The Top Cloud Backup Systems in 2022

IDrive has a version for Windows and Mac, as well as Android and iOS apps. You can connect an unlimited number of devices with all backup service plans. You can also secure external drives, NAS devices, virtual machines, and all sorts of servers.

IDrive offers system image backup and allows you to upload pretty much any type of file. With the phone app, you can back up everything from photos to app settings and call logs.

The system offers scheduled, on-demand, and continuous backups. The latter lets you specify when to pause them—handy if you don't want IDrive to bog down your network connections while you're on the computer.

The online backup service saves up to 30 versions of altered or deleted files in your account forever, which can be a lifesaver.

Deleted files and past file versions do count toward backup storage. That said, if you use block-level uploads, only altered parts of documents will be stored when reuploading. This means it takes much less space to store multiple versions of the same file.

Block-level saving also speeds up the reupload of altered files. You can further enable multithreading to spend more CPU power for extra speed.

If this isn't enough, IDrive has a courier service that can deliver a physical drive to your home address. This is fantastic for quick large file transfers. Better yet, it’s free once per year (thrice for business users). This is a massive advantage since most companies charge for this service.

IDrive offers a few relatively uncommon features that go beyond the usual cloud backups. For example, the remote restore option allows you to locate your computer or wipe the data on it remotely—great if you're worried about misplacing devices. It’s a handy feature, which can save you a few minutes.

With IDrive, you can choose to hold on to your encryption key. The service ensures no one can access your files but yourself, which goes a long way in terms of privacy. Just be mindful not to lose it.

To top it off, you'll find handy features for file sharing and syncing, although they are typically offered by online storage services.

All things considered, IDrive is one of the best computer backup services in terms of features.

Ease of Use

IDrive’s design might not be very modern, but it's functional. You can find all the options neatly organized into six distinct tabs. The user interface is clean and easy to use, so you shouldn’t have any trouble backing up or restoring files.

Setting up a backup is also beyond easy. IDrive will take you through your folder structure, and you just need to pick what you want to back up. The wizard even helpfully preselects common locations, like the Pictures folder.

It's reasonably easy to find and use all the common functions. A few features, like remote data restoration, are not located in the desktop client. But it shouldn’t be hard to find them either – you just have to open the backup service web app.

You'll likely get the hang of IDrive within minutes.

Pricing

IDrive has three personal plans:

• Basic – 5GB storage, free
• IDrive Personal 1 – 5TB storage, starts at $51.12/year, renews at $69.50/year
• IDrive Personal 2 – 10TB storage, starts at $74.62/year, renews at $99.50/year

The shortest subscription term is one year. You can extend the initial discount by prepaying for two years.

The free plan is great for testing out the file backup service. The other plans are fairly affordable for the massive amount of storage they offer. If you have many devices and want to save all your data, IDrive is one of the best choices.

The system also offers a range of business plans you can check out. These can handle everything from simple office computer backups to large-scale operations with multiple servers.

Verdict

IDrive is packed with useful features, has great plans for personal and business use, and offers excellent storage capacity rates. It's hands-down the best cloud backup system we found.

Acronis is one of the leading cybersecurity and backup providers, sporting dozens of awards for its contributions. Acronis True Image, the backup service created by the company, certainly has some big shoes to fill.

Let's see what Acronis has in store with this one:

Features

Acronis True Image works for Windows and macOS, as well as Android and iOS, which covers most personal devices. You can also back up external drives along with your computer.

You can also use Acronis to connect virtual machines, servers, and all sorts of other devices, but you would have to look into Cyber Backup, its business service. In these online backup service reviews, I'll focus on the home version. Check out our Acronis review for more info on the other backup plans.

Acronis True Image can do both full-image and granular backups of specific files. You can specify whether you want to upload copied files online or do a hybrid backup to the cloud and a local device. There are convenient options for copying over your system to a different device to resolve errors.

You can do continuous, scheduled, and even advanced event-based backups. For instance, True Image automatically uploads newly connected USB drives to the cloud backup storage. IDrive also offers the option for speed throttling, which you can use to save resources. 

Acronis runs multithreading support and block-level file uploads to speed up the backup process. Unfortunately, there is no courier service, so your only option is to download backups via the internet. Your best bet is to have a local backup copy for quick file restorations and only use the online one as a last resort.

The versioning is fully configurable. You can save as many past file versions as you need, as long as you stay within your storage allotment.

What really takes the cake are the security features of the system. The data backup service runs hardened SSAE-18-certified Tier 4 datacenters. There are AES 256-bit in-transit and at-rest encryptions. And all that is boosted with robust anti-malware protection.

The Premium Acronis plan secures files with blockchain data fingerprints and electronic signatures. This ensures no one can alter your files without your knowledge. Plus, you can present the blockchain data as proof of the age of important documents – for instance, if you need to show a legal contract was signed before a specific date.

Acronis True Image also provides zero-knowledge encryption, ensuring full data privacy. This and many other protection features make Acronis one of the best-protected cloud backup services for home and business users.

Ease of Use

Acronis True Image is pretty straightforward to set up. You can just go with the default settings, and the backup system will work well enough. All key options are visible on the dashboard, so you can easily start uploading files.

Of course, Acronis thought of its more advanced users, too. You can go to the options screen and find a ton of complex features. From here, you can change the backup schedule, exclude certain file types from backups, throttle the bandwidth, set up notifications, and much more.

True Image makes it easy to back up a PC to the cloud, but you can also easily minmax the settings if you prefer.

Pricing

There are three Acronis True Image online backup plans. Keep in mind the cheapest one (the Essential plan) is usually only for local backups and doesn't come with cloud storage.

The Advanced plan comes with 500GB of storage, and the price depends on the number of computers you want to connect (one, three, or five). The one-device deal would cost you $89.99/year.

The Premium plan adds a few more advanced security features and priority support. Its price also depends on the number of computers and the size of the online backup storage (1TB-5TB). The smallest deal here would cost you $124.99/year. You can play around with the calculator on Acronis's website and see which offer works best.

The cost is reasonable for single-computer backups. Acronis might not be the cheapest provider, but its premium features entirely justify the price tag.

That said, it's not entirely fair that the provider charges you extra for multiple devices without increasing the storage pool. If you have multiple computers to back up, you might get a better deal with unlimited device cloud backup providers, like IDrive.

Verdict

If you want to put your data behind a near-impenetrable wall, Acronis True Image is your best choice. It's an absolute beast for single-computer personal backups, and it’s suitable for both beginners and technical users. It's the most powerful backup service if you have a single device.

Backblaze is becoming increasingly popular for its straightforward and user-friendly interface. But can it compete with the best cloud backup software?

Let's jump right in and see.

Features

Backblaze offers a truly unlimited storage solution, meaning there are no restrictions on the number or size of the files you can upload. The downside is that you can connect only one device per plan.

Desktop clients are available for Windows and Mac. There are no phone backups, but you can use a phone app to view your cloud backup storage and perform simple functions.

Backblaze has solid versioning. Past file versions are saved for up to 30 days by default. You can extend this to one year by paying an extra $2/month. Keeping versions longer than that costs $0.005/month per megabyte of storage required.

You can do continuous backups, which are the safest option for most users. Scheduled backups can be a great asset if you have limited bandwidth. Features like block-level uploads and multithreading ease the strain on the bandwidth and make the online cloud backups faster. 

If you can't afford to wait for all data to be uploaded or restored, you can get it delivered via FedEx. Backblaze will charge you $99 for a flash drive or $189 for a hard drive.

If this sounds pricey, don't worry; Backblaze issues a refund if you return the device undamaged. That’s a huge step up from services that charge you and still expect you to return the device (looking at you, Carbonite).

Backblaze is relatively secure, too. The file backup service features two-factor authentication and runs а industry-standard encryption protocol.

You can ensure data privacy by keeping your encryption key. However, Backblaze requires you to send your key to restore the data, which is a liability for zero-knowledge encryption. If privacy is essential to you, you might want to choose a provider like IDrive.

With Backblaze, you can locate a missing computer. If you're worried about someone tampering with your stolen computer, you can perform a remote wipe of all the data. These are fantastic options if you don't want to leave anything up to chance.

All in all, Backblaze has solid features for single-device online cloud backups.

Ease of Use

Backblaze setup is one of the most straightforward solutions. As soon as you install the software, it automatically selects everything on your computer for a backup. Only a few file types are excluded, like ISOs.

Restorations are just as easy. You just have to pick the right option from the desktop or the web client. The cloud-based backup service takes care of the rest.

If you want to exclude specific files or folders, you would have to deselect them individually. Admittedly, this might annoy many users. On the other hand, Backblaze covers most things in the initial setup, so you barely have to do anything.

Pricing

Backblaze pricing is straightforward. It costs $6 monthly, $60 annually, or $110 biennially. The only other cost to account for is the optional fee for extending the versioning.

The prices are reasonable. If you have a single device and want to ensure its data reliability, it's one of the top cloud backup solutions.

Verdict

Backblaze is probably the cheapest and easiest service if you have a single computer to connect. It has excellent tools for boosting security and upload speeds. It will secure your data in just a few clicks, and you'll only have to pay peanuts. It's one of the best online backup services for home users with a single device.

CrashPlan used to be a standard backup service before abandoning its home plans in 2017. It now focuses solely on its business users and does the job splendidly.

This is what its business backups offer:

Features

CrashPlan supports Windows, macOS, and Linux, making it an excellent fit for nearly all businesses. You can get unlimited storage and negotiate how many devices you'll connect to the data backup service. The system can export copies locally, but it can't do full-image backups or access NAS devices. Server and external storage backups are supported, which makes it a tremendous two-in-one solution for many businesses.

The service has robust access control and can set up rules for all connected computers. You can configure backups for each computer or run the same schedule across the board. With device monitoring, you can generate reports on the cloud backups. Some important stats are easily visible in the main web client dashboard.

You can run continuous and scheduled backups, but not on-demand ones. CrashPlan offers advanced throttling controls and block-level saving, which can speed up reuploads of altered files. 

You can access unlimited versioning, and deleted files are retained forever unless you wipe them manually. This, in combination with the unrestricted storage, can guarantee you'll never lose a file again.

CrashPlan security features include AES 256-bit data encryption protocol, hardened data centers, and two-factor authentication. This alone makes it a secure online backup system.

You can opt for end-to-end encryption. Pretty awesome if you work with private data and don't want CrashPlan privy to it. The software features HIPAA and GDPR compliance as well, which is a must-have for specific industries.

All in all, you can easily run a business-wide backup system with CrashPlan.

Ease of Use

CrashPlan makes it very easy to get around. The cloud-based backup software is easy to install and set up. The interface is clean, and all tools are easily accessible. 

You can configure every aspect from your own PC. There's no need to access each client’s computer and configure the system individually. Once you have the app installed on all devices in your establishment, you can easily manage everything from the web client. This includes picking which files to upload, running backups, and restoring files remotely.

The data backup services even let you create client accounts in bulk by uploading info as a TXT file. The entire system is designed to make running backups on a large number of computers effortless.

Pricing

CrashPlan pro costs $9.99/month per device you want to connect. The price is quite reasonable for a business service. There are a few more affordable options if you need to run backups on a smaller scale, but CrashPlan is a perfect fit for most businesses.

Verdict

CrashPlan is one of the best data backup services if you want to use it on numerous computers and servers. The unlimited everything features mean you'll never have to worry about lacking storage or losing a backup copy. Best of all, the price is reasonable and won't set your business back too much.

Carbonite is one of the most established backup services. It protects over 17 million devices and 100,000 small businesses. What's more, it has thus far restored a whopping 60 billion files.

Let's see why it's so popular and if it's the best cloud backup provider:

Features

Carbonite offers backup services for Windows and Mac, but not for Linux or mobile devices. It can also back up external hard drives, various servers, and applications like Office 365. You can also do local backups if you're using one of the more advanced paid plans.

There are three plans that work for desktop computers and laptops. They offer unlimited storage but limit the number of devices you can connect. The three plans work on one, three, or twenty-five computers, respectively. This makes the first two great for personal cloud backup, while the last one can also work for businesses.

The backups can be scheduled or done continuously. There is no option for on-demand backups. It's a detail most people won’t even notice, but it might annoy some advanced users.

Carbonite saves up to 12 versions of a file, which are only stored for up to two months. Deleted files are removed from backup storage after a month. Both feаtures work, but the retention periods could be longer.

There are a few options used to speed up backup cloud services. Using block-level copying for uploads is one of them, and Carbonite offers it.

If you need to do a quick upload or download, you can have a physical drive delivered anywhere in the US. This costs $99.99 with the two cheaper plans and $9.99 with the more advanced ones. Considering that companies like IDrive offer the same service for free, $99.99 seems very expensive. If you plan to take advantage of drive delivery often, you should consider going for the most advanced plan or picking a different provider.

If security is your primary concern, you should know that Carbonite is a highly secure cloud backup system. It uses industry-standard encryption and includes a free antivirus. If you want to keep your data safe even from Carbonite employees, you can keep your encryption key.

Image backup, device locator, remote wipe, hypervisor support, advanced compression, and failover—all this and more is available to business users. Most admins would love these, though it would be nice if the features were included in the home plans too.

Bottom line: Carbonite has solid features, though a few specific tools would make it rank even higher on our best cloud backup list.

Ease of Use

Carbonite setup takes only a few minutes. Once you install the system, the wizard will take you through all the options. You can go for the recommended settings, automatically creating copies of key document types like docs, PDFs, etc. Alternatively, you can go through the folder system and manually select the files you want to back up.

Performing data restoration is just as easy. You simply pick whether you want to restore all files or just specific ones. It's probably one of the most straightforward systems you'll find.

That said, there are some annoying aspects to the online cloud backup software. 

For one, once you leave the wizard, there's no way to go back to it. The only way to change the files you want back up is to go through your folder system, right-click, and select/deselect them manually.

There are also no deduplication features on the cheaper plans. You might end up with multiple copies of the same file in your backup storage if you're not paying attention.

There are some file types Carbonite doesn't back up at all, like EXEs. You also have to manually select each file over 4GB if you want to create a copy in the system. And there's no automatic cloud backup option for videos on the smallest plan – Carbonite forces you to go through your files one by one.

Improving these features would make Carbonite much easier to use.

Pricing

There are several Carbonite plans to choose from:

• Home Computer Backup – 1-3 computers, $6/month
• Basic Computer Backup – 4-25 computers, $24/month
• Advanced Endpoint Protection – 25+ computers, $34/month
• Basic Server Backup – Up to five servers, 0.5TB-5TB storage, $50/month
• Advanced Server Protection – 5+ servers, 0.5TB-50+TB storage, $147/month
• Server Protection – Backs up both desktop computers and servers, $200/month

These are the prices for the online data backup service if paid annually. You can also pay monthly, at slightly higher rates.

Aside from the number and type of supported devices, the plans differ in their features. You would have to go for at least the Basic Computer Backup plan to get external drive backups. Meanwhile, only the two most advanced plans support device location tracking and remote wipe.

You can still get cheap online backup storage, but with restricted features, which doesn't get Carbonite any extra points.

Verdict

If you want a service that takes minutes to set up and has a reliable set of features, Carbonite is the right choice for you. It can handle everything from single-computer backups to full-on data centers. The pricing is fair, albeit somewhat confusing. Once you dig into the plans, though, you’ll see the service offers something to fit almost anyone.

SpiderOak ONE likes to boast about its security tools. It even got recommended by none other than Edward Snowden as a more privacy-oriented alternative to Dropbox.

Let's see if it's indeed the most secure cloud backup service.

Features

SpiderOak ONE has Windows, macOS, and Linux versions, covering all the major operating systems. The company developed a mobile app but doesn’t offer mobile backup options. There's also not much else you can back up other than home computers and external drives. You can't connect servers, NAS devices, or do a system image backup.

The computer backup services enable continuous backups by default. You can set up scheduled backups or throttle resource spending if you have limited bandwidth.

SpiderOak ONE saves all previous versions of your files, even deleted ones, indefinitely. You can wipe the past versions to delete them forever, though they shouldn't take up too much space if you use block-level saving.

Block-level uploads save bandwidth when you make a minor change to a file and reupload it. Unfortunately, there is no multithreading support, which would make backups even faster.

Now for the much-praised SpiderOak ONE security. The provider boasts industry-standard encryption, a tight password system, and GDPR- and HIPAA-compliant servers. Surprisingly, SpiderOak ONE doesn’t feature two-factor authentication, even though every candidate for the best online backup service should have it.

The provider does run zero-knowledge encryption, which is possibly the most significant advantage for data privacy. You can be assured no one but you will have access to your precious data.

The service has sync and sharing capabilities as well. Unfortunately, they are not as sleek as those of a few other providers, like IDrive.

As far as pure backup features go, though, SpiderOak ONE’s performance is satisfactory.

Ease of Use

The SpiderOak ONE version for Windows is definitely the best-integrated one, so you'll have many options to work with the backups without even opening the app. Still, it works well enough on the other systems, too.

Uploading files to the online backup storage is fairly easy. You can go to the view of your folder structure and click a checkbox next to the ones you want to back up.

Performing restorations is just as easy. Find the file/folder you want to download and pick whether to restore it to the original location or somewhere else.

Unfortunately, the mobile version is kind of bland. There's not much you can do with it, and finding a specific file is extremely difficult.

On top of that, the SpiderOak ONE app doesn’t update automatically for security reasons. Still, it can be annoying having to look for updates and download them from the website.

One nice feature for more experienced users is the SpiderOak CLI. If you feel comfortable with a command line, you can use it to manage the cloud-based backup service much more efficiently.

Pricing

SpiderOak ONE offers a 21-day free trial to test out the service. It comes with more storage than you might expect—150GB, to be exact. Pretty solid if you want to upload a larger amount of data and see if the provider can handle it.

After that, you can choose one of the paid plans:

• 150GB – $6/month or $69/year
• 400GB – $11/month or $115/year
• 2TB – $14/month or $149/year
• 5TB – $29/month or $320/year

Although it offers a lot of storage, SpiderOak ONE is kind of pricey compared to other backup providers.

Verdict

SpiderOak ONE is one of the best cloud backup services for personal users. The security is on point, and you get infinite versioning for all your files. The service comes at a somewhat higher price, but it can be worth it if you can afford it.

Zoolz BigMIND Intelligent plans are a top-rated backup service running on AWS. Similarly to CrashPlan, Zoolz used to sell home plans but now offers only a business service.

Here's what's included.

Features

BigMIND can back up both regular computers and servers. Each backup service license covers an unlimited number of computers, so your plan should depend entirely on the number of server machines. You can also connect any number of external storage drives or NAS devices. You can do cloud-to-cloud backups from services like Dropbox, Google Drive, One Drive, and Box.

One downside is that BigMIND only supports Windows and Mac-based computers and Windows servers or MSSQL servers, with no support for virtual machines. This is odd, to say the least, as numerous businesses rely on virtual serversand most servers actually run Linux.

Another disadvantage of Zoolz is that you can only do incremental scheduled backups. They run every two hours by default, but you can change that to five minutes or 24 hours. Its throttling, multithreading, and block-level upload features are very flexible, so you get more control than with most other cloud backup solutions.

BigMIND lets you export a local copy for faster restorations. This is especially useful if you use BigMIND cold storage, which makes restorations slower. 

Versioning and deleted file retention are up to you. You can keep past files indefinitely if you purchase enough storage to handle them.

Besides being an online backup service, BigMIND facilitates collaboration. It has awesome options for sharing files between coworkers, secured with share link expiry and password protection.

BigMIND runs on AWS hardware, which is some of the most reliable you'll find. This is further bolstered by security measures like AES 256-bit encryption and two-factor authentication.

It all amounts to powerful business backups for those running Windows or MSSQL servers.

Ease of Use

Zoolz eases you in, guiding you through all the steps of configuring your backup. With the default settings, standard folders like your desktop and documents will be automatically uploaded.

The interface is average. You should get the hang of it quickly enough, though it's not very easy on the eyes.

The options for configuring how you backup your PC to the cloud are numerous. It's fantastic for users that want a lot of control over the solution.

Admins get great user management features. You can invite users via email or batch create accounts. You can view user activity, complete with stats on the backup solution’s status and a set of reports. 

BigMIND features awesome filtering options for uploaded files. You can also search the files by name, a string of text, or tag. The AI system assigns attributes to images based on their content, which makes it one of the best online backups for photos. It also lets you search the content of documents, even scanned ones.

It's a feature-rich yet a user-friendly solution.

Pricing

Zoolz BigMIND has three personal plans:

• Starter – 100GB storage, one server, 10 users, $15/month
• Standard – 250GB storage, 10 servers, 100 users, $20/month
• Premium – 250GB storage, 50 servers, 500 users, $37.5/month
• Smart Archive – 1TB storage, 50 servers, 500 users, $40/month

The default storage caps are obviously low, but you can add extra according to your needs. 100GB costs $8/month on the Standard plan and $15/month on the Premium one. The Smart Archive service charges $40/month for each additional terabyte of capacity. This makes BigMIND the best online cloud backup solution if you need storage flexibility.

There are other customization options, like adding cold storage, which is cheaper but slower when it comes to file restoration. Your best bet is to check out the plans on the website or consult with a Zoolz sales specialist before you pick a plan.

The rates are okay for the storage capacity they offer. Zoolz is somewhere in the middle of the pack in terms of pricing.

One thing that doesn't really impact the cloud-based backup service today but should be mentioned is Zoolz's lifetime backup plans. The company used to sell lifetime personal plans for seven years but discontinued them when the COVID-19 crisis started.

This is not a problem per se—businesses sometimes make cutbacks. The issue is that Zoolz also canceled the service for users who had already purchased it and issued no refunds to clients who signed up over a year prior. These questionable business decisions leave a bad taste.

Verdict

Zoolz offers flexible cloud backup for small business owners. If you run a company using MS-based apps like Exchange or SharePoint, you can use BigMIND to handle your entire operation.