Online backup

Online backup is an essential hedge against physical data disaster. Whether it’s an act of theft or an act of God (earthquakes, floods, hard-drive devouring locusts), you never know what could hit your PC or phone, and when. This is an especially important issue for mobile-centric users, who stand to lose a lot of their digital possessions if their device disappears.

Uploading your data to an online service covers a lot of the bases. Some people call these “cloud” services, but in reality, your data is stored on servers at the other end of the connection—that is, someone else’s hard drives. But that’s part of the plan! The backup Rule of Three says you should maintain three copies of your data: the original, a copy, and a copy of the copy. One copy should be in a safe place away from the original and secondary.

We always recommend keeping a local backup for quick restores (see our backup software roundup for desktop solutions), but online can actually serve as both the second and third copies—assuming the vendor keeps its servers backed up, or adequately redundant.

We’ve reviewed the major online backup services and picked the best below—and we’ll keep updating our reviews as services come and go. Our primary concern here is backup, but we will note other roles that a service can fulfill, whether to share it with others or have it handy when working from multiple devices or varied locations.

All the services we tested work well, so feel free to kick the tires and pick the one that suits your fancy. That said, there are some obvious best choices depending on what your needs are.

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, including Windows Phone—a rarity these days. 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.

iDrive has two Personal plans that cover one user with unlimited computers and devices: $69.50 a year for 5TB, and $99.50 a year for 10TB. Business plans allow for up to 50 users, starting at $99.50 for five users, and going up from there, with the 50-user tier costing $999.50.

Capacity: Obviously, you’ll need as much storage as you have data, plus a little or possibly a lot more if you want to track changes and save previous versions of files. Some services keep multiple versions of files, some don’t. In many cases there’s a time limit.

Cost: Nearly all online services charge for a maximum allowable amount of data, and generally uploads are free. Aside from the free tiers available from a service like Dropbox, pricing is fairly consistent across services, though you definitely get more capacity for your money from some vendors, notably Backblaze.

However, there may be additional charges or limitations on downloads. For instance, Amazon’s Glacier is intended solely for backup and archiving. It’s very cheap per GB and uploads are free, but you’re charged for downloading—a service you hopefully will never need.

Features: As we mentioned previously, in addition to backup, you may want to share your files with others, work with them from mobile devices, or even edit them with office applications such as those available with Dropbox, Google, and OneDrive. If you do intend to work online, we recommend that you maintain a local copy as backup, and a hedge against Internet downtime.

OS and device support: Most services provide client backup software for the major operating systems (Linux, OS X, and Windows) and both Android and iOS. Make sure the service you sign up for supports your entire panoply of computers and devices. Note: iDrive even supports Windows Phone.

Privacy: If you’re concerned about the privacy of your data, make sure you use a service that allows the use of a personal encryption key that you define. Do NOT lose it, as it is absolutely required to restore your data. Sadly, using your own key often limits the types of services (e.g., no mobile backup) available.

If private encryption keys aren’t available, read the privacy policy, especially with the free services—there are significant differences.

Reliability: Generally speaking, data centers are backed up to the hilt, and some of the larger ones even back up to different geographical locations. Availability (hopefully 24/7) can also be important. Check for news of outages and the vendor’s own service blogs. If there are too many outages in service, buy accordingly. In truth, all the services we’re aware of are near-100% reliable.

Speed: Speed in many cases is far more dependent upon your broadband connection than that of the online service, though the geographical location of the storage and the equipment in between can make a significant difference. Check the location of the data servers if speed is important to you. Or, just give the trial a whirl and see if you can live with it.