Backblaze Crashplan



CrashPlan protects the files you’re currently working on first, and makes it easy to go back to previous versions of your files by date. As a cost comparison, the basic Crashplan Family Plan was $12.50 / month. Backblaze’s 2 year plan is the equivalent of $3.96 / computer / month. For families with 3 computers or less, Backblaze is more affordable. Backblaze is ranked 1st while CrashPlan is ranked 4th. The most important reason people chose Backblaze is: The default configuration includes everything except for system files to be backed up.

Cloud storage is increasingly relevant to individuals and businesses alike as storage sizes increase and data becomes increasingly sensitive. The threat of disaster wiping out all of your data can be devastating to a lot of people. Choosing the correct plan for you or your business from the sea of choices, however, can be quite challenging. So in this CrashPlan vs Backblaze article, we’ll take a look at two prominent cloud backup services and compare them on several factors like price and features.

CrashPlan vs Backblaze – Overview

CrashPlan Overview

A large name in the cloud storage industry, CrashPlan has been around for quite some time. During the last year, CrashPlan has only focused on a powerful backup solution designed for small businesses and organizations with up to 199 employees. CrashPlan currently focuses only on continuous, automatic backup to the cloud to protect small business data.

As of August 22, 2017, the company started to discontinue the CrashPlan for Home subscriptions, and starting October 23, 2018, the CrashPlan for Home will no longer be available for use. Existing customers of the CrashPlan for Home Plan should check out the company’s official website for more information on the next steps to take.

Related: Crashplan Cloud Storage Service Review

Backblaze Overview

Backblaze

Backblaze is an award-winning cloud backup solution. But despite their awards, they are still relatively unknown compared to behemoths like Carbonite or CrashPlan. That being said, what they do have to offer is at least superficially on par with what all the other backup providers offer as well.

In function, Backblaze is very similar to CrashPlan, even in terms of its software. Like CrashPlan, Backblaze also offers unlimited storage in their plan. Yes, a single plan. The company offers both personal and business backup, as well as B2 cloud storage. They do offer some convenient and cool features though that may sway some to their side. It’s truly in the details that you can see how these two diverge.

Learn more: Backblaze Cloud Storage Service Review

CrashPlan vs Backblaze – Prices & Features

CrashPlan Pricing Plans

Plan

PriceStorage Allotment

CrashPlan for Small Business

$10 per month, per deviceUnlimited

Backblaze Pricing Plans

Plan

PriceStorage Allotment

Personal Backup

$5/monthUnlimited
Business Backup$50/yr/computer

Unlimited

B2 Backup$0.005/GB/Month

The first 10 GB of storage is free.

If you were to look at it simply from a price per GB standpoint for an individual user, the plans are fairly equal. For families though, Backblaze wins the Backblaze vs CrashPlan battle, as CrashPlan does no longer offer family plans.

For business users, Backblaze again takes the crown, as they offer lower prices than CrashPlan. Backblaze also offers B2 cloud storage at 1/4 the price.

CrashPlan vs Backblaze – Security

The security features of Backblaze and CrashPlan are quite a bit different. Backblaze offers SSL transfer encryption and 256-bit AES encryption for files stored on their servers. This is pretty much the industry standard at this point. They do, however, offer a personal key option which further secures your data and is not offered by some competitors.

CrashPlan offers a more secure 448-bit encryption system with a private key option also available. Their data centers are also extremely well guarded by men and machines, with military standards in place to keep the physical servers and drives away from unwanted intruders. CrashPlan has clearly made security a prime focus. Thus, the paranoid can rest easy knowing their data is in good hands.

CrashPlan vs Backblaze – Additional Features

CrashPlan does what it does, and that’s about it. The service excels at backing up your data and making it easily accessible and restorable, but aside from that, there aren’t many bells and whistles. There is also deleted file recovery and options to keep multiple file versions going all the way back to when the file was first uploaded if you get into the settings and tweak it a little. It’s also very much set it and forget it, with easy-to-use software and backups running automatically once set up.

Backblaze is very similar in this regard. They don’t have file integrations or sharing, much like CrashPlan, and they have a mobile app. Backblaze, however, does have the ability to order your backups restored to a flash drive or external hard drive and shipped to you. This can be useful in certain situations, but for the cost, it would be cheaper to buy your own drive and download the data there instead. Backblaze also suffers the unfortunate “feature” of incredibly slow upload speeds, which would be a massive problem for those with a lot of data or those who access their data often.

CrashPlan vs Backblaze – Pros & Cons

CrashPlan Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Fast data transfer;
  • Extremely secure;
  • Set it and forget it capability;

Cons

  • No real exciting extra features;

Backblaze Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Unlimited storage;
  • Ability to order physical backup copies;
  • Personal key option;

Cons

  • Slow;

Verdict

Backblaze, while admittedly very similar to CrashPlan in features, takes the cake for personal users. Due to the blazing fast upload speed and more attention to security CrashPlan is a clear winner. Backblaze’s turtle speeds and lower security do not command the high price you would have to pay to secure multiple computers with it. For business users, Backblaze offers lower prices than CrashPlan. Thank you for reading our Backblaze vs CrashPlan comparison! Please share your thoughts on any of these companies in the comment section below!

If you evaluate CrashPlan for Small Business vs. other types of data protection solutions and providers, you’ll see why more than 50,000 businesses trust us with their data.

See how CrashPlan data protection stacks up against traditional backup solutions and cloud sync and other backup storage solutions

External Hard DriveCloud Sync (e.g. Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive)BackblazeCarbonite®CrashPlan for Small Business
Automatic & continuous protection
Compatible with Mac, PC, Linux
Flexible scheduling
Configure version retention
Set CPU usage
Customize deleted file retention
Military Grade AES-256 At-Rest File Encryption

For Cloud Sync, indicates this may vary across services; indicates backups may be delayed up to 3 hours while waiting for resources to become available.

Are you using cloud sync solutions, like Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive?

How does Crashplan compare to other cloud sync solutions?

When making a cloud backup solutions comparison, you’ll notice a few differences that set our services apart. For example, data protection like CrashPlan is designed to preserve your files in the cloud, making it possible (and easy) to recover your files in case your hard drive fails.

Cloud sync adds to your storage capacity without being specifically designed to help you recover and restore files. When compared against our cloud backup solutions, it’s simply not enough.

If you’re considering using Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, iCloud, etc., you should know these services are not meant to protect all your data.

Today only 23% of employees’ data and 1% of their files make it to cloud sync tools, leaving the rest at risk of loss by users.

Typically, they only sync data from a specific directory or folder. If the service detects a file was deleted from your sync folder you’re out of luck.

“One Drive is great for being able to share data outside of the organization, but at the end of the day it doesn’t protect the entire computer and that’s where the CrashPlan for Small Business software comes into play because it does protect the whole computer.”

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Compare CrashPlan against your current solution

Crashplan For Small Business

Backblaze

It’s not just about the convenience of having your files automatically protected and available to restore at any time with our cloud-based backup services. Many of our customers have even saved their business with CrashPlan.

Computer hacked and your files held for a ransom? No problem.
When Mark’s computer was hacked and all his files maliciously encrypted by the CryptoLocker virus, it could’ve easily cost him his livelihood.

But instead of losing all his files or being blackmailed for thousands, he got help and started getting his files back within 4 minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions About Our Backup Solutions

Carbonite

How many computers can I protect?

Protect as many computers as you want. Adding computers is easily done through your dashboard and you can add them at any time. If you have more than 200 users in your business you’ll need our Enterprise product.

Can I add or remove computers?

Yes! You can add or remove as many computers as you like whenever you want. Each new computer is an additional $9.99 USD/month (plus tax/fees) and your billing rate is automatically adjusted to accommodate the additional computers.

Backblaze B2 Vs Crashplan

We encourage you to compare this to other cloud-based backup services—and we are confident that you’ll find our solution is best in class.

What are the retention periods for files and how many versions do you keep?

You can control what files are protected, when, and how often. CrashPlan backs up your most recent files first, then makes sure you have a full backup at one destination as soon as possible.

What happens if your file becomes corrupt? Or you want to return to an earlier version? No problem. You can restore any available file from a date and time you specify.

Are there any file type or file size restrictions?

We don’t set any file size limits. There are a few files in certain system folders CrashPlan won’t protect. More information about those is available in our support documentation.

Can I use CrashPlan for Small Business with data that falls under HIPAA?

Yes! CrashPlan for Small Business users who need to be HIPAA compliant should contact our Support Agents to obtain a Business Associate Agreement (BAA). This combined with our default active AES-256 encryption should allow you to check one more thing off that HIPAA compliance list.

How does the free trial work?

Backblaze Vs Crashplan Reddit

It’s easy: sign-up today for a free, one-month trial. You get free storage for about a month. After you’ve tried us, we think you’ll love it so much you’ll stay and keep protecting your files. But, of course, you can cancel at any time and there’s no obligation.