Best online backup: iDrive, Backblaze, Livedrive, and more

Price When Reviewed:

$79.50

Just as when we originally reviewed all the major online backup services, iDrive remains the most comprehensive online backup service. And though it’s not the cheapest, it’s still affordable and comes with backup clients for nearly every PC and device. The company also provides additional storage for syncing all your devices and PCs, allows sharing of files with anyone, and has the ability to back up to a local drive. 

Since our review, iDrive has expanded its backup offerings to cover a variety of personal and team needs. Besides a very spare 10GB free tier, there’s a Mini tier that offers up to 500GB for $9.95 a year, a Personal plan that starts at 5TB for $69.95 the first year (or $149.25 for two years), and $99.50 each year after, covering one user and multiple devices.

Additional Personal tiers offer 10TB, 20TB, and 50TB options, with associated price increases. There are also Team plans that cover multiple users and multiple computers, at various storage capacities and different price steps.

Price When Reviewed:

Backup 1 PC: $119.88/yr I Pro Suite w/5 licenses: $329.88/yr

In our most recent review of Livedrive, the reviewer summed it up with one word: smooth. That’s really not a surprise, since Livedrive’s elegant setup, ease of use, and reliability — all the things that make it such smooth operator, so to speak, are the very things that made it one of our top picks for online backup over the last several years. There’s something to be said for how reassuring it can be to use a product that is artfully designed and executed.

And it also remains true that Livedrive’s value proposition is made even more sweet with the addition of unlimited storage. The standard Backup plan for one PC is approximately $99.90 for the first year and $119.88 per year after that (being a UK-based company, prices are listed in pounds and the conversion to dollars will fluctuate); a Pro Suite that covers five machines is $246.90 for first year and $329.88 for subsequent years.

Despite the servers being located “across the pond,” we experienced a brisk 5- to 10MBps upload rate from our base in San Francisco, CA, which should reassure U.S.-based customers.

Yes, Backblaze and Carbonite also offer unlimited storage, and are strong services in their own right, but there are caveats to both that push the highly polished Livedrive client ahead.

Price When Reviewed:

Annual plans: $1.65 – $4.95/mo; Lifetime plans: $150 – $550

If you want a straightforward storage and backup option that’s super affordable and includes a generous amount of encrypted storage, Internxt is it. Using the link here, you can get the lowest-cost annual plan for $1.43 a month or a little over $17 for the year. That includes 1TB of storage. The Premium plan costs twice that (approx. $35 per year) and includes 3TB of storage

But it’s the Lifetime plans that make Internxt a truly exceptional value. For a one-time outlay of $129.87, $259.87, or $389.87, you can have Internxt’s backup features along with 1TB, 3TB, or 5TB of storage for life (assuming the company is around for that long). The storage alone makes these plans a steal.

Internxt offers sync, backup (including scheduling), sharing, and a recent addition — antivirus. Note that backups are mirrored data, meaning old data is overwritten with new; so no versioning — although the company says that that feature is forthcoming.

For most people, current-state backup is sufficient. Internxt is also very easy to set up and use. If you’ve been dragging you feet on committing to a backup solution, this is a hard proposition to pass up.

Price When Reviewed:

$49.99 for stand-alone client I $59.99/yr for software subscription and online storage, 5 PCs

Over the years you’ve likely used more than one cloud or online storage services. Whether that be Dropbox, Google Drive, SharePoint, you name it. You likely also use one or more of these services to store different buckets of your data. With all of these different storage options the wires can get crossed and it can become increasingly difficult to ensure all of your data is backed up to the correct service. That’s where Arq 7 comes in.

Its support for myriad third-party online backup services is second to none. Arq 7 also supports multiple jobs that you can tailor to each service such as backing up vital documents to free cloud storage, or larger files to a premium service you use as well. The interface is clean and easy-to-use, which is a huge boon considering how intimidating backing up can be for new users.

Our only minor quibble with the service is that it’s a bit of a one-trick pony—it only does backup. There are no additional features such as partition or drive-image backups, cloning, sync, or recovery via boot media. Still, in regards to backup, Arq 7 does an excellent job, and with its support for third-party services it’s one of the most versatile backup services we’ve ever tested.

Price When Reviewed:

5GB: Free / Solo Basic 2TB: $8 a month / Solo Professional 6TB: $20 a month

Sync.com offers both a paid and a free tier service. The free tier comes with 5GB of backup cloud storage and most of the features offered in their premium services as well. The Sync.com service is easy to use and as secure as any other online backup service we’ve come across. It has both an attractive and well-designed web interface as well as a desktop app available for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS.

Sync.com also makes syncing files across your devices easy to do and even has a Vault option to back up files without transferring them to the local Sync folder in case you wish to keep files unchanged or separated for any reason. While 5GB of storage may not be enough for power users or businesses, if you’re just looking to keep files stored online and the ability to sync them across multiple devices without having to pay anything, Sync.com is a reliable service with great functionality. Plus, you can always upgrade to a paid tier for more storage as needed.

Services such as Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive are considered to be cloud storage services. This means that a user must place their files or data onto the service’s cloud manually. These storage services usually offer a free version with limited storage or a paid version with increased capacity. They can also come with basic services such as automatic cloud backup and the synching of file versions.

A cloud backup service provides continuous versioning and backup of all the file history on your device. They will continuously and automatically back up every specified file on a device. Cloud backup service providers also offer additional data security measures such as end-to-end encryption.

Yes! All cloud backup services offer encryption of your data both during the transfer to and from your computer as well as while your data is stored on the provider’s servers.

While this encryption stops others from being able to view your data, it doesn’t necessarily stop them from stealing it. But rest assured that the level of security against theft with these services most likely rivals that of your own device. So generally speaking, while not infallible, cloud backup services are one of the most secure options for storing your data.