Online Backup Reviews
In this age, getting your computer stolen can be a disaster. So here are the various ways you can backup your precious files to the cloud.
Summary
The best six online backup services I found are:
Best Online Backup Services | ||
---|---|---|
Company | Rank¹ | Cost² |
Carbonite | 13,270 | $59 |
LiveDrive | 15,078 | $80 |
MyPCBackup | 26,979 | $72 |
CrashPlan | 28,313 | $50 |
JustCloud | 43,427 | $72 |
Backblaze | 49,371 | $50 |
¹ Rank=Traffic rank on Alexa.com, as of March 13, 2012. ² Cost=Annual (per year) price for unlimited data for one computer, as of March 13, 2012. |
Reviews
Here are the top choices by some respected computer magazines and a newspaper.
Reviews | |
---|---|
Reviewer | Top Choice |
Computerworld | Carbonite |
The New York Times | Carbonite |
Macworld | CrashPlan |
PCMag | SOS Online Backup |
Introduction
A photographer friend of mine recently had her computer equipment stolen. All her stock and client photos for the past few months were gone; all her current billing files were gone; and, to make matters worse, an external hard-drive with her local backup was also taken. What a disaster.
This got me to thinking: what if my stuff got stolen? Or what if the everything burned down? I have two local backups on external hard-drives (one using, by the way, SuperDuper, and the other using Time Machine), but those could be gone. And I have two offsite backups on external hard-drives, but those are often six months out of date as they have to be done manually. Perhaps I need a worst-case backup. How about something automatic and online, in “the cloud”?
I searched for independent reviews on Google but didn’t find anything good. So I researched the subject and compiled my notes on this page, in case you’re in the same boat. I hope it’s helpful.
By the way, if you have any suggestions, or find any new sites, please add a comment below so we can all benefit.
Good luck, and I hope your online backup solution is never needed!
“Using an online backup service is a convenient way to preserve your key files. It is an increasingly popular way to make sure you never lose a file.”
— Greg Shulz, senior analyst at StorageIO, an IT analyst firm
Types
There are four types of online backup solutions that I found:
- Unlimited. Store all your files online with unlimited storage. Pay one fixed amount annually regardless of how many gigabytes (GB) you use. This is what I wanted. Cost: <$100 per year.
- Limited. Save important files, sync files with your mobile devices, and/or share files with other people. Many sites offer 2GB to 5GB of free storage, and then charge for additional data. Cost: Free for <2GB but gets expensive for a full backup which is what I wanted.
- Software. Programs that you buy to backup to a local hard drive and/or to interface with online services which you pay for separately. Not what I was looking for.
- Enterprise. Large-scale services for businesses with many users. Too much for an individual like me.
Of these four types, the one I wanted was “unlimited.”
Please click here to read more.
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