Conclusion:
[Updated 11/6/2014]
Backblaze is a great option for those who want a lot of storage at a low monthly cost but do not require many features offered by other online backup services. Backblaze’s monthly plan offers unlimited storage for only $5 per month. While they don’t offer a free account to test their service, they offer a 15-day free trial (no credit card required) to test the service. Backblaze has a 30 day version history, that will help you restore any files you may have accidentally deleted. If you have any issues with the service, you must submit create a ticket online- they do not offer a phone customer support line.
Features
Backblaze offers a standard backup program that lets you install the program and run an initial backup of every file on your computer that you want backed up. This process may take a while, but after this initial backup the program will perform incremental backups only on files that you have changed since the initial backup. This significantly reduces the time of your system’s backup. Backblaze also lets you schedule backups for when you are out of the office or away from your computer so that you aren’t slowed down by the backup process.
Backblaze creates versions of your files so that you can revert to old copies of a document if something critical was saved over. They also offer a 30-day version history, that will help you restore any files you may have accidentally deleted.
Customer Support
Backblaze does not have phone support, but they’re available by email 24/7. Their support team usually will get back to you within a few hours of emailing a help request. Because they lack any type of real-time support, we found their support quality to be low. Live support is incredibly important to online backup users. For example, if you are unable to access your files before an important meeting and you have no one to get in direct contact with, you could be in trouble. Backblaze offers a range of FAQs and has some tutorials, but none of these are searchable, which makes finding the right help section difficult.
Professional Options
Backblaze offers a business plan that is priced the same per computer as the personal plan, but it provides the ability to manage all the computers under a single account. They don’t, however, offer file sharing or the ability to backup a server, which can be important for many types of businesses.
Security
Backblaze, Inc. has been around for about seven years. It is important to know that the service you choose is reliable because you risk losing all of your data if the company goes out of business. They use military-grade encrypted storage, using a 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) symmetric key encryption to keep your data safe from hackers.
Pricing
Backblaze’s only plan costs $5 per month for unlimited storage. Compared to the prices of other online backup services, this is a great price. They offer annual and biennial discounts if you pay for an entire year or two upfront. The prices on these contracts work out to $4.17 and $3.96 per month, respectively.
