Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Syncs to and from local and network locations, as well as FTPs
- Backs up websites
- Creates and mounts Windows shadow copies and restore points
Cons
- No online storage support
- Several glitches
Our Verdict
PureSync is great at syncing folders, but also offers useful features such as merging folders, deleting duplicates, and creating shadow copies and restore points. It even mounts the latter as virtual drives. What we miss is support for online services and glitch-free job creation.
Price When Reviewed
€26.95
Best Prices Today: PureSync 7 Professional
PureSync is a capable file/folder sync program that includes several handy related features that set it apart from the crowd. It’s stable, affordable, and quick, but currently lacks support for the online storage services, and we ran into some glitches with job creation.
Further reading: See our roundup of the best Windows backup software to learn about competing products.
PureSync’s features
Beyond usual folder syncing, PureSync offers backup, backup to several locations, merging of folders, finding/deleting duplicate files, moving files, and creating shadow copies and Windows restore points.
It even lets you mount the latter as virtual drives to browse their contents. Note that you can optionally have PureSync create shadow copies to facilitate copying locked and open files.
PureSync also backs up to and from your network, including via FTP (even external FTP).
Another neat PureSync trick I appreciated was the ability to download websites. I used this to back up my own site, but it only finds posted material, not work in progress so you’ll still need to use your web host’s backup facilities for that.
Note that this feature is not intended for, and doesn’t work for downloading files from commercial sites such as YouTube, etc.
The main feature missing, as mentioned, is support for online storage services such as DropBox, Google Drive, OneDrive, etc. Those services offer their own sync facilities, but many of the increasingly popular S3-compatible variety do not.
Using PureSync
PureSync is about as easy to use as sync programs. The interface is attractive, the language is no-nonsense, wizards step you through the job creation process, and there’s plenty of feedback while jobs are running, plus a detailed log when they’re completed. There’s also right-click menu integration and you can optionally define which of these contextual operations are listed.
There was an occasional typo, hinting at the program’s native German origins, but nothing inhibiting. If you understand the basics of syncing, you’ll have no problems with PureSync
Performance of PureSync
During actual file transfers and other normal operations, PureSync performed admirably. I synced to and from local drives, as well as to/from a NAS box on my local network using both Windows SMB and FTP. I also created restore points and shadow copies with nary a glitch.
PureSync is about as easy to use as sync programs get.
I also had some issues (not always replicable) with PureSync’s file/folder selector and its interaction with Windows Explorer.
PureSync also oddly brought to the forefront the Explorer window of a new folder I’d created (using Windows Explorer) when I clicked on the listing inside PureSync. The phone, DCIM, and photo folders showed up just fine in PureSync’s browser, however the program complained it couldn’t find the phone’s internal storage when I tried to initiate the job. Copying the phone files off worked just fine using nothing but Windows Explorer.
Should you buy PureSync?
PureSync performed flawlessly in actual transfers once initiated, and the duplicate file finder, website downloader, and restore point creator/mounter proved handy. But the glitches, failed phone sync, and lack of support for online storage mean I can’t currently recommend paying for the 7.2 professional version. Note that the personal version is free. There is indeed handiness found and any bugs can be fixed soon. I’ll update the review once the company informs me they have addressed the issues.
