The Best Cloud Backup and Storage Solutions of 2022

IDrive offers a free plan, which supports up to 5GB of cloud storage, as well as plans for entrepreneurs (IDrive Personal) and small businesses needing a plan for multiple users (IDrive Business).

Here is a breakdown of each plan.

IDrive Personal (one user, unlimited computers):

• 2TB at $69.50 for the first year, or $139 for two years
• 5TB at $99.50 for the first year, or $199 for two years 

IDrive Business (unlimited users, unlimited computers and servers):

• 250GB at $99.50 for the first year, or $199 for two years
• 500GB at $199.50 for the first year, or $399 for two years
• 1.25TB at $499.50 for the first year, or $999 for two years (or $49.95 per month)
• 2.5TB at $799.50 for the first year, or $1,599 for two years (or $79.95 per month)
• 5TB at $1,499.50 for the first year, or $2,999 for two years (or $149.95 per month)
• 12.5TB at $2,999.50 for the first year, or $5,999 for two years (or $299.95 per month)

If you exceed your storage limit, IDrive charges 25 cents a month per gigabyte for the personal plan and 50 cents a month per gigabyte for business plans. You can upgrade to higher storage plans to avoid an overuse charge. IDrive doesn’t offer unlimited storage plans, but customer support informed us that you can add more data to your plan as needed.

Currently, IDrive is offering new customers 25% off the first year, or 50% off if you sign up for a two-year plan. IDrive also discounts its services for students, educational institutions or anyone with a valid, educational domain-based email address.

The online backup service offers important features, including synchronization and restoration, device support, group management, archiving, and high-grade security.

Whether you use a PC, Mac, iOS or Android device, IDrive stores and backs up your files in the cloud. You can access and share files on your mobile devices via IDrive’s mobile app. Files and folders sync in real time; IDrive automatically syncs your computers on a scheduled or continuous basis. It provides real-time backup, which means it can detect even the smallest changes to files and back them up.

The IDrive Snapshot retains versions of your computers or servers in storage, allowing you to back up and restore your system to how it was at previous points in time. Snapshots do not affect your plan’s storage capacity.

IDrive archives files so that none of your data is lost to carelessness. You choose if and when to manually delete files. You can also set up IDrive’s archive cleanup tool, which syncs your account data with your latest backup.

With 256-bit AES encryption, the backup service is completely secure and complies with security regulations, including HIPAA, SOX and GLBA. In the event your local server crashes, IDrive can ship a copy of your data to you.

IDrive provides 24/7 customer support and can be reached by phone, email and live chat. The company is not accredited with the Better Business Bureau, but the agency gives it an A+ rating.

Backblaze’s backup plans support all the user data on each backed-up computer, except for the system and program files. For example, when you back up a Mac device, that would be the top-level Library, Applications and System folders. You can back up everything under Users, which should be all the user-generated data.

You can pay for backup plans at a monthly, annual or biennial rate; the longer contracts provide the largest discounts. To try out Backblaze with no risk, you can sign up for a 15-day free trial.

Here is a breakdown of each plan. 

Monthly backup plan:

• Price: $6 per license, per month
• Recommended for: Businesses that want maximum flexibility 

Yearly backup plan:

• Price: $60 per license, per year
• Recommended for: Most small businesses (most popular plan) 

Two-year backup plan:

• Price: $110 per license for two years
• Recommended for: Businesses that want the best long-term deal

If you need to support computers, servers, NAS, endpoints or virtual machines, the B2 Cloud Storage option may be a good fit. This gives you 10GB of storage and 1GB of daily downloads for free. Pricing is based on the amount of data stored, bandwidth used and transactions performed. 

B2 Cloud Storage:

• Price: 0.5 cents per gigabyte stored per month and 1 cent per gigabyte downloaded per month (pay as you go) – equates to $5 per month to store 1TB of data and $10 to download and restore that data
• Recommended for: Businesses that need general, archival or offsite data storage

With B2 Cloud Storage, you will need a third-party application to act as a backup or storage interface.

Both of Backblaze’s backup and storage options can be used on Mac computers and have their pros and cons. When we evaluated cloud backup solutions for Mac computers, we were impressed with Backblaze’s number of features.

Backblaze is optimized for Apple computers and integrates with the macOS interface. It backs up all user data on a computer, including attached external drives. This is unlimited and continuous backup that does not impose bandwidth caps or throttling unless you set it up with bandwidth control.

The backup interface allows you to set when and how often you back up your computers. You can also set it to automatically detect bandwidth usage and slow down when traffic increases.

While Mac’s Time Machine allows you to restore previous versions of individual files, with Backblaze, you can roll back your entire system up to 30 days, giving you protection against ransomware and other malware. You can also set versioning retention.

If you need to perform an immediate restore, the service can ship you a hard drive with your data. Backblaze keeps files until you delete them. Even then, they are accessible via backup for 30 days. If a computer is offline, the most recent backup is kept for at least six months, if not indefinitely.

Backblaze’s business backup plans give you administrative tools to manage multiple computers. You control the admin preferences from an easy-to-use dashboard where you can set permissions and view each computer’s backup status. You can also add or remove users at any time through the Business Group dashboard.

The plan scales with your business – you can add or remove as many computers as needed. You can manage both backup and B2 Cloud Storage administrative settings from the same online interface.

For new and current users looking for additional information about Backblaze’s services and features, the company offers a blog and additional FAQs and help pages. Backblaze is accredited with the Better Business Bureau and has an A+ rating.

Here is a breakdown of each plan.

Team plan:

• Online storage: 1TB
• Price: $10 per employee per month
• Size: 1-3 employees 

Office plan:

• Online storage: 5TB
• Price: $8 per employee, per month
• Size: 5-25 employees 

Business plan:

• Online storage: 10TB
• Price: $20 per employee, per month
• Size: 25-100 employees 

Enterprise plan:

• Online storage: Scales with your needs
• Price: Call for a quote
• Size: 100+ employees

The biggest difference between each plan is the amount of storage, but each plan has its own security measures, administrative and IT tools, deployment options, and hybrid integration features. The typical maximum file size is 10GB; however, Egnyte can work with you to customize a plan if you need to transfer larger files.

Egnyte offers a 15-day free trial. You get 20GB of cloud-based storage and 1GB of FTP uploading and sharing during the trial period.

Egnyte’s rich set of features includes customization, file sharing, top-notch security and synchronization. The service offers first-rate file support – you can store nearly any type of file, including word documents, slideshows, videos, email, databases and software. You can even store music files, though you’ll need a third-party player to stream them.

Within your Egnyte portal, you and your employees can easily share files and collaborate with remote individuals from a single centralized access point. Detailed folder permissions allow you to define tight rules around access to certain data. Not only can you specify who sees shared folders, you can also set permissions that determine who in your company can edit and delete files.

Link expiration features let you specify how long someone has access to a given document. Egnyte automatically creates a new version of a document each time a change is saved, and you can determine the number of versions you want to keep before older versions are moved to the trash folder.

The backup service uses stringent security measures to safeguard data. File transmissions use 256-bit AES encryption over SSL. Users are authenticated with a username and password, and as an administrator, you set the access rights for all users and guests you share data with.

As a hybrid cloud and local storage solution, Egnyte conveniently provides continuous synchronization between local files and online copies. The platform detects changes to files and syncs them, keeping both copies up to date. Hybrid storage and backup provides redundant protection, meaning if one source fails, you still have a viable source where you can access your files and back them up.

The custom branding feature lets you integrate your own URL for the interface and portal, complete with your company’s logo and messaging. This can boost brand continuity and peace of mind with your customers.