When you’ve lost essential files that you absolutely must restore, you need the best data recovery software available. Stellar Data Recovery Premium and EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Pro are often among the top picks to get back your lost files.
Both offer advanced features to recover data from hard drives, SSDs, and USB drives, even from a PC that you can’t start up. They support a wide range of file formats and have user-friendly interfaces to help you scan for missing data, and preview and restore files.
To help you pick between Stellar Data Recovery Premium and EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Pro, I’ll compare subscription plans, and share our hands-on experience using the apps and interacting with customer support. By the end, you’ll know which is best for you.
Tiers and pricing
Stellar Data Recovery offers three price tiers. The Standard plan lets you restore an unlimited number of files for $60 annually. If your missing data is on a computer that won’t boot up or a lost partition, you’ll need the $90 Professional plan. The $100-per-year Premium plan includes includes a tool to repair corrupt photos and videos.
If you’re certain you’ll only need to use EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Pro a few times, look for a pop-up offer for a $40 weekly plan. If that’s not available, the least-expensive option is a $70 monthly subscription. If you’re paying that much, the $100 annual plan has better long-term value. You can even break out of the subscription cycle entirely with a lifetime upgrade for $150.
While Stellar Data Recovery Standard cuts $40 off the one-year EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Pro annual plan, you’ll need to upgrade to Stellar Data Recovery Premium to get every feature.
The best recovery tools both charge $100 annually. That means we need to compare features and support to find out which is best.
Features
In my Stellar Data Recovery Premium review, the app successfully restored files and folders from an external hard disk drive (HDD), passing both tests with no problems. I was also able to get lost HDD files with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Pro.
It’s not surprising that two top data recovery apps gave equal results. It’s much easier to restore files lost from an HDD than from a solid-state drive (SSD). While an SSD is much faster, an HDD still has some advantages.
EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Pro is the only app I’ve tested that could restore lost SDD files. While EaseUS didn’t work in every test, the SDD files restored by Stellar Data Recovery Premium were damaged and the repair tool didn’t help. I saw the filenames, but couldn’t open anything.
I also tested both apps with a damaged USB thumb drive with lost partitions. Stellar Data Recovery Premium couldn’t see the drive, but EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Pro was able to restore those missing files.
While both data recovery apps have similar features, I found EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Pro to be much more reliable in my testing. It also has a more modern design with a resizable window that works better on HD displays.
Customer support and usability
Stellar Data Recovery earned 4.7 stars in Trustpilot, matching the 4.7 rating of EaseUS. EaseUS maintained that high score across over 21,000 reviews. Stellar has nearly 4,000 reviews, which is still a good sample size. Both companies are trusted by their customers.
In my own testing, I was impressed by Stellar’s quick response from a live agent who shared detailed instructions to access the advanced file repair feature. EaseUS was just as fast and helpful. A paid plan from either company includes live support 24 hours a day on weekdays.
Both have website support centers where you can browse help guides and community forums.
Free versions
Stellar Data Recovery’s free version has the same features as the Standard subscription plan, but limits how much you can restore to 1GB. That’s enough for hundreds of photos and documents. Video takes more space, so you might need to subscribe.
The free version EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard has a similar restriction but the cap is at 2GB. Twice as much data for free is a nice incentive to try EaseUS.
It’s great that both companies provide the option to try restoring files before subscribing. Other free data recovery apps like Recuva show a list of files you might be able to get back but won’t restore any until you’ve paid.
Which data recovery app is best?
The most important function of data recovery software is getting your files back. While Stellar Data Recovery Premium was perfect in my HDD tests, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Pro also restored files in one SDD test and could find and recover files from a lost thumb drive partition.
Pricing is quite similar for both but EaseUS offers a $40 weekly subcription, which is ideal for short-term use. If you anticipate needing to recover data for more than a year, EaseUS has a $150 lifetime plan that offers the best long-term value.
Overall, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Pro is the best solution for both free and paid plans.
If you need a solution that works on a Mac, check our guide to the best data recovery software for macOS.
Editors’ Recommendations
