Wise Data Recovery Pro review: Is it worth it?

You might be more familiar with Wise Disk Cleaner than Wise Data Recovery, but both have been around for many years, keeping Windows PCs running well and helping you restore lost files.

Wise is on our list of the best free data recovery software, so I reviewed the paid version to thoroughly test the ease of use, customer service, and ability to recover files from different types of drives. Unfortunately, I found it to be a bit less well-rounded than some of its competitors.

Tiers and pricing

Like many data recovery apps, WiseCleaner offers a free version of its app. Wise Data Recovery Free lets you restore files totaling up to 2GB of data. To get more files back, you’ll need to subscribe.

While some data recovery software has different features for each tier, the pricing for Wise Data Recovery Pro is quite simple. You get the same features as the free version but without the data cap.

It costs $40 per year and supports one Windows PC. The paid version comes with priority tech support to help with billing, software installation, and recovery issues.

If you have more than one Windows computer, it only costs $10 more to get an annual license for three PCs. Wise Data Recovery Pro has a 30-day money-back guarantee

Design

I started with Wise Data Recovery Free, then upgraded to Wise Data Recovery Pro. The user interface and the features are the same. The app has a clean and simple design.

At the top left, there’s a button that looks like an external drive. Selecting that button opened a file browser where I could choose which drive or folder to scan for lost files.

The scan starts immediately. A circular graph at the bottom left shows the progress and an ETA approximates how many hours, minutes, and seconds you’ll wait for completion.

Folders appear in the left sidebar. The window is resizable, so I enlarged it to see more files and columns in the list of scanned and recovered files to the right.

There’s a filter option and search bar at the top left, along with the menu to get help or register Wise Data Recovery Pro after purchasing a subscription. At the bottom right, the Recover button starts file restoration.

After scanning, I could right-click any file to open a preview window. The simple design makes the app easy to use, but it would be nicer if it had a preview panel or a thumbnail view.

Features

I began with SSD tests. I loaded a partition of my internal SSD with 165 files, mostly AI images and photos but also a few MP3 audio files. Some files were in folders nested two deep.

After a Windows quick format, I selected that SSD partition for a scan. Wise Data Recovery Pro found no files. I expected that outcome. It’s notoriously hard to restore files even from the best SSDs, a side effect of modern speed and longevity optimization techniques.

I loaded up the drive again, then deleted every file and folder from the partition. Windows warned me the files would be immediately deleted. I proceeded and then scanned again with Wise Data Recovery Pro.

This time I saw a list of files and folders with appropriate names. While that was encouraging, I didn’t get my hopes up since I saw no thumbnails. I right-clicked a file and opened a preview, but that didn’t work.

I tried a complete recovery anyway, selecting the entire drive, choosing a folder to restore the files and folders, and hitting the Recover button at the bottom right.

My SSD is fast and that took only seconds. Unfortunately, I couldn’t open any of the files. I’ve only had a successful SSD recovery once, and that was with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Pro. SSD files are almost impossible to restore.

For the next round of tests, I switched to a slow external USB drive that uses hard disk technology. As before, I copied a batch of files and folders to the freshly formatted drive.

After a quick format, I put Wise Data Recovery Pro to work scanning for those lost files. The app immediately began listing JPG, PNG, and MP3 files, indicating 141 files had been found. The ETA to complete the scan was nearly an hour, about the same as other data recovery apps I’ve reviewed.

When the scan was complete, the app listed 126 files, lacking thumbnails and names. My original folders were missing but the files were separated by type. I went ahead with recovery and was surprised by the results.

Wise Data Recovery Pro restored 126 images and two audio files, despite a lack of thumbnails and previews after the scan. Still 126 out of 165 is only a 76% success rate.

I ran a full format and copied files and folders to my external USB drive for a second HDD test. After deleting everything, a Wise Data Recovery Pro scan quickly found 141 files, some with preview images after only a few seconds.

The app claimed it found 221 files including four folders. Some filenames were intact but most previews were blank. I told Wise Data Recovery Pro to recover everything, and it did so with perfect success this time, restoring files, filenames, and folders just as they were before deletion.

For a final test, I plugged in an old thumb drive that stopped working many years ago. Some data recovery apps can’t see the drive and Windows can’t open it. Wise Data Recovery Pro had no problem scanning it, so I told it to recover the contents.

The drive was a Windows recovery drive. I browsed the contents and opened a text log file, which looked fine. Wise Data Recovery Pro handled the damaged thumb drive with no problem.

Support

Wise Data Recovery Pro is a low-cost app that doesn’t offer live support like Stellar Data Recovery Premium. However, Wise Data Recovery paid subscribers get priority support via email.

I tested customer service with a question about SSD recovery. A 24-hour response time is fairly common for email support, and WiseCleaner did well. In about 18 hours, I received an email explaining that a damaged SSD file might be unrecoverable. That’s an uncomfortable truth, but I appreciated the honest explanation.

If you need quicker answers, you can search or browse the online documents in WiseCleaner’s support center.

Privacy and security

WiseCleaner’s website states it won’t sell, rent, or share your personal information. The end-user license agreement for Wise Data Recovery makes no mention of advertising or marketing.

The app doesn’t upload files for processing or recovery. Everything happens on your computer, so there are no privacy issues with your personal data.

I couldn’t find any reports of security breaches of WiseCleaner software either. Wise Data Recovery should be private and secure.

Is Wise Data Recovery Pro right for you?

Wise Data Recovery Pro is a low-cost app that works well in some situations. However, it’s not as advanced as the best data recovery apps, failing in both SSD tests and missing several files in one of the HDD tests.

While the data recovery apps from EaseUS and Stellar are more expensive, each offers better preview options and support via live chat. If your budget is tight, the free version of Recuva allows unlimited data recovery and provides better results in my experience.

If you’re still considering Wise Data Recovery, start with the free version. You can restore up to 2GB of files to test it out. If the app works well for your drive, it might be worth subscribing so you can recover more data.