if you’re using Wise. It’s a web-based system, works out your fees dynamically and does the same with current exchange rates.
Overall then you’ll find that Wise is very easy to use. Wise has done a really good job with its mobile app editions of the service, with both iOS and Android options available.
Wise prides itself on its high levels of customer support (Image credit: Wise)
Support
The Wise website is the place to head for a comprehensive series of FAQs that should tackle most, if not all of your queries about every aspect of the website and using it. The company also has useful blog, Facebook and Twitter pages.
Signing up for TransferWise is a straightforward no-fuss process (Image credit: Wise)
Final verdict
Wise says that it has three core principles that drive its service, which is to remain transparent, to charge as little as possible and to keep transfers simple and instant.
Interestingly, Wise wants to put the focus on providing premium features without charging too much for the privilege and highlights its efforts to offer support to customers in their own language and time zone.
Better still, they aim to make this support real, rather than from automated systems. Bold claims and with what appears to be a transparent fee structure there’s quite a lot here to like. Wise is also authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority and those mid-market rates are perhaps what makes it most appealing of all.
Read our review of the latest all-in-one communications platform from 8x8: the 8x8 X Series. The name Virtual Office Pro has been retired by 8x8.
With 128 patents under its belt and over 40,000 customers, 8x8 is a force to be reckoned with in the cloud-based communications department.
Please note
This is our all-in-one roundup looking at the 8x8 Virtual Office Pro VoIP service. On this page, after our brief intro, you’ll find
(a) an overview of the available pricing plans
(b) a detailed breakdown of the key features users can expect
(c) a look at how the 8x8 Virtual Office Pro VoIP service compares against the competition
(d) we examine 8x8's security credentials
You can jump to the review section that interests you most by clicking on the links in the bar at the top of this page, but bear in mind that this article is really designed to be read all the way through, as businesses will benefit from assessing the service in its entirety before deciding if it meets their needs.
What started out as a small-time seller of semiconductors has slowly but surely evolved into a sweltering behemoth in the Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, market.
Nowadays, 8x8 offers products that appeal not only to small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs), but it’s also branched out to more mainstream enterprise companies and call centers.
8x8 Virtual Office Pro in particular leans more toward mid-sized business customers. It once existed as an add-on for the three base editions of Virtual Office, including the $25 (£19.26) per user per month X2 Edition, the $35 (£26.96) per user per month X5 Edition and the $55 (£42.37) per user per month X8 Edition.
That said, a customer service agent confirmed to us in an online sales chat that Virtual Office Pro is now considered a legacy product unavailable to new customers. Its unique features – call recording, web conferencing and internet fax – are now folded into the X5 Edition and X8 Edition of the service. So with that, let’s take a look at the distinctions among this trio of Virtual Office packages.
Even at the baseline price of $25 (£19.26) a month for each user, you can expect a lot of meat from the 8x8 Virtual Office X2 Edition plan. For one, every user gets their own phone line, complete with their own exclusive phone number and a virtual extension for receiving rerouted calls. On top of that, they get unlimited calling to 14 countries including Canada, Australia, the UK, and the United States.
Unlimited internet fax, which was originally found only in the Virtual Office Pro add-on, now comes with the Virtual Office X2 Edition as well. You can also count on an auto-attendant, voicemail and integration with the Salesforce, ZenDesk and Netsuite CRM services. There’s some integration with Microsoft Outlook, too, though it’s mostly limited to pinging people with alert emails and scheduling meetings. Purchasing the Virtual Office X2 Edition gives you 1GB of media storage.
Next up is the $35 (£26.96) 8x8 Virtual Office X5 Edition, which packs everything you’ll find in the X2 Edition but then ups the ante with Virtual Office Pro’s call recording, and an operator switchboard. Instead of unlimited calling to 14 countries, the count is more than doubled up to 32. Therefore, if you need to make frequent calls to China, Denmark or South Korea, you’ll probably want to opt for at least the X5 Edition. Media storage is bumped up to 5GB.
Key features
Lastly, the 8x8 Virtual Office X8 Edition introduces a host of additional features absent from the other service packs. It’s $55 (£42.37) per user per month, but it justifies its loftier price tag with call quality reporting and analytics, an analytics supervisor and a wealth of contact center trappings. You get inbound contact center support, outbound contact center support, 2,000 contact center minutes, 3 months of contact center recording storage, contact center IVR and contact center recording and analytics.
Along with all of that, 8x8 Virtual Office X8 Edition takes unlimited calling up to 47 countries, a list which comprises all 32 of the countries you get with the X5 Edition plus India, Japan, South Africa and a few others. Also, the media storage bounces up to 10GB with the X8 Edition plan. All three of these Virtual Office Editions are compatible with a standard (but optional) desk phone, the Virtual Office desktop application and the Virtual Office web browser client, so you don’t have to worry about a lack of flexibility when it comes to the hardware you’re using.
Competition
Overall, the best value and the most similar product to the now-defunct Virtual Office Pro is the 8x8 Virtual Office X5 Edition. At $35 (£26.96), it costs more than the $24.99 (£19.26) RingCentral (For Business) Standard plan, but it’s also more comparable to RingCentral’s $34.99 (£26.97) Premium plan since they both offer call recording and CRM integration.
One advantage of RingCentral (For Office) Premium over 8x8 Virtual Office X5 Edition is the integration it has with Microsoft, Google, Box and Okta products. RingCentral also promises 24/7 customer support. In many ways, the services are similar, which makes sense considering how closely they’re priced. If you go for the 8x8 Virtual Office X8 Edition, you’re obviously signing up for the contact center aspects that don’t show up in RingCentral’s plans.
Security
(Image credit: 8x8)
The adoption of more digital services has brought untold efficiency benefits to businesses in all industries - with VoIP solutions playing a key role in this. It has, unfortunately, also introduced additional vulnerabilities into the corporate environment that cyberattackers are all too willing to take advantage of. If this gives business leaders pause for thought, the good news is that many VoIP providers are shoring up their defenses to remain one step ahead of the attackers. This is certainly the case with 8x8’s VoIP offering.
The company proudly shares its long list of security credentials, which include being compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the Federal Information Security Management Act, and the EU-US Privacy Shield framework. In addition to these credentials, 8x8 is also independently audited each year.
With more individuals working from home than ever before, VoIP solutions like 8x8 are not only being used to transmit audio signals. For example, 8x8 also supports video conferencing tools and office messaging apps. Again, 8x8 scores well here in terms of keeping customer data secure. Its VoIP platform has been developed with a security-first mindset, which means that 8x8 constantly scans its own infrastructure for emerging vulnerabilities before resolving them as quickly as possible.
Furthermore, it’s not just n terms of security that 8x8 impresses. Its VoIP platform also takes business continuity extremely seriously. Its communication solutions are available through any browser, calls can be forwarded to other websites, and IP phones can be moved anywhere as long as there is a working internet connection nearby. A mobile app provides additional reliability benefits. So if users are looking for a VoIP platform is that is both secure and reliable, the 8x8 Virtual Office Pro VoIP service ticks all the boxes.
Overall verdict
Ultimately, if you’re deciding on a new VoIP service for your business, the best product depends on your needs. The good news is that 8x8 Virtual Office has a lot of things going for it. It’s as easy to set up as hooking up the phones to an internet connection, and there are three different methods to use the service if the classic desk phone isn’t your style. Although newcomers can no longer subscribe to 8x8 Virtual Office Pro, its functionality lives on in the form of the X5 Edition.
If you’re in the market for a new VoIP service with par-for-the-course pricing and a multitude of compelling features, 8x8 Virtual Office is worth a look.
Erply is the POS system of choice for hundreds of thousands of businesses around the world. Could it be right for your team too?
This powerful, cloud-based POS works on a range of devices both online and offline. It also integrates with many popular hardware solutions and has its own Erply API. It’s designed to be flexible and customizable for all types of retailers and franchises. Extensive features combined with both online and offline functionality make Erply POS a scalable solution that can grow with your business.
In our review of Erply POS system, we look at its impressive feature list to see if it’s still one of the best POS systems on the market.
Erply POS: Plans and pricing
Erply has four different pricing tiers, each targeted at different business models. It offers a 60-day trial of all plans, so you can see if it works for your business without paying any hefty set-up fees. It has reduced its prices in the last couple of years to make its product more accessible, and it now provides better value.
Tier 1
The first tier is for small shops that don’t need inventory and costs $19 per month on annual billing. It includes two user accounts, one POS license, a POS mobile app, email receipts, and a basic CRM. With this plan, users only have access to limited email support.
Tier 2
The next tier up costs $39 per month and is designed for ecommerce, with Shopify integrations available. It also comes with stock taking, inventory, and warehouse management functionality.
Erply has pricing plans to suit every business, from ecommerce to large multi-store franchises (Image credit: Erply)
Tier 3
For high-volume retailers or small multi-store retailers, Erply’s $69 per month plan has POS and inventory management capabilities.
The POS has an inventory license, and there is an inventory database, advanced reporting, a gift card and store credit system, a customer-facing display, and an advanced customer database.
Tier 4
The top-level tier is the Enterprise plan, which is aimed at franchises and large multi-store enterprises. Erply provides a customized quote for all enterprise customers and hands-on support throughout the setup and customization process. Get in touch with them for the best quote for your business.
Erply POS: Features
The feature list for Erply is quite impressive, which makes it easy to adapt to your business setup.
Erply POS is hardware agnostic, which means that it’s compatible with all the most popular card readers, scales, cash drawers, scanners, customer displays, and printers. This versatility makes it a great choice for businesses that already have hardware in place or that don’t want to be tied to a specific brand.
The inventory management system is an excellent tool for tracking everything that you sell across all your stores or warehouses. Detailed reports can show you everything from how many units you have to how long stock has been taking up warehouse space. You can use the system to easily transfer stock between stores and can even create location-dependent pricing lists.
Erply is compatible with big-hitters like Shopify, QuickBooks, Magento, and WooCommerce.
Erply has an extensive feature list that sets it apart (Image credit: Erply)
Erply POS: Interface and in use
While Erply has tried to make the user interface clear for businesses and their customers, the extensive features make it overwhelming on the backend. That's in comparison to point of sale brands like Square or Lightspeed, who are known for their clean, minimalist designs.
With Erply POS though, inventory and warehouse management can be tricky to master. A demonstration from the support team at Erply can be incredibly helpful.
That said, for customers and customer-facing staff using the POS system, it’s fairly intuitive. With a bit of patience and help from customer support, the backend functions are also manageable, and it’s worth persevering to use Erply to its fullest potential.
Erply’s backend system comes with a steep learning curve (Image credit: Erply)
Erply POS: Support
Support with Erply is limited when you compare it against other companies who have 24/7 support, unfortunately. This has been noted in customer reviews online, to which Erply have responded with updated support hours. Nonetheless, with its extensive features, it’s not the easiest system to get your head around, so a bit of extra support would go a long way here.
Users of the à la carte pricing plans only have access to limited email support. There are user guides and case uses on the Erply website, each with easy-to-follow instructions and screenshots, but we’d like to see better live support options.
That said, enterprise customers can receive full training, set-up, and personalization support to get their business up and running with Erply. Regular check-ins are included, and the support team will even help optimize your workflow.
Online user manuals are the only real support that Erply’s customers have immediate access to (Image credit: Erply)
Erply POS: Security
All data transfers, including payments, are encrypted to protect both your business and your customers. Erply uses data centers in the same region that their customers operate, unless requested otherwise. All data is backed up in real time in two locations, to ensure that important information is kept secure.
All data transfers in Erply are encrypted (Image credit: Erply)
The competition
NCR Silver is the most comparable POS to Erply, but it comes with a big price tag, and its hardware options are less flexible. However, NCR Silver does have impressive features and offer 24/7 support, making it the better choice for brands that need a little hand-holding.
Shopify POS is a strong competitor but is less diverse than Erply, as it is aimed purely at ecommerce businesses. However, Shopify does offer an affordable Lite plan, so it is worth looking into for ecommerce brands that don’t need Erply’s extensive features.
Final verdict
Erply is an impressive POS system with features to make it both customizable and scalable.
The pricing and scalability make it a great option for ecommerce businesses and small shops with their eyes set on growth. However, we’d like to see a bit more support and would recommend it only if you’re prepared to spend the time getting to understand how it works.
For enterprise businesses and large franchises, it presents great value with the support available. We also like the advanced reporting, the offline and online capabilities, and its compatibility with different hardware.
Not too long ago, being able to remotely upload content and store and retrieve the data as and when you needed it seemed like a futuristic dream. But today, the best cloud storage services offer you that and so much more. If you’ve been thinking about storing your data in the cloud, Internxt - a cloud storage service with a focus on privacy and security - is a viable option.
We’ve explored the service’s pricing, features, interface, security, and support so that you can decide if it’s the right cloud storage service for your needs.
(Image credit: Internxt)
Internxt: Plans & pricing
Internxt’s basic free plan offers 10GB of storage - and one of our picks for best free cloud storage providers. However there is a large emphasis on “up to”, here. All accounts start with a 2GB allowance, while more storage can be added for free by completing certain tasks. These include installing the Internxt mobile or desktop app (1GB each), sharing a file via a link (1GB) and inviting up to 5 friends (1GB each).
Beyond that, seven other pricing plans are available for individuals and for businesses.
One popular approach to tiered subscriptions among cloud drive services is to offer varying degrees of functionality for both personal and business users. Internxt has decided to offer single personal and business plans with access to the same features, instead focussing purely on the amount of storage available.
Personal customers can subscribe to 20GB, 200GB or 2TB for $1, $5, or $10 a month - annual subscriptions and lifetime or ‘perpetual’ licenses are also available, giving you a great amount of flexibility for any budget.
Business customers can gain access to larger amounts, including 200GB, 2TB and 20TB. These require a minimum of two users, and prices start at $5, $10, and $95 a month. However, business plans don’t feature a lifetime license.
Like its competition, Internxt offers discounts for annual commitments. Payments are taken in euros, which may present some difficulties with certain banking platforms.
Internxt also has an Enterprise plan for an unlimited number of team members. You’ll have to contact the support team for a quote based on your needs. It’s also easy for you to upgrade your plan at any time - you’ll never have to worry if your storage requirements change.
All plans offer complete use of all of Internxt's secure services, including Internxt Drive, a zero-knowledge file storage service, Internxt Photos, which enables you to store photos privately and securely, and Internxt Send, a platform for you to send files safely and seamlessly.
Internxt's pricing, even when converted to other currencies, is especially competitive when compared with some of the key players in the game, including Apple iCloud and Google Drive.
An exclusive deal for TechRadar readers means you can save 50% of all plans, too. Just use the code TECHRADAR at the check to save even more money.
All plans come with a 30-day money back guarantee and given that you need to already have an account to sign up, we recommend trying out the free features first before handing over your credit card details.
Internxt: Features
As a relatively new offering, Internxt’s features are pretty basic. We’ve broken down some of the key ones here.
Internxt is available on desktop, mobile, or tablet, so you can conveniently access your files on any device. With its automatic syncing capability, Internxt ensures your information will be updated and saved regardless of the device you’re using.
It offers its users handy offline access to their files. This means that you don’t have to frantically search for a network connection in order to access your documents out of range. You can enable selective offline access to all the files in your inventory.
One of the company’s strong points is its commitment to security, however a lot goes on behind the scenes. Internxt wants to make the process as normal as possible while maintaining the best protocol.
For business users, the service enables you and your team to store files with total security. You can collaborate privately with other members and toggle your admin features. You can even decide how many times you want a given link to be valid/shared so that your file won’t be accessible outside of its intended audience. This is particularly useful for sensitive documents.
All plans have derestricted file sizes, which is great for people working on videos and other large media types.
(Image credit: Internxt)
Internxt: Interface & experience
Choosing a plan and creating an account on Internxt is quick and fuss-free. In fact, of all the cloud storage providers we reviewed, this is by far the fastest sign up. Simply enter your e-mail address and chosen password to log in immediately to the web interface.
Upon doing this, you’ll find a handy introductory guide that you can access to get a quick tutorial on how the service works, which we thought was a nice touch. You can also click your account profile at the top right to download the desktop app for the device. You’ll receive 1GB extra storage for your trouble.
Internxt’s interface on mobile, web, and desktop is clean, intuitive, and user-friendly. On its main page, you can view all your files at a glance. You can also easily customize your folders with different colors and icons similar to the native tagging features in macOS and Windows. A useful search function helps you quickly locate files without having to spend time scrolling through your entire drive.
Uploading new files onto the cloud is also a breeze with a drag-and-drop interface. Similarly, you can easily share your files through a link. Overall, Internxt’s intuitive dashboard is easy to use and streamlines your workflow.
There are two aspects to the desktop client. First is the tool that sits in the status bar, allowing a certain degree of control and an insight into your syncing activity. Unlike many competitors, there is no option here to throttle bandwidth usage, which would be useful for companies and individuals processing large amounts of documents alongside other streaming activity.
The second aspect is the built-in support for your computer’s native file management system - in our case, Finder for macOS. You can use the newly created 'Internxt' folder in your home directory to continue life as normal with plenty of dragging and dropping, while keeping things synced.
You can also use the desktop client to launch the web interface, which is necessary for certain operations. On first launch the screen is grayed out except for the "upload files" button. During our tests we noticed that this also happened even when we'd already uploaded some files, forcing us to click the button, then 'cancel' on the explorer window that opened. This was a small bug but could prove irritating if you have to upload many files.
While Internxt’s primary focus is on cloud storage, there is a cloud backup service available to all free and paid accounts too - though remember the limitations of free accounts. You can also pick which folders to sync and any changes made in these will be updated online. We have previously complained about cloud drives that occupy a single folder, so being able to sync multiple folders across various locations is kindly welcomed.
Internxt: Support
In terms of support, a pop-up live chat box will instantly appear when you navigate to Internxt’s site. Chat support is pretty responsive—we got a reply in eight minutes. If you’d prefer to troubleshoot on your own, you can access Internxt’s Help Centre from the same pop-up box as the live chat function. On the search bar, type any keyword that you’re looking for and you’ll be greeted with dozens of helpful articles from the team.
If you still can’t find what you’re looking for, Internxt’s support team is contactable via email 24/7 and provides support in English, Spanish, and Russian.
(Image credit: Internxt)
Internxt: Security
Security is where Internxt shines. The zero-knowledge file storage service is based on absolute privacy and uncompromising security. When you upload a file on Internxt, it’s instantly encrypted on your device. Unlike other mainstream services that encrypt customer data in transit or at rest, the service encrypts all your data before it leaves your device. When data is downloaded from the file to your device, it's also automatically decrypted.
Additionally, Internxt doesn’t store user data in any central location. Instead, data gets fragmented prior to being uploaded, and the encrypted file shards are then uploaded onto servers based in different locations around the world. A single server never holds a whole file, making the cloud storage very secure, robust, and private.
With its AES-256 CTR encryption model, no one else other than you holds the key to your data. If Internxt were to be hacked, intruders wouldn’t be able to access your data either.
On the consumer’s end, two-factor authentication (2FA) is easy to enable. There is no support for SMS authentication. This can be handy for people with phone and computer integration and autofill but is actually a point in Internxt's favor as SMS messages are much easier to intercept than codes generated by legitimate authenticator apps.
Even users without an account have access to the company’s free virus scanner which works by uploading a document - up to 1GB in size - to the website in order for it to be checked.
Internxt also provides a free password checker, which shows any relevant information such as that it is a frequently used or easily guessed, as well as the amount of leaks that this password has been found in and how long it would take for somebody to crack your password. It also lets you know if your password has been leaked in any public hacks recently.
There’s some handy guidance, too, for creating the ultimate password, though we still recommend using six or more words generated by Diceware.
One of the best security aspects of Internxt though is its commitment to open source. This means that the company has released the source code used to make its app so knowledgeable programmers can verify that end-to-end encryption has been set up correctly, as well as the fact that data is split into multiple clusters.
Internxt: Alternatives
We found Dropbox gives Internxt a run for its money thanks to its advanced file-sharing capabilities and software integration. Similarly, Microsoft OneDrive is a great alternative with its files-on-demand feature.
The two competitors offer a range of useful tools and great functionality at about the same price point. To enjoy these features, however, you may have to compromise on privacy and security: Dropbox and OneDrive do not offer zero-knowledge encryption. Unlike other products which do claim to offer 'zero knowledge' Internxt is also open source, which means you don't have to take your word for it that your data's safe.
Internxt: Our tests
We ran three key tests for Internxt, measuring sync speed, file recovery and versioning.
Our tests were done on a Windows 11 virtual machine running the Internxt desktop client. The VM was connected to the internet via fiber broadband via VPN server, which in our speed tests consistently showed an average upload speed of 70 Mbps Measuring metrics like upload speed, results can sometimes vary depending on factors including how many share the broadband connection, how busy the cloud providers servers are, and your connection speeds.
(Image credit: Internxt)
Test 1 - Sync speed
After closing all third-party and internet apps, we copied a 650 MB folder of Sherlock Holmes audio books from the Internet Archive into the application directory and measured how quickly the desktop client was able to sync the files to the cloud. The folder contained 22 files including MP3s, images, metadata files and a PDF.
Initially we tried to use the web interface to upload the folder containing our test files. Unfortunately, this didn't work as the interface doesn't seem to allow uploading folders - only one or more files.
Instead we copied the test folder to the 'Internxt' folder in our device's home folder. The desktop client started syncing files, showing each one as it was successfully uploaded. This is where we saw the files being encrypted as each upload took place.
We were particularly impressed to see the encryption process didn't impact at all on speed. The whole upload of 625MB of data on our 70Mbps connection took only 1 minute 55 seconds. This is comparable to other cloud storage services we've reviewed that don't use encryption.
(Image credit: Internxt)
Test 2 - File recovery
In this test we simply deleted the audiobook folder from the application directory, removing it from the device. We then checked to see if the files had been removed from the cloud drive and if it was possible to recover them.
If the cloud provider offers you a way to store files in the cloud without keeping them on your device, we test this feature too.
After we deleted the test files from the 'Internxt' folder we were surprised to see that the data still counted towards our data quota in the desktop client.
On logging into the web interface, we immediately saw the Trash option with the deleted folder. With two clicks of the mouse, the data was decrypted and downloaded back to the device within 90 seconds.
(Image credit: Internxt)
Test 3 - Versioning
If you're working on long or important documents, the last thing you want is to make changes you can't undo. Some cloud providers prevent this by regularly saving different versions of a file. This means if you change something you shouldn't have, you can just roll the file back to before this happened.
To test this we copied a Microsoft Word (.docx) file of the public domain story 'The Purple Cloud' to the cloud application folder. Once it synced, we then deleted all the text except the introduction, then saved and closed. We then tried to restore the document back to its original form, complete with all chapters.
We did place our test document into the Internxt folder and deleted some text but there was little point. When we logged in to the web interface we saw there was no 'file version' feature, so clearly Internxt doesn't save multiple copies of edited files.
We did take this opportunity to try out the 'Preview' feature. However, this didn't work for the Microsoft Word document or an MP3 file we tried opening.
Internxt: Verdict
Internxt’s affordable pricing plans, intuitive interface, and reliable support make it a great cloud storage service to consider. It doesn’t offer the same advanced features like file versioning that you’ll find with Dropbox and OneDrive. But personal and business users prioritizing security will enjoy the cloud service provider’s advanced security features and commitment to privacy.
We rate Internxt highly for its range of useful features, including its interface which most users will find already familiar, the option to backup folders elsewhere on your computer, and the free, out-of-plan virus and password tools.
