Online backup services can be a great, great way of keeping your data secure. Sure, you could buy a 300 gig’er hard drive from Best Buy and use it, but nothing beats having a copy of a file directly on the Internet — it’s accessible from anywhere, and you never have to worry about waking up to find your hard drive corrupt. With broadband speeds increasing, it’s also getting faster and faster, and there is no doubt it’ll eventually be the preferred option for backing up data.
So what exactly is online backup? As opposed to online storage (which has its own set of services), it’s simply letting a software/web service model automatically backup your data over the Internet so you never have to worry about doing it — that is of course, until you lose it, in which case it’s a simple one-click-restore. We reviewed, tested, and played around with a whole set of online backup services, and out of the ones we liked, here are the top 5 — all with a guarantee to save your life!
(1) Xdrive
Storage/Pricing Plan
5GB - free
50GB - $9.95/per month
Verdict
Xdrive is the strongest option on this list. It features a reasonable and affordable pricing plan (that is, should you need more than 5GB), and its software is truly more evolved, lag-free, bug-free, tightly-integrated, not to mention a tad more beautiful than some of the other options. Also, it include a number of cool features that you won’t find elsewhere — such as the ability to navigate your Xdrive file-system on your PDA. Oh, did we mention? It’s owned by AOL, so you probably won’t ever have to worry about losing your data.
(2) Mozy
Storage/Pricing Plan
2GB - free
Unlimited GB - $4.95/month
Verdict
When it comes to Mozy, unlike some of the others, the software is small, unobtrusive and does not lag. It’s one of the most affordable options on this list (including the awesome 2GB free plan), and very feature-intensive (check out the chart on their homepage). Overall, we like Mozy, but to beat the top underdog they’d need more free storage and a number of cool features that extend beyond what can be plotted on a chart.
(3) backup.com
Storage/Pricing Plan
250MB - $4.95/month
1GB - $14.95/month
10GB - $64.95/month
Verdict
We were able to try backup.com on a 30 day trial. In the software end, backup.com does an impressive job. It isn’t too processor intensive, and presents a clean look and feel. One downside to backup.com is the absence of a free plan and the high, high cost of storage — their plans are priced like it’s 2002! On the other hand, you get what you pay for, and we did find their customer support service to be responsive and caring. If you’re the person who likes to get what he pays for and no strings attached, backup.com is probably your best solution.
(4) Carbonite
Storage/Pricing Plan
Unlimited GB
$49.95/per year
Verdict
A limited free version of Carbonite would be a great thing. The service offers one of the best pricing plans out of the ones we reviewed, but there is a major downside — the software is bulky and slow. The configuration window is laggy, big, and has an unnecessary picture of a person in a hammock. Additionally, we encountered some problems with server downtime on their end during testing. If all you’re looking for is storage (for example, a large video editing project), Carbonite will be your best option.
(5) BackupRight
Storage/Pricing Plan
5GB to 300GB - Variable.
Verdict
In terms of an automated, never-having-to-care-about-anything online backup solution, BackupRight does its job and very well so. A little worrying, though, is their pricing plan, which starts at $9.99/per month for 5GB storage, what some of the others on this list give for free. In the software end, BackupRight holds strong, but is probably not the best on this list. Running Windows Vista, we ran across a few issues here and there. BackupRight offers a choppy service with a bad pricing plan, but it makes up for it on the super-automated-backing-up side. For superbly automated, BackuRight is your best bet.
Did we miss a good one? Feel free to post it in the comments section. Also, we’d love to know about your preferred backing up solution.
I’ve been using and love http://www.jungledisk.com. Pricing is basically Amazon’s S3 pricing.
I just registered with OmniDrive for their free 1 GB plan; that’s because they have a Mac client (although a lot of other features, like the API, are Win-only) and their website looks well-designed (which is always worth considering). The 1GB over isn’t too bad with synchronization; .Mac charges $99 for the same capacity (but of course, there’s more to it). Pro membership even includes WebDAV support).
OmniDrive’s web interface looks smooth (that draggable high-res trash icon impresses), and the uploading is easy. They have a very familiar filesystem approach (the initial directory, /username, leads the hierarchy) and easy file management tools (the usual cut, copy, edit, move,group by date/title…). Developers, too, might be interested in integrating the service to their apps.
Hmm, I hadn’t realized there was a world out there for online storage and backup. (Note: Thanks for the heads-up, will explore more). Come to think of it, all this can turn real useful with an iPhone interface. Or without, with the Asus Eee PC. Or anything else that comes without huge HDDs in favor of lighter flash drives.
Where did you get the pricing for mozy? It’s $4.95/month for unlimited storage (I’m currently backing up over 100 gigs of data there).
How about Gdrive and Gmail for backup? I have been using that - it does not have too many bells and whistles…but it works.
Ryan,
Looks like I was looking at MozyPro — whoops.
http://www.mozypro.com/mozy_pro/pricing
Sid
I use SOS online backup. SOS Online Backup Beta is undoubtedly the most flexible service on test, as it not only offers backup for your machine but online storage that’s available through the Web. The backup client itself is simple to use and has just about all the features you’d want. The best feature is it has “Always ON” Data Protection. SOS LiveProtect, continuously monitors your chosen files and backs up any changes immediately. bYou can also decide whether to send the whole file or just the modified portion. The best part is SOS can backup locked and open files. Ultra Safe Password protects your data even from the employees of SOS.
http://www.sosonlinebackup.com
Franticindustires have done a similar evaluation of 5 other online backup services quite different to the ones listed here.
One that seems to have been missed from both was Box but that said Frantic did look at Ewedrive, which is essentially a UK based version of Box as far as I have tested it.
There are some neat things about Ewedrive and although looks very new to the online backup scene could get a lot of attention and users given the simplicity of its approach without seemingly compromising on security and quality (famous last words).
I know alot of these other services tend to highlight their encryption systems but ultimately I still think we’re leaving too much supposed faith in their hands and where Box and Ewedrive wins hands down for me is in allowing me to encrypt and store my files the way I want yet give me the reassurance of secure file transfers to their servers.
That said I recommended Mozy to a nunmber of my family who needed a more ’set and forget’ type solution and am sure there are people who would prefer their approach to backups.
Each to their own I suppose
John
Sid — Ah, OK. I had never even seen the Mozy Pro site before. Interesting.
Been using http://www.tilana.com/. Very cool.
We have now used X-drive for two days. It can access networked drives that are mapped. I have seen it choke every once and awhile during normal business hours, but at midnight it screams on the uploading.
We are at 2.3 gigs and happy.
Josh
Hey Sid,
Thanks for including BackupRight in your review.
Your comments are spot-on with regards to our current pricing plans, they needed to be updated and will be in near future.
We are actively working on creating the best possible online backup service that we can, and if you had trouble with our client on Windows Vista I would love to get your feedback so that we can address those things for all of our users. I sent you an email, it might be in your junk folder, feel free to get back to me.
Also, I would like to offer all Rev2’ers a 50% off coupon for BackupRight, just use ‘rev2’ at the checkout. While it doesn’t quite fix our pricing problem, it will certainly make our service more affordable.
Wayne
Sorry you included Backupright.com. They do not operate ethically. They stole - verbatim - over 80 pages off our webwsite, and we had to contact their ISP in order to get our copyrighted pages off their site. They removed the links, but are still counting our pages in their overalll content. Stealing the results of hard work and research are theft just the same as stealing merchandise. And THIS is the kind of company you want to trust your data to???
The best online backup service is no doubt DriveHQ.com. Please visit http://www.drivehq.com/backup/ watch the flash demo.
A few highlights from the website:
Online backup files & emails. Easy, secure, automatic. No device needed, works anywhere. The best alternative to traditional backup by one of the largest online backup service providers since 2003.
DriveHQ Online Backup is clearly the best backup solution:
It has a lot of high-end backup features (see below).
Offsite backup to our state-of-the-art facility, secure & reliable.
Backup, access and restore files remotely.
Group & business backup with multiple-PC support.
Customized website logo (view sample).
I think the fact that there are a good number of companies offering this now is wonderful. The speed of the internet is such that its possible to remotely backup your files and therefore the worry of theft, or other damage such as fire is removed. As long as the backup tool is ’set and forget’ then thats the main thing
Just want to let all Rev2 readers that BackupRight is now offering 50 Gigabytes of storage for just $9.99/month.
Come check us out for 14 days, its risk free, never worry about theft, hardware failure, or disasters ever again.
[...] broke over the weekend that online backup service Mozy, which placed a close second in our top online backup solutions list in July, has been acquired by EMC Corporation for an estimated $76 million. EMC is a 20+ year old [...]
I use a new company called http://www.onlinebackupvault.com great company, and good service. recommend
I use an online backup solution from http://www.PerfectBackup.co.uk because it supports my Linux and Windows Servers and also supports my Exchange and MySQL applications out of the box. It was very easy to install, backs up my data automatically and more important IT IS FREE FOR LIFE.
HI!
Thank you for recomendding onlinebackupvault.com - its an amazing product and more importantly amazing tech support
online backup vault offers free remote setup and provides a reliable offsite backup solution
also onlinebackupvault has a FREE product called http://www.gointomypc.com that offers free remote software
10 gigs of compressed data which equates to 20 plus actual space for masters students (not necessarily I.T.) for free with half price backup for life after graduation. The plan I believe is that we will get our future employers to fork out for commercial backup.
Also, they use the online backup industrys lenghtiest default retentin at 365 (12 times normal) and they actually backup your data as against just about everyone else who actually mirror betwen sites only.
Normal price 10 gig 69 (outside of offers such as above)
additional vlocks of 10 gigs 29
http://www.backupanytime.com
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