Is Western Digital or Seagate more reliable for an external hard drive?

Across the reviewers we read, both brands have strong long-term followings. Specialist-community threads on r/DataHoarder and r/videography repeatedly describe WD drives as unexciting but long-lived, while Seagate Expansion and Portable units draw praise for value; a minority of community posts report individual Seagate failures within a couple of years. The honest consensus is that either brand is fine, but every reviewer stresses keeping a separate backup regardless of brand.