Should You Buy a Seagate External Hard Drive?

Seagate is one of the most popular external hard drive brands as well as being well known for its . The company behind Seagate also manufacturers LaCie External Hard Drives.
If you are wondering how Seagate external hard drives compare to other brands, our guide below collates all the key info in a single place. We've compared over 1,000 external hard drives by objectively and impartially analysing over 4,600 user and expert reviews and 20 awards from hundreds of different review sites.
Seagate are recognised for their wide selection of popular and high quality external hard drives and start at $55 for the Backup Plus Slim - 1TB which has a hard drive capacity of 1TB and a weight of 159g and go up to $253 for the Backup Plus Desktop - 8TB which has a hard drive capacity of 8TB and a weight of 860g. The average price of a new Seagate external hard drive is $102.
Is Seagate the Best External Hard Drive Brand?
So are Seagate external hard drives any good? We give every external hard drive a Kagoo Score by analysing its specs, reviews and prices and comparing this to its competitors. By aggregating this data across all external hard drives we are able to impartially rank all the external hard drive brands.
Our detailed analysis taking into account all of the above factors found that Seagate is the actually best external hard drive brand out there.
#1 |
United States
|
95% |
95%
65 reviews
|
#2 |
United States
|
92% |
92%
1,457 reviews
|
#3 |
France
|
91% |
91%
15 reviews
|
#4 | 86% |
86%
14 reviews
|
|
#5 | 72% |
72%
0 reviews
|
|
#6 | 66% |
66%
0 reviews
|
|
#7 | 65% |
65%
0 reviews
|
|
#8 |
Rocstor
|
64% |
64%
1 review
|
#9 |
DataLocker
|
62% |
62%
0 reviews
|
#10 |
Verbatim
|
62% |
62%
0 reviews
|
#11 |
ioSafe
|
61% |
61%
0 reviews
|
#12 |
Glyph
|
59% |
59%
0 reviews
|
#13 |
Apricorn
|
54% |
54%
1 review
|
#14 |
OWC
|
52% |
52%
0 reviews
|
Let's look at how Seagate external hard drives compare to the other external hard drive brands across each of the key facets that make up the Kagoo Score.
All external hard drive Brands |
Seagate External Hard Drives |
There's a wide selection of Seagate external hard drives available compared to other external hard drive brands, with 20 Seagate external hard drives currently on the market in the US. At an average purchase price of $102, Seagate external hard drives also tend to be cheaper than most other external hard drive brands which makes them a popular choice with consumers.
Seagate have better reviews than the typical external hard drive brand, with the average rating of a Seagate external hard drive being 81%. Seagate have a number of great features including Built-in USB Hub and Drag & Drop File Saving which sets them apart from the competition.
No. Of External Hard Drives |
Average Price
$104 |
|||||||||||||||||||
$0 | $50 | $100 | $150 | $200 | $250 | $300 | $350 | $400 | $450 | $749 |
No. Of External Hard Drives |
Average Price
$102 |
|||||||||||||||||||
$0 | $50 | $100 | $150 | $200 | $250 | $300 | $350 | $400 | $450 | $899 |
What Do the Seagate External Hard Drive Reviews Say?
We've added up all the reviews for every Seagate external hard drive to work out the average distribution of reviews for Seagate and then compared this to the other external hard drive brands.

Expert Reviews
5 stars | 2 | |
4 stars | 6 | |
3 stars | 0 | |
2 stars | 0 | |
1 star | 0 |

User Reviews
5 stars | 35 | |
4 stars | 4 | |
3 stars | 2 | |
2 stars | 1 | |
1 star | 6 |
Over 100% of expert reviews and 81% of user reviews for Seagate external hard drives are 4 stars or higher. This compares to 91% and 90% respectively across all External Hard Drive brands.
In the table below we compare the average review score given to Seagate external hard drives by some of the most popular technology review sites against their reviews for other external hard drive brands. The best review score from each review source is highlighted in green.
Average Review Score | Western Digital | LaCie | A-DATA | Seagate | Silicon Power |
![]() |
|
71%
4 reviews
|
|
|
|
![]() |
90%
1 review
|
60%
1 review
|
80%
2 reviews
|
|
|
![]() |
80%
1 review
|
80%
1 review
|
|
|
80%
1 review
|
![]() |
80%
1 review
|
|
65%
2 reviews
|
|
|
![]() |
80%
1 review
|
80%
1 review
|
|
|
|
![]() |
80%
1 review
|
60%
1 review
|
|
|
|
![]() |
|
|
|
80%
1 review
|
90%
1 review
|
![]() |
80%
1 review
|
|
80%
1 review
|
|
|
![]() |
93%
1 review
|
|
|
|
|
![]() |
|
|
|
|
80%
1 review
|
![]() |
|
70%
1 review
|
|
|
|
![]() |
|
|
37%
1 review
|
|
|
![]() |
|
70%
1 review
|
|
|
|
![]() |
|
|
|
|
98%
1 review
|
![]() |
|
|
|
80%
1 review
|
|
![]() |
|
|
37%
1 review
|
|
|
![]() |
|
|
|
|
90%
1 review
|
![]() |
|
|
|
85%
1 review
|
|
![]() |
|
|
84%
1 review
|
|
|
![]() |
80%
1 review
|
|
|
|
|
Other Expert Sites |
51%
7 reviews
|
70%
1 review
|
15%
2 reviews
|
57%
5 reviews
|
27%
2 reviews
|
Average |
79%
15 reviews
|
70%
11 reviews
|
57%
10 reviews
|
76%
8 reviews
|
77%
7 reviews
|
How Many Industry Awards Have Seagate External Hard Drives Received?
After checking thousands of expert review websites we found 4 industry awards for Seagate external hard drives. The table below compares the number of awards received by Seagate to other popular external hard drive brands. The largest number of awards provided by each review source is highlighted in green.
Compare all award winning external hard drives
Number of Awards | Western Digital | LaCie | A-DATA | Seagate | Silicon Power |
![]() |
1
|
1
|
|
|
1
|
![]() |
|
|
1
|
1
|
|
![]() |
|
|
|
1
|
1
|
![]() |
|
|
1
|
|
1
|
![]() |
|
|
2
|
|
|
![]() |
|
|
|
1
|
|
![]() |
1
|
|
|
|
|
![]() |
1
|
|
|
|
|
![]() |
1
|
|
|
|
|
![]() |
1
|
|
|
|
|
![]() |
|
|
|
|
1
|
![]() |
|
|
|
1
|
|
![]() |
|
|
|
|
1
|
![]() |
|
|
|
|
1
|
![]() |
|
|
|
|
1
|
![]() |
1
|
|
|
|
|
![]() |
|
|
1
|
|
|
Total |
6
|
1
|
5
|
4
|
7
|
How Reliable Are Seagate External Hard Drives?
We checked over 4,600 reviews to find comments about the reliability of Seagate external hard drives. 75% of reviews that mention reliability were positive. Therefore the majority of Seagate external hard drive owners and reviewers thought the product was reliable.
So, most people think that Seagate external hard drives are good quality. Now let's take a look at some of the reviews for Seagate external hard drives that mention reliability:
RELIABLE



NOT RELIABLE

Features to Look Out For On Seagate External Hard Drives
There's a number of great features to look out for on the latest range of Seagate external hard drives that set them apart from the competition. These include Built-in USB Hub and Drag & Drop File Saving.
Seagate Built-in USB Hub
A built-in USB Hub means that the hard drive also has several USB sockets for plugging in peripherals or transferring data.
Seagate external hard drives that have a Built-in USB Hub include the Seagate Backup Plus ($110).
Seagate Drag & Drop File Saving
Seagate external hard drives that feature Drag & Drop File Saving include the Seagate Expansion - 2Tb ($89).
What is the Best Budget Choice Seagate External Hard Drive?
Seagate Game Drive - 2Tb
$79.99
Adorama
|
Buy Now |

2TB
|
5,000 Mbit/s
DATA TRANSFER
|
169g
|
![]() |
140MB/s
WRITE SPEED
|
At only $79.99 and with a Kagoo Score of 81 the Seagate Game Drive - 2Tb makes a great budget choice.
A bargain price and fully featured 169g external hard drive. It is USB powered and has a write speed of 140MB/s.
83
|
Fully-Featured |
83
|
Very Good |
81
|
Excellent |
The cheapest price that we could find for the Game Drive - 2Tb in the US is $79.99 but in total we found only 1 price for it.
|
Out of stock
|
$79.99
Delivery unknown
|
Go to Store | |
|
Out of stock
|
$79.99
Delivery unknown
|
Go to Store | |
|
In stock
|
$79.99
Delivery unknown
|
Go to Store | |
|
+2 more prices
In stock
|
$379.99
Delivery unknown
|
Go to Store | |
- Show less prices from Adorama |
Compare All Seagate External Hard Drives
Find the best Seagate external hard drive for you by checking our complete list of over 130 external hard drives
|