Our reviewers evaluate products and services based on unbiased research. Top Consumer Reviews may earn money when you click on a link. Learn more about our process.

The Best Online Backup Services

Which Company Offers the Best Online Backup Service?

One thing that keeps many computer users and business owners awake at night is how they would recover from a data loss event or security breach. Hard drives are wonderful devices for storing more information now than ever before. But even with the advent of more solid-state (moving parts) storage components, hard drives are still prone to occasional failure, damage, intrusion, or accidental erasure.

Even worse, a disgruntled employee or a criminal who likes to hack into computers and steal data could bring your business or home computing to a grinding halt. Ransomware hackers could hold your data for ransom by encrypting it and only offering to give you the "key" to unscramble it if you pay them a large sum of money. Even if you pay, there is no guarantee that they'll give you access to your data again.

Saturday, June 3rd

2023 Online Backup Service Reviews

Backblaze Review Top Consumer Reviews Best-In-Class Blue Ribbon Award 5 Star Rating

Backblaze

5 Star Rating Top Consumer Reviews Best-In-Class Blue Ribbon Award

BackBlaze covers personal as well as business data backup, storage, and recovery. With over 900 petabytes stored and over 45 billion files recovered, you can easily back up, preserve, and access your files. Customers rave about the excellence of this service, including interactions with knowledgeable, helpful company representatives. Backblaze earns our highest rating.

Acronis Review 4 Star Rating

Acronis

4 Star Rating

Acronis personal computer backup solutions provide backup and recovery, access to your files from any location with Internet access, and real-time protection of your files from security threats. It works on Windows, Mac, and mobile operating systems. Because of this service's reliability and affordability, it's a strong favorite with users and is one of our highest-recommended sources of online backup platforms.

Carbonite Review 4 Star Rating

Carbonite

4 Star Rating

Carbonite provides personal cloud backup, cloud backup for small businesses, and data protection solutions for server and workload migration and disaster recovery. Carbonite has been in business for 15 years and is one of the better online backup providers available today.

SOS Online Backup Review 3.5 Star Rating

SOS Online Backup

3.5 Star Rating

While other backup services back up your files to non-private storage, SOS Online Backup provides private cloud file backup for personal use or business requirements. For as long as you pay your way, your files are never deleted. This online backup service has a solid reputation with its clients, though it's priced a little higher than the competition with an interface that feels slightly less up-to-date.

CrashPlan Review 3 Star Rating

CrashPlan

3 Star Rating

CrashPlan is a cloud-based backup solution for small business data that includes enterprise-grade data loss protection at a low price and no file size restrictions. But, if you're looking for top-tier online backup services with equally superior customer service, you may not find it with CrashPlan.

IDrive Review 3 Star Rating

IDrive

3 Star Rating

IDrive is a file backup service that caters to small businesses and enterprises with a free referral program or bulk purchase options for resellers as well. They also have a service called IDrive BMR, which is a recovery service for "bare metal" systems that typically reside in server farms and data centers. But, because of the service's focus on business-level customers, the average home consumer probably won't find what they need with IDrive.

SugarSync Review 3 Star Rating

SugarSync

3 Star Rating

SugarSync helps you stay productive with an online backup service that does its work in the background while you work. It includes file version control and sharing and collaboration features. A little "light" on features, SugarSync also tends to be on the more expensive side when compared with rival providers of online backup services.

Live Drive Review 2 Star Rating

Live Drive

2 Star Rating

LiveDrive has five separate pricing plans for personal and business service users that includes secure backups across multiple devices and up to unlimited storage. Access and restore your files from anywhere. However, customer reviews shed light on several negative aspects of LiveDrive, earning this online backup service a lower ranking than many of its rivals.

I Backup Review 1 Star Rating

I Backup

1 Star Rating

IBackup seems to have fallen behind the times in terms of the amount of storage space it offers and the pricing plans published on its website. There are numerous other services that charge much less for much more.

Compare the Best Reviews

Continued from above...

Fortunately, there are several companies that have made it their mission to help you back up, secure, and restore your irreplaceable files and protect your information. They provide the storage hardware and the software to migrate copies of your files continuously and securely to their "cloud" storage facilities.

When looking for a backup service, some important things to consider include:

  • Fees. How much storage are you getting per dollar? Obviously, the lower the cost per gigabyte, the better off you are, all other things being equal.
  • Features. Every service we reviewed offers vastly different combinations of features. Make sure the service you choose is the right fit for your particular needs, without buying features you don't need.
  • Customer Service. The last thing you need in a data emergency is poor customer service. If you have any kind of trouble with backing up or restoring files, you'll want fast, courteous, and helpful customer service.

TopConsumerReviews.com has reviewed and ranked the best online backup services to help you attain peace of mind. We hope this information helps you find the right online backup service for your home or business!

The Best Online Backup Services Compare Online Backup Services Compare Online Backup Service Reviews What are the best Online Backup Services Best Online Backup Service Reviews

Online Backup Service FAQ

Online backup services give customers the ability to back up, secure and restore their files. In the event of data theft, hard drive failure or other loss, clients can easily get their information back from the service's cloud storage facilities.
Definitely not. Anyone can benefit from having their computers backed up to a secure cloud, whether the data contains sensitive financial data or treasured digital photos.
For the average personal user, the monthly fee starts at around $5. Business pricing begins around $30/month. Fees vary by the number of users and the amount of desired offsite storage space.
Free services are handy, but they're not designed to give you automated backup and seamless restoration of your files. If you're not on top of saving absolutely everything on your computer, your free storage is going to be incomplete. Using an online backup service with regularly scheduled backups is the best way to ensure that none of your files are lost.
At least once a week. Your online backup service may allow you to have continuous backups; your system is monitored constantly for any files that have been deleted, modified, created or moved and it updates accordingly in the background with no effort on your part.
If you use a reputable, reliable provider, your files are extremely secure. Be sure to choose a service that encrypts the data not only as it's being transferred but also as it's stored in their cloud. You should also check to see how your encryption key is stored; if you've got serious concerns, pick a service that allows you to create your own private key (and don't lose it, because the service won't be able to recover your data if you don't have the key!). Finally, it's worth asking where your provider's data centers are located; ones in the EU and US are preferred.
That will depend on how much you're backing up and your internet speed. It could take as little as an hour or as long as a week!
That's a frequent complaint among users of online backup services: difficulty in accessing support at all stages of the relationship (e.g. questions prior to signing up, during the initial backup process, several months into the service). Some providers have a better track record than others in this regard, so if you expect it to be less than smooth sailing because you're not tech-savvy, you should carefully choose an online backup service with a reputation for helpful, reliable customer support.
See the Best Online Backup Service
The Best Reviews of Online Backup Services