14 Best Online Backup Services For Your Computers
Having the backup of your computer is a necessity these days. Any day your computer may face a crash and all the data lost forever. If you are not careful this may lead to a situation that would be tough for you to comprehend later on.
To stay protected it is important that you look for an online backup service in advance. This is our list of the 10 best Online Backup Services available and how they work.
We have reviewed each service and analyzed their pros and cons. By going through them you would get to know which of these services would be suitable for your need.
In fact, we have even mentioned their features, pricing, and benefits as well. You can find out that one service which falls within your budget and use it to solve a very big problem that can arise at any time.
1. IDrive
Install the IDrive application on an unlimited number of PCs/Macs, then login with the same IDrive account to backup data. IDrive will create a unique folder for each of the devices you backup to your account, preventing data overlap. Access all backed up files from any web browser, computer, or mobile device.
You can view, share, and manage files from anywhere.You can easily restore files from your IDrive account to any computer or mobile device. Just log into your IDrive account from web browser, desktop application, or mobile app to restore important files or folders. Manage backup sets, schedule backups, and view backup logs for remote computers via any web browser.
Review: PCmag
IDrive is one of the few services we reviewed that offers a permanent and free 5GB account. Zoolz Big Mind offers a comparable free plan. The business-level subscription adds subaccount management features, priority support, server backup, three IDrive Express bulk backups per year (Personal users only get one), and an unlimited number of users per account for $99.50 a year.
For comparison, Carbonite and Backblaze charge $71.99 and $60 a year, respectively, for unlimited storage plans, though those plans each can only be used with one computer. Competing services such as SOS Online Backup ($44.99 per year for 50GB) and Acronis True Image ($49.99 per year for 250GB) charge considerably more per gigabyte of storage. SOS Online does cover a respectable five computers and an unlimited number of mobile devices, though.
IDrive is available for Windows, macOS, Android (version 4 and later), and iOS (version 11 and later). You can also download IDrive on thin clients and Linux/Unix servers.
2. Back Blaze
As engineers, we’ve been doing backups for years. the problem is we couldn’t get any of our non-technical friends and parents to back up. every time we encouraged them to try some online backup software, it resulted in failure. the programs took too long to set up and asked a bunch of silly questions like “select your photo directory”.
Some of the backblaze team members worked at Apple building great products, so we know how to make great software for the mac. making high-quality products is in our dna. We hate using software that slows down our computer, so we wanted to be sensitive to the performance hit on the computer.
We did a bunch of amazing magic to optimize the software, including reading data once, slowly scanning the drive, and waiting a few minutes before backing up at start-up time. the result is that backblaze uses less than 1% of your cpu and memory on average.
backblaze doesn’t install any drivers and opens any files it backs up as read only so your computer is kept stable. backblaze also works great running side-by-side with apple time machine for added security.every online backup program says they are easy to use. it’s almost become a cliche. but at backblaze we really wanted that to be true from start to finish.
Review: wirecutter
Even if you’re a careful person, the various problems that could imperil your data—malware, software bugs, user error, theft, fire, flood, and so on—make backups a necessity. as broadband speeds slowly but surely improve, online backup services are becoming an increasingly smart addition to your overall backup strategy: pay five bucks a month (give or take), install an app on your computer that runs in the background, and presto!
Your data is safely backed up, and to a location separate from your computer, no less, so if anything should happen to your computer, that event won’t affect the backup, too. and there’s no data limit, either. you should still have local backups, of course, both because the performance is better—it’s faster to copy data to and from a connected hard drive—and because multiple baskets make for fewer broken eggs.
3. SOS Online Backup
SOS online backup does! it also does some other pretty neat things got all your devices covered including tablets, mobile… even facebook! wall street journal calls it “the most comprehensive…” nothing else even comes close!
Your data is secured with our military grade multi-layer encryption. this means it remains 100% private, so you can sleep easy knowing your data is away from prying hackers eyes. edit, change and delete as much as you like!
Save forever feature lets you access unlimited versions of your present and past documents in a flash.
Review: PCmag
The desktop application on windows is functional, but there are design aspects that need improvement. for example, the primarily gray interface looks out-of-date and most of the windows don’t resize. with sos, you can use standard password security, where your encryption key is maintained on sos online’s servers or one of two more secure options: standard ultrasafe and ultrasafe max.
Sos’ backup wizard preselects all documents, photos, music, and videos, but you can change this selection in later steps. it also conveniently calculates the total space required and the number of files selected at this stage.the advanced folder backup option lets you set up folders on different backup schedules and specify retention policies.
for example, you can set files to stay online temporarily or schedule them to be uploaded to cloud storage once they are deleted locally
4. Acronis
Make sure you always have dependable copies of your data so you can restore your entire system or individual files. use cloning and mirror imaging to make a duplicate of your system, capturing all of your data for disk migration or system recovery.
Back up to a local drive and to the cloud for the dual protection of always having on-site and off-site copies available. quickly recover your whole system or a specific file with confidence, knowing that the backup is as good as the original.
Online crooks are now making money from personal pcs by hijacking system resources to mine for cryptocurrencies. acronis active protection now detects and halts crypto mining malware, preserving your system performance.
with all the info in your office 365 account, backups are critical. backing up directly to the acronis cloud is the easy way to safeguard outlook.com emails and attachments, as well as your onedrive files and folders.
Review: PC mag
Acronis offers several different configurations of true image. acronis standard is a one-time cost of $49.99 and grants you all of acronis’ local backup capabilities. the advanced subscription option costs $49.99 per year and includes that same local backup functionality, as well as 250gb of online cloud storage for one computer.
You also get free updates to new versions. you can upgrade the amount of storage to 500gb for an additional $20 and the number of supported computers (three for $79.99 and five for $99.99). The premium account option costs $99.99 per year for 1tb of online storage for one computer.
You can also upgrade this subscription tier with more computers or more storage. for example, a 5tb plan that supports five computers costs $319.95 per year. a free 30-day trial lets you test the waters before committing to any purchase.
5. Carbonite
Find out why diamond foods, maker of fine nuts, chose carbonite to protect more than 40 tbs of data across more than 50 physical and virtual servers.
when ymca was looking to synchronize and centralize 11 physical and 15 virtual servers to address performance and reliability, carbonite was the clear winner.
Any amount of downtime is too much for kerb Hana bank in new york city. find out how they set up a secondary environment for critical servers using carbonite.
carbonite safe provides file backup and recovery for individuals and small businesses. carbonite offers end-to-end data protection strategies that fit the needs of your complex environment.
Review: PC mag
Carbonite ‘s pricing is straightforward, but it has increased since the time of our last review. for $71.99 per year, the basic plan gets you unlimited backup space for one pc or mac. the plus upgrade option ($111.99 per year) adds the ability to back up external drives and automatically upload video (you must do this manually with basic plans).
The prime plan ($149.99 per year) reduces the cost of the courier recovery service, in which carbonite ships you a copy of your data on an external drive. this is important for when your hard drive is destroyed or if you don’t have the time or bandwidth to download hundreds of gigabytes of restored files.
Both idrive and backblaze offer similar services. for prime customers, the courier service costs $9.99 with the option to add expedited shipping for $19.99. for basic and plus users, a courier service request costs $99.99, which includes expedited shipping.
6. Spider Oak
Secure, reliable backup to protect your most important files from data loss and ransomware. Sync your data across all of your devices. Access all of your historical versions and deleted files with no time limits or restrictions.
We offer unparalleled privacy for you and your data. You create new data every day, from important documents to photos capturing life’s best moments. SpiderOak One Backup ensures that your data is safe regardless of what else life brings your way.
SpiderOak One Backup ensures all of your data is protected before even leaving your computer. Data is encrypted while in transit to, and at rest on, our servers.
Review: PC mag
Spideroak one’s account setup is simple; all you need to provide is a username and password. the desktop apps for windows, mac, and linux are the key to spideroak’s service, since—as mentioned—they take full advantage of the privacy features and are the only way to upload files.
It is worth noting that, in order to update the software, you need to download the latest release from the spideroak website. the company explains that “our challenge, which we have not yet solved, is to devise a system in which we can push out authentic updates yet be technically and legally infeasible for an overzealous authority to compel us to push out an update containing a deliberate weakness.” the security-conscious crowd might appreciate this policy, but other users may find it inconvenient.
7. Livedrive
Livedrive makes it really easy to back up your photos, documents, music, videos and more. simply install the software on your windows or mac computer and livedrive will automatically back up your files to our secure online storage.
Livedrive gives you instant access to your backed up files, enabling you to download files, view photos and stream music and videos online at any time. simply download our ios, android or windows apps, or log into your account at livedrive, to securely access your files from anywhere.
If disaster strikes and you lose a file due to hardware failure, theft or accidental deletion, you can easily restore your backed up files. Livedrive also keeps up to 30 previous versions of files, making sure if you accidentally save an unwanted edit you can revert the change quickly.
if you want to back up a second computer or a NAS drive you can buy one of our great value add-ons. we also offer our pro suite product which enables you to back up your mobiles, tablets, and up to 5 pc or mac users.
Review: PC mag
The most expensive personal subscription option, Pro Suite, costs $240 per year. You can use it on up to five PCs or Macs as well as an unlimited number of tablets or mobile devices. This plan includes unlimited backup storage and 5TB of Briefcase storage. Livedrive offers free 14-day trials for all of its plans, but you have to enter credit card information to take advantage of that. There’s also no free plan like those offered by competitors, including iDrive, OpenDrive, or Zoolz BigMind.
Compared with other backup services, Livedrive is expensive. For example, iDrive costs $69.50 per year for 2TB of storage across an unlimited number of devices. Backblaze offers unlimited storage for only $60 per year for one device. Also, most services don’t charge extra for folder syncing. Acronis True Image and SpiderOak ONE, for example, provide this feature for free.
Livedrive also offers the $50-per-month Business Express and the $160-per-month Business Standard plans, which support three and 10 users, respectively. These plans offer collaboration and backup tools for organizations, with the ability to add more users for a fee. We’ve also tested Livedrive Business (the collective name for its enterprise plans) and found that it offers many of the standard features of entry-level cloud storage solutions. It is also expensive and it lacks transparent data-protection policies.
8. OpenDrive
Store, sync or backup your documents, music and pictures online with instant access, sharing and collaboration, all in a simple to use, secure environment.
In a simple but effective interface, create notepads with single notes and to-do lists. attach pictures and documents to any note and write comments. A powerful task and project management tool that helps you manage and collaborate on any project within a single interface.
Share tasks with your account users or anyone else. the idea for opendrive started in 2007 when we desperately needed to store data externally and usb dongles were just not large enough.
Opendrive now helps you to not only store data, but also sync, share and collaborate all within one interface and from one login.we are happy to see nearly 2m users benefit from this idea so far
Review: PC mag
OpenDrive’s free account gets you 5GB storage for one user with bandwidth limited to 1GB per day. This plan also limits the size of file uploads to 100MB and caps upload speeds at 200 Kbps. Thankfully, the free account requires just an email address and password—you don’t have to give credit card information to get started. IDrive and Zoolz BigMind also offer free and permanent 5GB accounts.
The Personal Unlimited plan ($99 per year) removes those upload restrictions and opens up unlimited storage for an unlimited number of devices. The personal plans also include an unlimited number of notes, up to 10 tasks for project management purposes, and external drive backup capabilities. To get unlimited tasks (as well as notes), you need to pay $29.95 per month or $299 per year for OpenDrive’s Unlimited Business Plan.
9. Zoolz BigMind
A growing pain for businesses is having masses of unstructured data scattered across desktops, laptops and mobile devices. with no time and inadequate security measures to protect these valuable data assets, we decided to create a solution that can not only organise your data, but protect it with military-grade encryption.bigmind is made with you in mind. you don’t need any technical skill or even an it degree.
Just upload your data and the technology will do the rest, allowing you to focus on what really matters; your business. if you do require any assistance, our dedicated support can answer any questions you may have. You have an important meeting or presentation, but can’t find the file.
Why waste time searching through folders, when you can enter a keyword and get relevant results in seconds. with bigmind, you can do just that. you can even preview the sentence it’s used it – much like a search engine.
Review: PC mag
Pros
Top-notch desktop and web apps. Good performance in our upload speed tests. Permanent free version. Easy sharing options.
Cons
Expensive top-tier plans. Limited versioning. No private encryption key, disaster recovery, or folder syncing options. Pushy subscription upsells.
Bottom Line
BigMind offers sophisticated apps and is easy to use, but it lacks common features found in competing online backup services, including private encryption key protection and robust versioning.
10. ElephantDrive
Elephantdrive is natively integrated with leading nas devices. no need for mapping the nas to your computer!the everywhere folder automatically syncs across devices. start working at the office desktop, pickup where you left off from your laptop at home.
Elephantdrive backs up and syncs windows (including servers), mac, linux, ios, and android devices. view, access, save and share your files from iphone, ipad, or android devices. and directly backup and upload files from your mobile devices!
Elephantdrive always encrypts data with aes 256-bit encryption before it even leaves your device! transfer of the already encrypted data is also done using a 128-bit ssl secured channel. wish you could go back in time and find an older version of a file? now you can. all previous versions are easily identifiable with date and time.
Review: PC mag
Pros
Flexible versioning and archiving capabilities. Good sharing options. Fast upload speeds in our tests.
Cons
Disjointed and buggy applications. 2GB upload-file-size limit for home accounts. Outdated Android app. No 2FA.
Bottom Line
Elephant Drive’s flexible backup and versioning capabilities are overshadowed by its file upload limitations and unintuitive desktop experience.
11. OneDrive
OneDrive is a cloud based content management solution that provides organizations with a platform to collaborate, share and store documents. This system enables cross-platform synchronization and prevents data loss.
OneDrive provides free storage up to 5GB and is available on Windows, Android and iOS devices. . In addition, the system shares real-time notifications whenever a file is viewed or edited.
Create your best work with the latest versions of Word, Excel, and other Office apps. Plus, get 1 TB of cloud storage, document sharing, ransomware recovery, and more with OneDrive.
Review: Software Advice
Although some internal functionality needs minor adjustments, One Drive is undoubtedly one of the best cloud storage services out there. Its ease in configuring it, storing the files and then making it available to my team is something that caught my attention, as I clearly perceive that the purpose of the service is to make the client’s life easier and use the best tools without the need for skills advanced techniques.
12. Backblaze Business
Backblaze helps you protect business data. Easily deployed across laptops and desktops. Centrally managed. Securing all your user data for just $60/year per computer for unlimited backup. Extended Version History allows you to access previous versions of your data.
You can download a free restore or have a USB hard drive or USB key Fedex to you. Backblaze is just $6/month. Backblaze offers a huge discount over other cloud providers at $0.005/GB/Month for storage.
Review: Cloudwards
Backblaze is a great pick if you’re a business user looking to protect your work files in a way that doesn’t require time and effort. That’s thanks to Backblaze’s ability to backup based on file type and unlimited backup space. This makes it unnecessary to manually tag files for backup, like you have to do with, say, CrashPlan.
13. CrashPlan
Get all the data protection you need in one seamless online cloud backup solution. The service combines a low price with a lengthy list of features and controls, including some that are rarely found elsewhere.
The service is hugely customisable. You can have continuous or scheduled backups. Online destinations, local, or both. And it’s possible to use your preferred encryption or compression settings, retention policies and more.
Features
- Cloud backup runs automatically in the background. Doesn’t slow you down.
- Restore your files to the latest versions without paying a ransom for them.
- Included for no additional cost. Keep a local copy of your files for fast recovery.
- CrashPlan protects the files you’re currently working on first, and makes it easy to go back to previous versions of your files by date.
- Restore via desktop app or browser. No charge to restore your files.
Review: Techradar
This data recovery and backup platform is one of the simplest options for small businesses. There’s no limit on the number of computers or servers you can have on your account, and no storage limits for individual devices.CrashPlan’s pricing is about as simple as it gets. After a one-month free trial, just pay $10 per month per computer you want to back up.
There are no data storage limits on the connected devices and no limit on the number of computers you can add. That makes CrashPlan a lot cheaper than many cloud storage providers, including iDrive, pCloud, and Box, that charge by capacity. But, paying monthly can make this software pricey as a data recovery solution.
14. Dropbox Business
Dropbox Business is another popular cloud storage provider that has options for individuals or business. While some people swear by the individual Dropbox plan, it’s really the business plans we’ll focus on here.
Advanced sharing enables only selected users to see important files, and files can be remotely wiped if sensitive data gets compromised. Dropbox can also back up all photos as they are added.
Dropbox also provides an admin panel to control files centrally. User licenses, content and access permissions can be transferred from one user to the other.
Review: Pcmag
Dropbox Business eases the burden of IT staffers who have to assign and manage permissions, device approvals, and Single Sign-On (SSO). While storage and sharing are the strong suits of Dropbox Business, the ability to view or edit files inline or from within Dropbox is quite limited.
Compared to Google Drive Enterprise and Editors’ Choice selection Microsoft OneDrive for Business, which both offer quick view and editing, Dropbox Business has a long way to go in offering file editing. This is why it now falls behind our Editors’ Choice selections that have since ramped up file editing and real-time collaboration features from last time we reviewed them.