Online backup technologies

 

Revised 11/4/14; Corrections to david@strom.com

See my original story in the NY Times here.

See the follow-up story in PC World here.

My most recent story in eSecurityPlanet.com here – an online backup buying guide.

Finally, here is one of my video screencast product reviews on Symantec's Online Protection Network  and another of the 3X Systems backup appliance here.

 

 

Vendor, URL

Free account  limitations

Annual cost and storage capacity

Mac and Windows servers support

Supports multiple PCs

3x.com (see my video review here)

N/A

Varies, up to 2 TB using hardware appliance

Windows servers

Yes

Adrive  (1)

50 GB

$70

No

Yes (paid only)

Amerivault by Venyu

 

15 days free

$2/GB per mo

Mac and Windows servers

Yes

Apple's MobileMe  (2)

 

30 days free

$100/20GB

Windows

Family pack $150/yr

AT&T Backup and Go

N/A

$7 per month per PC for UNLIMITED STORAGE

 

Macs

Yes

BackBlaze

15 days free

$5 per month per PC for unlimited storage

Macs

Yes

BackupMax

14 days free

$110/10GB

Mac, Vista (separate version for servers)

No

backupmyinfo.com

30 days free

Varies

Windows servers, Mac, Linux

Yes

BackupRight Pro

30 days free

$540/20GB

Mac, Linux

Yes

Box.net Business

14 days free

1GB

$200/15GB

Also Mac

Yes

Carbonite

15 days free

$55 for unlimited space

XP and Vista aand Mac

Yes (paid accounts only)

CloudBerry Online Backup

N/A

$29 one-time plus Amazon S3 costs

No

Yes

Connected Backup Iron Mountain

 

30 days free

$100/2GB per PC

(Adobe plan: $200/10 GB)

Mac, Vista

Yes

Crashplan

Up to 10 mirrored PCs

free for unlimited storage, paid Pro version avail.

Macs, Linux

Yes

Cucku

Out of business

 

 

 

Data Deposit Box

30 days free

$2/GB/month,

No

Yes, WebDAV, no limit on number of computers, users, drives


Datavaultcorp.com

30 days free

$200/5GB +

$7/mo per each PC

No

No

DriveHQ Online Backup Professional

1GB (4)

$130/10GB

No

Yes

DropBox

2GB

$100/50GB

Mac, Linux

Yes

ElephantDrive.com

1GB

$100/ unlimited storage

Also Mac

S3

Exacep

15 days free

$120/ 1.5GB

Windows Servers

Yes

ExpanDrive

30 days free

$40 for unlimited space

Also Mac

No, WebDAV

Hitachi Backup

3GB

$50/250GB

Mac, Windows

Yes

FilesAnywhere

1GB

$90/5GB

Windows Servers

WebDAV

FirstBackup.com

15 days free

$90/1GB + $25/PC

Windows servers

Yes

Global Data Vault

30 days free

$200/50GB

Windows Servers, Mac and Linux

Yes

iBackUP.com

15 days free

$100/5GB

Mac and Windows servers

Yes

iDrive.com Pro

2GB

$100/50GB

Windows Home Server

Yes

Intronis eSureIT for Business

30 days free

$300/5GB

No

Yes

Iomega iStorage Professional Edition

30 days free

$65/1GB

No

Yes, unlimited users

JungleDisk.com

Storage charges only

About $5 for 2 GB, unlimited space

Mac, Linux, Windows 2000, Windows Home Server

Yes, uses S3, WebDAV

LogMeIn Backup

30 days free

$40 for 2 PCs

No

PC to PC backups

Megaupload.com

1 GB per file for free service

50 GB free, $60/250 GB

No

Yes, but paid service only

Memopal

3 GB free

$50/150GB

Win servers/desktops, also Mac, Linux

Yes

Mionet

30 days free

$80

No

Yes

Mozy Pro (3)

N/A

$9/PC/Month for 10GB

Mac, Windows Servers

Yes

Microsoft Skydrive Live 

25 GB!!

$50 per PC 

+$50/10GB

XP w/ SP2 or Vista only

No

MyDocsOnline.com Enterprise

15 days free

$168/1GB

Mac, Linux, Windows Servers

Yes, WebDAV

MyOtherDrive.com

5 GB free

$25/25GB

Mac, Windows, Linux

Yes

Norton Online Backup

30 days free

$49/25GB

Mac, Windows

Up to 5 PCs

NovaStor Online Backup Service

15 days free

$900 for 5 uers

Windows Servers

Yes

Onlinebackupvault

.com

5GB, 30 days free

$45/10GB

Mac, Linux, Windows Servers

Yes, unlimited users

Rsync

N/A

$145/10GB

Windows Servers, Mac and Linux

Yes, unlimited users

Trend Micro SafeSync

30 days

$50 for unlimited GB

Windows and Mac

Yes, unlimited users

SOSonline

Yes

$180/10GB

Windows Servers

Yes, unlimited users

SpiderOak

2GB free

$120/100GB

Mac and Linux

Yes, unlimited users

StorageGuardian

.com

30 days free

$216/10GB

Windows Servers

Mac, Linux

Yes, unlimited users

Symantec Online Backup (see my video review here)

30 days free

$110/10GB

Windows Servers

No

Syncplicity

2GB

$100/50GB

No

Yes, unlimited users

SystemRecovery

.com

15 days free

$420/5GB

No

Yes

Tilana.com Reserve

2 GB free

$50 for unlimited storage

No

No

VaultLogix Data Protection Service

14 days free

Starts at $300

Windows Servers, Mac, Linux, others

Yes

Vembu.com StoreGrid

Free PC-to-PC backups for 3 PCs

$30/yr per PC, more for servers

Windows Servers, Mac, Linux

Yes

Verizon Online Backup

 

$25/5 GB

Also Macs

Yes

Zmanda.com

N/A

Approx. $5 for 2 GB, unlimited space

Also Mac and Linux

Yes, S3

Notes:

 

(1) There is a $25 charge to retrieve older versions of backup files

 

(2) Accounts have 200GB monthly transfer limits. Storage is shared between files and emails. Family Pack includes 4 accounts and up to 5 GB storage each.

 

(3) MozyHome is for consumers and works on both PC¼s and Macs and is $4.95 a month for unlimited storage capacity on one computer. MozyHome is also free up to 2 GB, and the storage quota can be shared across 2 computers. MozyPro provides 24x7 phone support, server OS support, mapped and network drive support and an administrative Web-based console to manage employee backups.

 

(4) Drive HQ places download limits and other restrictions of the free accounts. It also offers free file transfer protocol (FTP) hosting which can be used by non-Windows PCs.