Carbonite vs Mozy vs BackBlaze vs ?

Amazon S3.

Around $60, depending on how much you transfer in/out.

I have done trials for Carbonite. I used Mozy for about 18 months. I now use CrashPlan. Mozy did a way with the unlimited plan. Technically it worked. I went to CrashPlan because of the pricing model difference between them and Mozy. I go the unlimited family plan and can backup 10 computers and an unlimited amount of data for $12/month. Currently I backup 90GB on my main Mac and 15GB on another PC. I plan on adding 3 more laptops soon. My 90GB took about 10 days to get totally backed up. So it might take you a month to get 400GB up there.

I have not tried Backblaze.

+1 for Crashplan. I went through the same selection process, ended up going with Crashplan and have been very happy with it.

Another vote for Crashplan

Mal said:

Yeah... that's absolutely absurd for a monthly price. Obviously not designed for this usage.

So any thoughts on the ones that are reasonably priced?

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Next time be more specific about your budget then. You asked for the best service to store your business and personal data without specifying how much you were willing to spend. The answer, then, was clearly Amazon S3.

I went with BackBlaze. So far I really like it. It integrates well on the Mac. I have everything backed up on the iMac and MBP for $100 per year. I think that is fairly reasonable for unlimited backup. It did take forever to back everything up. I mean over a month of constant upload. My only negative is that I wish it wouldn't search for new files that need to be backed up all the time. I have mine set to back up once a day and while it doesn't do anything to iMac regarding CPU usage our Core2Duo MBP gets hit pretty hard while it is searching. This isn't for a long time it is just a little jarring when you are just checking your email and the CPU is suddenly pegged out. Otherwise I like it. I have restored files with no problem. Download speed is pretty good on the restore. I would recommend it.

Mozy has both dropped their unlimited plans recently. It looks like for 400GB Mozy is about $38 a month. ($9.99/month for the first 125GB, $2/20GB after that.)

Carbonite still has it, as do other services. I have read a lot of complaints about service levels on Carbonite, though, and I have to wonder if their current price levels are sustainable. It looks like they only allow you to backup your internal drive unless you buy the $99 yearly plan. Still, that's a discount over S3 or Mozy.

I will say I have more faith in S3's servers and redundancy than cheaper options but your mileage may vary. I have been happy with my S3 backups.

You should figure this in combination with local backups. Since you are also using Time Machine, the remote backup is not as essential. After all, you probably won't need the remote backup unless there's a problem with the Time Machine. That means you can probably safely spend less on the remote backup, knowing that if they have some temporary server problems once in a while it's not a problem.

AlanShutko said:

I will say I have more faith in S3's servers and redundancy than cheaper options but your mileage may vary. I have been happy with my S3 backups.

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This is one reason I have some concerns with online back up services. I think used in conjunction with other backups, i.e., timemachine they're ok but you're putting your trust in a company that only charges 3 dollars a month (crashplan unlimited).

I agree with Mal that the cost of S3 is absurdly high for just back up purposes but it is the most reliable in the sense you're dealing with amazon. If I didn't have a NAS to back up my data (and a portable hd for offsite backups) S3 would be a contender

CrashPlan experience

I have been using CrashPlan on two iMacs for two years now without problem. But my plan came up for renewal recently and the expiration date for the credit card I used had expired (the card is still valid but has a new expiration date). Here is the email I received from CrashPlan.


Their snippy tone and threat to delete my data are pretty annoying. What if I were in the hospital or out of the country and didn't see my email or was unable to respond? I am not too happy with CrashPlan's billing department.

wrhumph said:

Their snippy tone and threat to delete my data are pretty annoying. What if I were in the hospital or out of the country and didn't see my email or was unable to respond? I am not too happy with CrashPlan's billing department.

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No offense but should they let your data consume server resources for free? They wouldn't know that you're in the hospital or someone who is unwilling to pay. Additionally all they see is an expired credit card, they cannot guess what the expiration date would be.

Would any other vendor provide free services beyond the contract date when your credit card on file was rejected?

maflynn said:

No offense but should they let your data consume server resources for free? They wouldn't know that you're in the hospital or someone who is unwilling to pay. Additionally all they see is an expired credit card, they cannot guess what the expiration date would be.

Would any other vendor provide free services beyond the contract date when your credit card on file was rejected?

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I am a really strong Crashplan supporter... but I agree with the comment that the response is written in a snippy tone... and it is out of sync with the excellent service that I have received from CP+.

I especially like the fact that their CEO is involved in day to day operations, and takes the time to interact with customers.

My expectations of great customer service would be:

• Keeping track of your expiration date on file, and proactively letting you know when the expiration date has come due (not when the renewal was executed).
• Give you ample time fix the issue. 15 days seems short
• Most importantly... provide assurance in their tone, that they first and foremost have an attitude of protecting your data.

From my knowledge of this company (as a customer)... if you were to write to them you would receive a response and an apology... and would likely see a fairly quick change in policy.

My expectations of a good policy would be to inform you that you credit card is about to expire... and failure to correct it in advance would affect future renewals.

If a renewal was attempted and denied, I would expect them to let me know that after 15 days, my automatic backup would be suspended, and after 90 days my stored backups would be deleted.

In other words... I agree with the comment that their reply was "snippy" and has room for significant improvement.

/Jim

CrashPlan experience

Thanks for responding to my post, maflyn. I think you and I may have different expectations for the companies that we pay to provide services.

No offense but should they let your data consume server resources for free?

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I don't expect CrashPlan to provide services for free. I do expect them to be courteous and reasonable.

Would any other vendor provide free services beyond the contract date when your credit card on file was rejected?

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I don't know about the policies of other backup services. I do know that credit card services have grace periods, mortgage companies don't foreclose if a payment is late, landlords don't evict their renters if a rent check bounces, and self-storage companies don't burn your stuff if they don't receive a payment on time. Note that there is nothing wrong with my credit card - CrashPlan just had an old expiration date on file. I would think that online services that make recurring charges to customers' credit cards encounter this all the time. I have had this happen numerous times with other service providers in the past (e.g. my ISP, hosting services, ..) and I have received a nice note letting me know about it without threatening to erase my email, delete my source code, etc. I update the expiration date and everybody is happy.

There is plenty of competition in this market. CrashPlan will be worse off if they lose customers than if they let data sit on their servers a little longer than contractually required. CrashPlan is offering a service, after all, and customer satisfaction with that service will determine how successful they are (Netflix comes to mind).

Maybe I am overly prickly about this. But I think it is useful for people to know the kind of service they can expect to receive.