Best Online Backups Based on In-Depth Reviews
- 200+Hours of research
- 50+Sources used
- 8Companies vetted
- 4Features reviewed
- 4Top
Picks
- Contrary to cloud storage, online backups upload files automatically.
- Initial computer and device backups can be time-consuming.
- Backup software runs either continuous or on scheduled data uploads.
- All stored data is processed and secured with AES encryption.
How We Found The Best Online Backups
Our Top Picks: Online Backup Reviews
Our computers and other electronic devices store a significant part of both our personal and work lives. However, a 2015 survey showed that, although a vast majority of us consider our data valuable, only 10% of Americans backup their files on a daily basis. At any moment, theft, loss, natural disasters, hardware malfunctions, data corruption, hacking, or even ransomware attacks can erase years of work and memories.
We evaluated online backup services on their ability to provide streamlined and secure solutions against these and other data loss scenarios. We also prioritized storage capacity, access, and synchronization across devices, looking for the best value coupled with features that help secure your information and give you the peace of mind of knowing your data is safe.
FEATURES |
ONLINE BACKUPS |
CLOUD STORAGE |
| Back-Up Mode | Continuous or scheduled backups | Manual storage |
| Security | All stored data is encrypted using AES keys of 128 bit or more | No encryption applied to files |
| Storage Space | Most services offer unlimited storage space | Most services offer limited storage space |
| File Retention | Previous file versions are kept usually for around a month | Old files are overwritten or deleted making them impossible to retrieve |
| Data Access | The stored information is meant for restoration purposes, not for active access | Some programs and functions can be run directly from the cloud |
| Space Maximization | Organizes files and applies deduplication criteria to eliminate duplicate files | Doesn’t identify duplicate files |
| Number of Devices | Limited | Unlimited |
Carbonite review
Best for Individuals
Screenshot Carbonite.com, October 2020
Carbonite offers continuous automatic backups, unlimited storage space, and a 15-day free trial on all their plans, with customer support available 7 days a week over the phone, chat, and email. They offer three personal plans, all of which are billed annually: Basic, Plus, and Prime. Basic is $6/mo, Plus is $9.34/mo and Prime is $12.50/mo. You can also purchase additional Carbonite backups for each computer you want to associate with your Carbonite Safe account.
Carbonite’s Plus plan gives you the same unlimited storage as the Basic plan, with an added external hard drive backup and automatic video backup. The Prime plan gives you all the previous features and a courier recovery service. This means that if there’s data loss on your computer device, a courier will personally assist you in retrieving your backed up files, and send you an external drive directly to your home.
If you want to cover multiple computers, you will need to buy individual licenses or subscribe to the company’s business plans, which start at $24/mo and include all the previous features plus FERPA (Family Education Rights Privacy Act), GLBA (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act), and HIPAA compliance. Users receive centralized management and administrative control, image backup, and bare-metal restore for databases on these plans.
Once installed, the Carbonite software will automatically copy your files to cloud storage data centers. Carbonite’s app works in the background to capture changes as you go, updating any previously stored version of the files. You can also access and download documents through your mobile device with Carbonite’s Anytime, Anywhere Access feature without the need for an app.
Carbonite operates on Windows and Mac OS servers and computers, iOS and Android mobile phones, Synology and QNAP NAS devices.
Degoo review
Best Free Service
Screenshot Degoo.com, October 2020
Degoo offers generous amounts of free storage space (100GB) to its users on its free plan, which also includes data backup on up to three devices, access to web apps, and end-to-end encryption. With referral bonuses, users can expand their storage space to as much as 500GB, getting 5GB of additional space for each referred friend. The software is available for Android, iPhone iOS, Huawei, Windows, and Mac OS X.
Data is stored with zero-knowledge encryption, meaning that only the account holder can access the information using its password key based on a passphrase. Data is encoded and stored in data centers across various countries, providing sufficient data redundancy if one location experiences any issues.
Users control data storage by choosing to upload only over a WiFi connection or when charging the mobile device, to prevent mobile data consumption and extend battery life. It’s important to mention that the free plan does require users to maintain regular activity with the platform, since accounts with 90 days of inactivity are automatically closed.
For users that need more space, Degoo offers two paid options, the Pro and Ultimate plans. Pro costs $3/mo and includes 500 GB of cloud space with syncing on up to 10 devices. As with the free plan, users can gain up to 1000 GB referral bonuses in the form of 10 GB for each friend referred. Uploaded files are stored indefinitely, and contrary to the Free plan, users will not see ads.
Lastly, the Ultimate Plan offers 10TB of cloud space for $9.99/mo on unlimited devices. Even on this level, users might expand their storage space for up to 1000GB by referring friends. As with the Pro plan, each friend that accepts your invite will give you 10GB of added storage. The Ultimate includes all the features from previous plans, as well as a photo storage maximizer with auto-upload, which enables photo storage as you go.
Uploaded photos can be shared in real-time with others even if they don’t have a Degoo account, with no limits imposed on either photo size or quality. The Degoo app can be installed on all your devices to view and download files, but only the specified number of devices on your specific plan (3 for Free, 10 for Pro, and unlimited for Ultimate) can upload files to your Degoo Cloud Storage.
OpenDrive Business Plans review
Best Value
Screenshot Opemdrive.com, October 2020
OpenDrive takes the spot as the service with the best value based on its unlimited storage and backup features. Users can choose to sync files and folders on their computer or external drives temporarily or permanently. They can also share files and folders with anyone or add users to the account to grant direct access without email attachment size limitations. Account-holders can also directly link or embed any of your files for use in emails, websites, or social networks. Data is stored in secure data centers and is accessible for instant access and sharing.
Subscribers can log in by downloading a full suite of compatible apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iPhone, WordPress, WebDAV, and API-enabled devices. There’s round-the-clock customer service available to assist over the phone in case of technical difficulties.
For individuals, OpenDrive offers Personal and Custom Plans. Personal plans offer unlimited data and start at $9.95/mo or $99 /year per user. OpenDrive also offers metered Custom Plans starting at $5 per user for 500GB of storage. These plans can fit from 1 to 7 users sharing fixed storage amounts between 500GB and 100TB of storage, with daily upload allotments ranging from 25GB to 100TB.
Additionally, OpenDrive offers a free basic service that includes 5GB of storage with a 100MB maximum file size and a daily data cap of 1 GB per day. The free plan also includes auto-syncing and backup features and allows users to create up to 5 notes and 10 Tasks.
Backblaze for Business review
Best For Small Business
Screenshot Backblaze.com, October 2020
Backblaze is our pick as the best for small businesses thanks to its affordable pricing and comprehensive features. They offer individual and small business plans for $6/mo per computer (or $60/year, $110/ 2-year). These include unlimited storage, file size, and upload speed. Users may choose between automatic or scheduled backups and set up auto threading & throttling to set custom upload limits.
Multiple computers can be registered for backups under the same account. However, each computer requires an individual license. A distinct feature of the software is that it can locate a missing or stolen computer.
While the software stores old file versions and deleted files for 30 days, subscribers may choose to extend that time to a year for an additional $2/mo. For large data restorations, on the other hand, users can request a 256GB USB drive for $99, or an external drive with up to 8TB sent via FedEx for $189. Once you receive either of these, you have 30 days to use the devices to restore data. If done within those 30 days and returned, users will receive a refund, minus the shipping cost.
Backblaze supports all the latest Windows, Intel Mac OS X, and macOS, including mobile devices such as iPhone, iPad, and Android devices. Technical support is available through help requests and chats weekdays except for Wednesday from 9 am - 12 pm and 1 pm - 5 pm (Pacific Time). Backblaze offers a 15-day free trial.
Business Features
Backblaze’s B2 Cloud Storage offers native backup for Veeam, NAS, and servers, with prices depending on the initial upload, monthly upload, delete, and download. To make figuring this all out a bit easier, a cost calculator for B2 Cloud Storage is available on their site.
B2 Cloud Storage allows businesses to choose to upload Backblaze encrypted data or use third-party integrations to encrypt data before transmission to B2. To prevent unauthorized access, user data is placed on private buckets that can only be accessed through account authentication via single sign-on, G Suite, or Office 365. Additionally, users may choose to add 2FA (2-Factor Authentication) via SMS or TOTP authenticator apps.
Stored data is continuously monitored using industry-standard, independent sources such as SSL Labs. Backblaze employs 2048 bit public keys and a private symmetric AES -128 key. Backblaze Vaults and Backblaze Reed-Solomon Encoding create a system designed for 99.999999% data durability.
Two separate storage facilities in California and Arizona keep data secure with continuously staffed buildings. Backblaze is SSAE-16/ SOC-2 compliant and employs biometric security, ID checks, and area locks that require badge-level access to access the servers.
Further Insight Into Our Methodology
As we began research for this review, we heard some real-life horror stories from many of our colleagues about lost travel photos, documents, and irreplaceable files. According to a 2019 BackBlaze survey, 80% of users have external drives or cloud storage accounts to back up their computers. However, most of us forget to backup our data regularly, essentially making those accounts somewhat useless. Although cloud storage is a good option to drop your documents, these services rarely do the heavy lifting compared to online backup services.
Online backups not just upload your information, but encrypt, organize, and update your data without creating duplicates of your files. Business and enterprise-level services even go so far as to provide what’s referred to as bare metal backups. These types of backups not only copy your files but your whole drive, programs, and functions, as a virtual copy of all the data on your computer or device.
Our recommendations went to services with the most storage space, preferring those without data and speed throttling. We examined the available platforms and applications for all the services to make sure they’re compatible with today’s most popular devices, and compared storage automatization features, encryption, and securities. Finally, we compared the best services on their value, billing practices, and customer service.
Storage Space
Our review focused on storage, specifically whether services provide unlimited or metered data amounts. Whenever possible, we favored services offering unlimited data over those with limited quotas. We examined upload throttling practices that limit the amount of data and upload speed to which users have daily access, preferring those that don’t impose limits at all or have reasonable limits that won’t penalize regular users.
Platforms & Devices
Our evaluation focused on the number of allowed devices per account, tools and features, and software platforms for computers and mobile devices. All the services recommended are compatible with Windows and Mac, including mobile iOS, iPad, and Android.
Features
Backup software employs distinct features to help users upload, organize, retrieve, and share their stored data as needed. We favored services that allow users any sort of window to retrieve past versions of their documents and examined backup types and whether services offer continuous or scheduled backups.
Price
We assessed the plan structure for both free and paid tiers for personal and small business use. We looked for value and prioritized services that offered no hidden fees and provided upfront information on billing practices including charging for additional storage space. Lastly, we ensured that the services we recommend provide personal customer service through web-based requests, chat, or phone.
Helpful Information About Online Backups
Computers, mobile phones, and external drives are all vulnerable to malfunction, natural disasters, misplacing, and theft. Having an external hard drive is good practice, but the average lifespan for these devices is around 3-5 years. Hard drives can stop working at any moment, and data extraction can cost anything from $150 to thousands of dollars, depending on the nature of the damage and the amount of data that needs to be restored.
For some businesses, damage from data loss can be unrepairable. A study conducted by the National Archives & Records Administration found that 93% of companies that experience a prolonged data loss of 10 days or more will file for bankruptcy within a year of the event.
In May 2019, the Baltimore City government came to a standstill due to a ransomware attack that paralyzed the city’s computer system. The hackers brought city services to a stand-still for a month, demanding $76,000 worth of Bitcoin. City estimates calculate the cost of the outing and recovery of around 18 million dollars.
What To Watch Out For With Online Backups
Data Upload Caps and Throttling
Some services impose data caps on total storage or daily uploads. Another common practice is to throttle or limit the upload speed for each day or once you have stored a certain amount of data. Make sure to know what the software policy is on upload limitations before you select the service, primarily if you regularly work with data-heavy files such as raw format photographs, music tracks, or video.
Storage Policies and Deleted Files
All services have different retention policies concerning both old and deleted files. Some keep files for 24 hours, others for around 30 days, and still others don’t keep older versions at all. If you regularly have to go back to older files, make sure that the data policy won’t affect your work. Moreover, if you decide to end your backup agreement, most services will hold your data for anything from a week to a month. On rare occasions, services might keep stored data for longer, but it’s not a prevailing policy. Before you finish with an online backup service, make sure you’ve stored away all your information on external devices or any other media or your choosing.
Security and Encryption Against Breaches
All stored data is encrypted from end-to-end using advanced encryption standards (AES) of 128 bits or more. The process that keeps your information includes a ‘key’—usually a passphrase— that only the user knows. Make sure that you use a private but memorable phrase that only you will know. If you lose your passphrase, the software company won’t decipher or unlock your information. Consider combining your online backup with a password manager to enhance your account safety and track any unwanted meddling with your account.
FAQs about Online Backup
Is Internet Backup storage truly unlimited?
Yes, online backup advertising unlimited storage is true to their claim. However, keep in mind that some might limit the data amount you can upload per day or throttle upload speed once a certain amount of data has been stored.
Can I sync my phone with Online Backup?
Yes, most Internet Backup software offers connections to various or even unlimited devices, allowing you to sync and update computers, tablets, and mobile devices to a single backup account. However, keep in mind that some apps will only allow you to view and download files from your mobile device, but not to upload.
What happens to my data if I leave the service?
All Internet Backups have different data retention policies. Most services will give you a window from either a week to a month for you to transfer your data to some other service or physician storage device.
Are internet backups secure?
Internet backups store encrypted information in secure facilities. Some keep information separated amongst one or more locations, and never store the full data in one place. Most importantly, even if the information were somehow to be obtained, it wouldn’t be useful to the hacker without your password which works as a ‘key’ to decipher the stored data.