LifeSort review

1 / 2

Online synchronisation has become big business in the past few years. With many households owning at least two computers and some even more, the need to keep files available across them all has become increasingly important. We’ve found Dropbox to be the simplest way of keeping your files in sync, but there are plenty of competitors offering similar solutions. LifeSort is the latest.

The idea behind LifeSort is essentially the same as with Dropbox. Create an account, install the software on the computers which have files you want to keep in sync, then all you do to make those files accessible between your various computers is to drag them to your LifeSort folders. As with Dropbox, you get all the standard features, complete with 2GB of online storage, for free, then you pay extra for more storage and features. It’s $3.95 per month for 5GB ($39.95 for the year), $5.95 per month for 10GB, $7.95 for 20GB and $9.95 for 50GB. The pricing is similar to Dropbox’s, but with some more price points.

The main difference is in how the system works. Where Dropbox integrates with Windows’ file system, adding a single Dropbox folder to your My Documents folder, LifeSort creates its own categorised system, and to access this you have to use its own user interface. Dubbed the LifeSort Bar, this comes in the form of a repositionable dock that appears on the left edge of your Windows desktop, with icons representing three organisational categories – Personal, Professional and World. Each of these has a series of sub-categories attached to it, and after a couple of clicks you eventually reach a ‘folder’, to which you drag the files, shortcuts and folders you want to sync. At the bottom of each of LifeSort folder Sync and Share buttons let you upload files to your online storage space or share them between your email contacts.

A small handful of features separate LifeSort from its competitors. Based on the contents of your folders, it can suggest websites you might find useful – just click the Popular tab in each window to view them. Lock lets you password protect folders, Desktop lets you view your current Windows desktop sorted by category such as website shortcuts, program files and documents – useful for those who have hundreds of disorganised icons littering their desktop. Finally, there’s Quickflip, which displays live thumbnail images of any website shortcut you drag into the Quickflip folder.

Alas, you have to pay extra for the Lock, Desktop and Quickflip features ($1.49 per month), and LifeSort’s core functionality isn’t good enough to persuade us that paying for more storage is a good idea either. Files must be marked for synchronisation manually, which is a pain. The user interface feels clunky and unintuitive, with folders that occupy too much screen space, and remain on top when opened, getting in the way until you dismiss them manually.

Neither are we convinced about the whole concept of categorisation. LifeSort’s structure feels forced and unnecessary – we’d rather just create our own folder structure – and the proliferation of folders makes it difficult to remember where you put what. We ended up sticking with just a couple of folders. It’s restrictive too, with the only way of customising it to remove and add items from a predefined list; there’s no way to add or rename items.

Although there’s a folder for website favourites, there’s no simple way of importing your preferred browser’s bookmarks, and with the free version, you have to put up with ads. Finally, there’s no mobile app for either iOS or Android, nor compatibility with Mac OS. These are all in the pipeline.

In short, we can’t see much point in choosing LifeSort. The UI is awkward and ugly, we can’t see the structure of the categories being useful to many people, and the extra pay-for features simply aren’t worth paying for. If you need a straightforward sync solution, go for Dropbox instead.

Written by

Jonathan Bray

Head of reviews at Expert Reviews, Jon has been testing and writing about products since before most of you were born (well, only if you were born after 1996). In that time he’s tested and reviewed hundreds of laptops, PCs, smartphones, vacuum cleaners, coffee machines, doorbells, cameras and more. He’s worked on websites since the early days of tech, writing game reviews for AOL and hardware reviews for PC Pro, Computer Buyer and other print publications. He’s also had work published in Trusted Reviews, Computing Which? and The Observer. And yet, even after so many years in the industry, there’s still nothing more he loves than getting to grips with a new product and putting it through its paces.

More about