Compare the Best External Hard DrivesJune 2021

External hard drives are portable and used to backup files and data from your computer, so they’re safeguarded in case of accident or for retrieval at a later date. While Cloud-based backups are being used more and more for backups, external hard drives still have several important benefits compared to online backups:

Extras

Finally, there are a wealth of extras that can be found in more advanced models of external hard drives. Some of these may only be useful in specific situations, and you will usually pay more for them, but the utility may well be worth the extra cost. Some examples of extra features include:

External Hard Drive Prices

In total we found 385 external hard drives ranging from £29 to £853. On average, a new external hard drive costs £158 and 80% of external hard drives are priced between £46 and £343. The cheapest external hard drive that we found is the Toshiba Canvio Basics - 500Gb at only £30, and the most expensive is the ioSafe SoloPRO - 4Tb at £853.

External Hard Drive Brands - Price Range

IoSafe external hard drive start at £335 and their most expensive external hard drive costs £853. The highest average external hard drive price out of all brands is ioSafe external hard drive with an average price of £526.

The average price of Digittrade external hard drives is £477 which is the second highest average price of all external hard drive brands. Digittrade external hard drives start at £360 and their most expensive external hard drive costs £587.

The third highest average external hard drive price out of all brands is Apricorn external hard disk drive with an average price of £318. Apricorn external hard disk drive range in price from £123 to £724.

External Hard Drive Brands - Average Ratings

We have analysed 118 expert reviews and 1,855 user reviews for external harddisks and used this information to evaluate the average rating for each brand of external hard drive. The top rated external hard drive brand is Western Digital with an average rating of 89%. The second best brand is Seagate with 87% and the third best brand is Silicon Power with 77%.

Biggest External Hard Drive Retailers

The biggest external hard drive retailer by number of products currently for sale is SmartTeck. We found 203 current external hard drive offers from SmartTeck. The second biggest retailer is Quzo with 200 offers. That means SmartTeck is very close in size to Quzo when it comes to external harddisks. Ebuyer Business is the third biggest retailer with 80 current offers.

When Are Most New External Harddisk Released?

We couldn't see any noticeable trend in the release dates for new external hard disk drives over the last 3 years. Five new external hard drives were released in February 2020 making it the biggest month that year for new external hard drive releases. September was the biggest month in 2019 for new external harddisk, with 10 new external harddisk released that month. The biggest month in 2018 for new external hard drive releases was June, with 57 new external hard disk drives released that month.

How Fast Do External Hard Drive Prices Drop After Release?

On average, in the first 6 months after release, external hard drives drop in price by 0%.

That means a saving of £0 on a typical £157 new external hard drive if you wait 6 months before buying.

Weights

'Weight' denotes the weight of the external hard drive, measured in grams (g).

Across the range of external hard disks, the weights range from 41g to 11.4kg. The weights of most external hard drive range from 0g to 300g. The ioSafe SoloPRO - 2Tb, which sells for £494.66, has the heaviest weight and is a 6.8kg external hard drive. The Integral USB 3.0 Portable SSD External Hard Drive - 256GB, which is priced at £108.99, has the lightest weight and is a 41g external hard drive.

USB Powered

Whether the hard drive is powered by USB or not.

Of the 838 new external hard drives currently listed on Kagoo, the vast majority are USB powered external hard drives. 688 out of 838 are USB powered external hard drives.

Hard Drive Capacities

'Hard Drive Capacity' denotes how much data the hard drive can hold, measured in gigabytes (GB).

Across the range of external hard drive, the hard drive capacities range from 1GB to 64TB. The hard drive capacities of most external hard drives range from 0GB to 1.5TB. The Western Digital My Book Duo - 20Tb, which is available at £687.06, has the biggest hard drive capacity and is a 20TB external hard drive. The Western Digital WD My Passport Wireless - 2TB, which can be purchased for £160.32, has the smallest hard drive capacity and is a 1GB external hard drive.

Which Are the Cheapest Retailers for External Hard Disks?

The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying external hard drive. For each retailer it shows the total number of external hard drive where they currently have a market leading price. The chart below helps you decide which retailer is normally cheapest for buying external hard disk. For each retailer we took all of their prices and looked at what proportion of those prices where the cheapest on the market. The cheapest retailer that we found was SmartTeck. 53 of their external hard drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.

Proportion of External Hard Disk Drives for Which Each Retailer is Cheapest?

Assessing how cheap each retailer is for external hard disk by counting the number of cheapest prices for that retailer, makes the retailers that offer the greatest number of external hard drive prices more likely to offer the greatest number of cheapest prices. The chart below considers the proportion of each retailer's external hard drive prices that are the cheapest compared to other retailers. The cheapest retailer that we found using this approach was SmartTeck. 26.1% of their external hard drive prices were the cheapest that could be found anywhere.