You see that “unlimited” comes with a catch here. Furthermore, they limit your upsteam even more aggressively to 512 kbit/s if you’re backing up more than 35GB and if you surpass 200GB you can only upload at a measly 100 kbit/s. There are some caps built into the system which might be a deal breaker for those looking to backup more than 200GB - allow me to explain:Ĭarbonite implements a bandwidth throttle of 2 mbit/s, so even if you have a 10 mbit/s upstream, you won’t be able to use it all. Now, is Carbonite really unlimited? Unfortunately, the answer is no. And while it is nearly impossible to get a full initial backup done in 15 days, you can still access and restore your files before that initial backup is complete. Unfortunately, there are no monthly plans available, but you can test the service for 15 days for free. Together with Mozy, they were one of the first to offer unlimited storage of files however, Mozy discontinued its unlimited offering a while ago.Ĭarbonite offers unlimited online backup for $59 per year. In fact, you’ve probably heard about Carbonite on some radio commercial or seen it on the Internet, because they invest heavily in growth and thus do a lot of marketing. The “unlimited” segment of the online backup market is still quite small, so I’ll only be looking at 5 services today.Ĭarbonite is one of the “big players” in online backup. We’ll soon discover that the term “unlimited” can be interpreted differently as you look at it from different angles. Now that we’ve covered our bases, let’s delve right into the thick of things by taking a look at the service providers that currently offer unlimited online backup, and what “unlimited” means to them. Overview of unlimited online backup services As long as the people backing up fewer files outnumber those who backup large quantities, this remains a sustainable business model. So, the company earns money off of one customer and loses money off the other.
But it is based on the simple assumption that the majority of people will only backup a couple of gigabytes, while only a tiny majority will backup more than a terabyte. How can those services offer unlimited storage space?Īnother interesting question I hear a lot is: How is it possible for those providers to offer unlimited online backup? Obviously, offering unrestricted data backup is a nice claim that draws the attention of lots of customers. So for the price of a caffè latte per month, you can enjoy the peace of mind that comes with knowing that your data is safe. Nowadays, you can get unlimited online backup for as low as $5 per month, or even less if you’re willing to commit to a longer membership period. Storage prices have decreased dramatically due to the high level of competition in this niche and each company is doing their best to offer us as consumers attractive prices that are hard to resist. Nobody has unlimited amounts of data, right? While that is true, you don’t need hundreds of gigabytes to make those services worthwhile. Why use unlimited online backup in the first place?īefore we dive into the world of unlimited online backup providers, I’d like to explain why one would even need unlimited data backup. I’ll dig a little deeper and show you that not all “unlimited” data storage and backup services are created equal, and what you should keep in mind when choosing one. But “off-site” can also mean online or “in the cloud.” There are countless online backup services - several of which have already been covered here at BenchFly - but in this article I’ll set my sights on so called “unlimited” online backup services. Off-site can mean several things for example, you can backup your data on an external hard drive and put it somewhere other than your home. That’s where off-site backup comes into play. While this is the first step it is like going to the doctor and only taking one of the several medications she prescribed. There is also a common misconception that it is enough to have a single backup on a secondary disk or external hard drive.
However, very few people actually think about backing up their data, let alone backing it up in the cloud. The average computer user has at least a couple gigabytes of important data that mustn’t be lost. Data storage and backup are becoming more and more important as our lives become more and more digital.
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