Is an external HDD still worth buying instead of an SSD in 2025?

For pure cost per terabyte, yes. HDDs remain dramatically cheaper than portable SSDs, which is why mainstream reviewers and the data-hoarding community still recommend them for bulk backup, cold storage, media libraries, and console overflow. If you need fast scratch storage for video editing or game loading, a portable SSD is the better tool; for archiving 4TB or more on a budget, a spinning drive still wins on price.