You have 21 days after receiving the drive to return it to Carbonite, or you will be charged $130 for a drive less than 3TB or $300 for more a drive than 3TB. With support for technology like endpoint security, it seems clear that Carbonite's main focus is on large-scale businesses. 0000019556 00000 n The best direct comparison to Carbonite Safe Prime is Backblaze's basic plan, which for $70 per year backs up a single PC, including video files and attached hard drives, and includes a similar drive-shipping recovery service that you can use for free up to five times per year. Let's say you, instead, have three machines to back up. 0000020860 00000 n It also includes Webroot antivirus software. A full green dot indicates the file or folder has been backed up, full orange means the file or folder is selected for backup and is pending backup, and half a green dot means that some of the files in that folder or its subfolders are backed up and others are not selected for backup. 0000122579 00000 n At the time of this review, Carbonite did not offer mobile apps. You don't get anything as fancy as scheduled backing up here Carbonite is either busy backing up your files and monitoring your chosen folders, or it isn't. A free trial was previously available, however there is now no trial period or free account. Carbonite Safe Basic would cost up to $216 per year, but you still won't get automatic video backups or the free courier service. This service copies your files over to a physical drive and ships it to your home address in the event that you need to recover a large number of your files. Should you need it, business customers can deploy AES 256-bit encryption (opens in new tab), and Carbonite won't keep a copy of the key (top tier security and hacking protection, but if you forget your password then like above, your files remain encrypted for eternity). You can also choose to have backups happen once a day at a set time or simply exclude the hours when you don't want backups running. 0000001736 00000 n

0000124015 00000 n 0000004473 00000 n Online-backup services, or cloud backup services, make online copies of all the personal files on your computer. H\n@b"2x$Db=PK;'J"%b/ya9mxNpmosyN1Mm~. For Safe Basic and Safe Plus customers, the cost of this service is $99 per computer each time you use it; with Safe Prime, it's only $9.99 per occurrence (although expedited shipping for Safe Prime users is another $19.99). Currently there is no support for mobile backups.

Restoration of backed-up files is handled entirely through the Carbonite Safe web interface the desktop application simply links to that page from the control panel. Our initial upload of the 15.6GB of files to Carbonite's servers took approximately 2 hours and 21 minutes, with an average transfer speed of exactly 17 Mbps even as Speedtest.net showed the network offered 67 Mbps. x7%6n'bF\|"x# J R ;^h5`M4OTROanOkl!%m90n$p1`!7mL#*l+R8x5w"`sY5BexmL81e!P5APlo+M-z;'|Zcw*?`p?[3HPWmS%2yBn7cQW\BsSd4.`87:=`P!~iIO rT{L=! HVn0+("-@ Carbonite's Courier Recovery service will ship you your data on an external drive. Read on for the rest of our Carbonite Safe review. We've highlighted the best cloud storage. Carbonite doesn't offer the most intuitive interface we've come across the method of picking files from disk to back up or ignore takes a few minutes to get used to but in general, the desktop clients get the job done in a simple and straightforward way. On the personal plan, AES 128-bit encryption is used, but the company keeps a copy of your key so it can unlock your account should you mess up and forget your password. 0000125451 00000 n 0000118526 00000 n trailer <<92756E2E374542489A8EC9CDBF26BBF3>]/Prev 1503603>> startxref 0 %%EOF 114 0 obj <>stream Carbonite runs various promotions, and at the time of writing there is a 40% discount on all personal plans, meaning that they cost $49.99, $71.99 and $89.99 per year respectively. 0000003105 00000 n The security options available under Carbonite range from pretty secure to extremely secure, depending on what subscription you have. 0000118385 00000 n There are only three other settings that you can toggle: the flagging system, which I will explain in a moment; whether to include Carbonite's default file types in the backup; and reducing Carbonite's internet usage, which throttles the speed of your uploads. 0000018525 00000 n We'd recommend it for those users who are after a simple cloud backup package for a single computer, one that they can just set up and then forget about afterwards.

Most importantly, Carbonite Safe's CPU usage dropped to below 1% following the initial backup. 0000120787 00000 n Download speed was a different story, with Carbonite finishing squarely in the middle of its competitors. Carbonite does offer the ability to use your personal encryption key, which steps up the at-rest encryption from the default AES-128 standard to the stronger AES-256 one, something that more security-conscious users will appreciate. 0000017790 00000 n Most offer unlimited (or lots of) storage for a flat subscription fee, and some (but not Carbonite Safe) can also make local backups to an external hard drive. Craig Hale 0000003839 00000 n TechRadar is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Considering that Carbonite once had very clean and easy-to-use mobile apps, this situation is disappointing and made all the worse by the lack of a timetable for the apps to be replaced. This is crazy. Just want to restore files?

If you ever need to restore some or all of your files, Carbonite can download them to a single folder (which is useful if you're doing the restore from a different machine), or try and put them back in their original location on your system. 0000121861 00000 n Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, Differences between Windows and macOS clients. 0000018370 00000 n With several years experience freelancing in tech and automotive circles, Craigs specific interests lie in technology that is designed to better our lives, including AI and ML, productivity aids, and smart fitness. Carbonite Safe provides the basics and does them well, but you'll pay a lot for the features you really want. %PDF-1.4 % Previously, there was no support for mobile devices at all Carbonite said it was "working to improve the overall mobile experience for [its] customers" on Android and iOS, which meant users had to log into their Carbonite account in their phone's web browser in order to check up on the files stored in their account. Naturally, there is no support for file sharing because this is primarily a backing up tool and not a storage solution. The cost for Safe Prime is $149.99 for one year (discounted to $104.99 for the first year), $284.98 for two years or $404.97 for three years. We conducted our tests in Middleton, Wisconsin, using TDS Telecom Extreme300 Fiber home internet service, which theoretically provided up to 300 megabits per second (Mbps) down and 300 Mbps up. 0000121145 00000 n 0000118499 00000 n Most other online-backup solutions use AES-256, with the exception of Backblaze, which only offers AES-128. Carbonite Safe Plus brings you up to $111.99 per year, currently discounted to $83.99 for the first year. Then you've got the small office backup package pricing: if you pay yearly it's the equivalent of $6 a month for basic computer backups and 128-bit encryption on one to three computers, $24 a month for backups on up to 25 computers, and $50 a month for added server backup and optional 256-bit encryption. 7#~4%)S)>vgwf=xUnTQY8i+]&k+/2l|3i-M_l1QfLna++v$ 0000120429 00000 n Carbonite also offers two-factor authentication (2FA) for your account, requiring verification of a code sent to your smartphone via SMS whenever you log in from a new computer. This is available on all levels of service, but Carbonite Safe Prime customers get a steep discount. (Backing up networked drives is not available with any Carbonite consumer plan.)

0000017533 00000 n HV=0Wli5S%E0"IqZY)`[v]3XkS:z(LcP3kP7eC:S7ok[(zoqxqVx{^. 0000020320 00000 n We did find the backing up process was relatively slow, even with our limited upload speeds, but once the first run is complete this isn't too much to worry about. We uploaded this data to each cloud-backup service and then restored a 1.4GB subset of these files to the Lenovo Yoga C940. 0000008737 00000 n Top-tier personal memberships - called Prime - add a courier delivery service of recovered files, too, which is great if youre trying to restore a lot of data with a poor broadband connection. There isn't the option to open or to stream your files from inside a browser, for example. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. 0000021355 00000 n 0000133642 00000 n The client does not want to use anyone else. With no mobile backups and an interface that's far less friendly than the other tools consumers will be used to (iCloud, OneDrive and the rest), Carbonite is less suitable for the everyday user. There is a 10G limit! 0000011474 00000 n NY 10036. The price of admission is fairly cheap if all you want is something to back up your files in the background while you work. 0000021208 00000 n Drive shipping: Restore only. Upload and download speeds are hard to calculate given the ambiguity of the progress bar - its not clear exactly which files are being backed up and whether they are in the preparation state or are actually transferring to or from the cloud. Once you've got the desktop client for Windows or macOS up and running, you can opt to pick out particular files and folders from your machine, or let Carbonite back up just about all the folders it can find.

You will receive a verification email shortly. Finally, theres the business package which includes plenty of added extras like Microsoft 365 (opens in new tab) backup, though you will need to customize a plan directly with Carbonite. Don't want to wait? Courier Recovery is a great service to avoid excessive downtime in an emergency, but unless you plan on using it at least once a year, then there's no reason to opt for Carbonite Safe Prime. Here's what you get with a Carbonite plan, and how you can use it. Takes forever to get to the right support personnel. Safe Basic users have to individually select videos to back them up, and across all three Carbonite subscription levels, you will need to individually select files over 4GB for backup. 0000125810 00000 n hb``Pc``7g`e`b| @1v@6]pFF6!O8&Lz3&j%e;*2b83=^] l4 0x&A vgiG]"^ai9W2ncg`bp@\o1zc@lU.2c; BQ endstream endobj 44 0 obj <>>> endobj 45 0 obj >/PageWidthList<0 612.0>>>>>>/Resources<>/Font<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text]/XObject<>>>/Rotate 0/TrimBox[0.0 0.0 612.0 792.0]/Type/Page>> endobj 46 0 obj <> endobj 47 0 obj <> endobj 48 0 obj <>stream And if you lose that key, you're on your own. There is also the option for you to keep your own key, but be aware that Carbonite wont be able to help you get into your account if you lose or forget this. More recently, Carbonite has launched iOS and Android apps, which place a focus more on accessing backed up files rather than actually backing up the device. 0000020192 00000 n You can download up to 5,000 individual files or up to 10GB at a time and it will simply download them all immediately as a zip file.

If you have thousands of photos, videos, or music files you want backed up to a safe location, a cloud-backup service is what you need. The best tech tutorials and in-depth reviews, Try a single issue or save on a subscription, Issues delivered straight to your door or device. 0000118422 00000 n Sign up to theTechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Do be aware that you must make the decision to use a personal encryption key when you first back up your data, and that it will prevent you from using the aforementioned Courier Recovery service. New York, There was a problem. During the initial backup process, the Carbonite application used an average of approximately 3.3 percent of our Lenovo Yoga C940's CPU resources. 0000120071 00000 n It makes understanding your backup status incredibly simple and intuitive. 0000124374 00000 n According to Speedtest.net, our connection provided 60-Mbps download at this time, while Carbonite delivered the files at 21.1 Mbps. The lowest tier, Carbonite Safe Basic, comes with unlimited storage space for $6 a month, but you have to pay that annually ($71.99 per year, temporarily discounted to $58.99 for the first year). There are free trials of these plans to help businesses be sure that they have picked the right solution. 0000019820 00000 n last updated 26 May 22. 0000119713 00000 n The flagging, or "colored dots" system as Carbonite calls it, warrants further explanation. The support is terrible. That said, its a tool thats designed to run in the background and for that, it is reasonable. Carbonite's upload speed was by far the slowest in our testing. That's something to bear in mind when comparing Carbonite against the other options on the market. David Nield Carbonite does offer bare metal (opens in new tab) backup and restore where everything is included, operating system and all with the more expensive enterprise packages, but at the basic consumer level, the focus is on files and folders. From a value standpoint, it is hard to recommend Carbonite Safe, even though it works just fine. It doesn't have the sort of user-friendly, consumer-level interface and syncing capabilities of something like Dropbox, but not everybody needs that. Backups of mobile devices: No This plan adds both the ability to include one USB-tethered external hard drive in the backup and automatic backup of video files. Backups of tethered external drives: One drive, with Plus or Prime plans Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. 0000019442 00000 n Pay them $99 and they will make a drive and send it to you within TWO WEEKS for you to restore on your own. He is also passionate about cars and the electrification of personal transportation. 0000125092 00000 n Heres why you can trust us.

0000000016 00000 n 0000122938 00000 n New York, 0000122220 00000 n You have access to your settings, file retrieval and account information. Storage limit: Unlimited Please refresh the page and try again. 0000020455 00000 n You do get the option to pause the backing up process (or you can of course just close Carbonite down), but under normal circumstances, Carbonite will be running away in the background, quietly copying new data and file changes to the cloud for you. Restoring our 1.4GB of video files from Carbonite took approximately 9 minutes and 30 seconds. I really don't know what to do with this dam company. t}~ : endstream endobj 49 0 obj <> endobj 50 0 obj <>stream 0000118639 00000 n , That lets you back up an unlimited amount of data from a single computer, though you'll need to pay $119.99 per year if you want to throw external drives into the mix, and encryption is capped at 128-bit (you need a business plan for 256-bit encryption). He specializes in covering phones and, of course, wearable tech, but has also written about tablets, VR, laptops, and smart home devices, to name but a few. 0000007737 00000 n Instead, Carbonite recommends using the company website through a mobile browser. 0000002150 00000 n Backups of network storage drives: No At least in the macOS client we tested, there was no control over the bandwidth usage. T'n:aOS:ch9p I was impressed with this feature when I last reviewed Carbonite Safe, and the fact that no one else has replicated it is quite surprising. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab). 0000020062 00000 n 0000123297 00000 n Backups to local drives: No 0000119355 00000 n Consumers craving a simple online backup solution for a single machine should consider Backblaze, while anyone with more than one machine to back up will want to look at IDrive. Support just looked at logs and restarted No solutions. This was the second-highest result, but it's not unreasonable and was a marked improvement from the 7% system hit I saw the last time I tested this service.

Tom's Guide is supported by its audience. Usage fluctuated between 2 percent and 6 percent throughout testing. Mobile apps were tested on a Google Pixel 3 with Android 10. 0000006880 00000 n 0000020592 00000 n You will receive a verification email shortly. Tech support cannot help me (only people I could get in touch with) because the account manager needs to make the changes. Two-factor authentication: Yes The cost of Carbonite Safe Plus along with a single Courier Recovery usage every two years will be less expensive than paying for two years of Safe Prime with an expedited Courier Recovery. With this plan, if you ever need to restore a computer from scratch, you'll need to reinstall the OS and applications yourself (which thankfully these days isn't too onerous of a task). 0000121503 00000 n We tested each cloud-backup service using a Lenovo Yoga C940 14-inch laptop with a 10th- Gen Intel Core i7 running Windows 10 Home 64. The Courier Recovery service is also considerably more expensive than comparable offerings from Backblaze (which refunds all but the cost of return shipping as long as you return the drive) and IDrive (which lets you do this for free once per year on a Personal plan and is only $59.95 for additional occurrences). 0000017921 00000 n As an avid bargain-hunter, you can be sure that any deal Craig finds is top value! I wouldn't count unlimited storage space as a must-have feature for a cloud-backup service, but it is nice to have. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. The app take as much as TWO MONTHS to restore your system and you can only restore from the last backup. 0000022846 00000 n While this is preferable to nothing, this isn't our preferred method of 2FA and I would love to see Carbonite implement a more secure option. 0000010614 00000 n +0F1F]SFn moe@+d0B"Ju:3r5wFtb%`' c@A{ /r'/G_ Koh&pz3PE5\;4}N()|\ "x endstream endobj 51 0 obj <>stream Clever and intuitive backup flagging system, Number of devices backed up per subscription: Up to 5 computers One of my clients has this product and we needed to upgrade the plan. Thank you for signing up to Tom's Guide. Carbonite pricing starts at $83.99 per year for personal users. 0000012199 00000 n 0000009723 00000 n Settings options are basic, just covering your backup schedule and then a few additional features. -

Carbonite Safe starts with a point in its favor there, yet while all services with unlimited storage have some limitations, Carbonite's are the most restrictive. From a feature standpoint, Carbonite is miles behind IDrive. It is possible to log into Carbonite on the web, and to view (and restore) your files from there, but you only get the basics as far as an online interface is concerned. 0000018977 00000 n (Carbonite has temporarily slashed prices on its Safe plans by 30%, but they're still a bit more than comparable offerings from rival services.). A self-professed "wearer of wearables," Sean Riley is a Senior Writer for Laptop Mag who has been covering tech for more than a decade. Despite a few annoyances (like the lack of versioning support on macOS computers), we found it to be a robust and capable backup solution for keeping your files saved securely in the cloud. Mark Pickavance Carbonite is a cloud backup service in the style of Backblaze protect all the data you've got on as many computers as you need. 0000020994 00000 n 43 72 What we did notice is that it wasnt as quick as say, Google Drive. As mentioned above, top-tier Prime memberships, at $149.99 per year, add courier delivery service for recovered files. His articles have also appeared in Tom's Guide, TechTarget, Phandroid, and more. After a few calls, one of the tech support told me how to upgrade the portal itself. In late 2019, Carbonite removed its mobile apps from both the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store. You can download files that way, but the site is not designed with this in mind and is maddening to navigate and use from a mobile browser. 0000082537 00000 n Let's take a closer look at what Carbonite Safe has to offer and see whether this still might be the right solution for you. Support is useless. The company has come a long way since it began in 2005, and now offers sophisticated hybrid backup and disaster recovery services for business clients, alongside its offerings for personal users. When we reached out to Carbonite for clarification, we were told that the backups keep up to 12 versions of your changed files and will also keep at least three versions of a file regardless of age. In contrast, both BackBlaze and Zoolz keep unlimited versions of backed up files, however they are both currently more expensive than Carbonite. Carbonite was acquired by the enterprise cloud company OpenText near the end of 2019, which may be why the mobile apps were removed. 0000003726 00000 n Operating system/application backups: No 0000017420 00000 n This choice appears straight away when you start up the client for the first time, though you can always change your mind later in the desktop client. This is what most users are likely to do, because storage is unlimited - though there is a limit on the number of devices that can be backed up, which in the case of personal plans is just one (25 for business plans). 0000019703 00000 n Each service's software was uninstalled from both devices before another service's software was installed. It took 45 minutes longer than the next slowest service, IDrive, and more than twice the upload time of the fastest option, Backblaze. Carbonite is first and foremost aimed at desktop backups, and it's always nice to see provision for mobile devices as well, so it's a shame that it's not included here. It's also good to see two-factor authentication (opens in new tab) available as an option here, which gives you an extra layer of protection should your username and password be exposed. You can also get a slight discount from the full price by paying for two years ($136.78, 5% off) or three years ($194.37, 10% off) at a time. There's simply nothing compelling enough about what Carbonite does to recommend it over Backblaze as an unlimited cloud-backup option. 0000018196 00000 n 0000118997 00000 n Subscribe to our newsletter, Ranked: Every Mission: Impossible movie rated from worst to best, Keep your Nintendo Switch Online subscription, more N64 games are coming, LG and Samsung's next-gen OLED TV price war is on, and we're all winners, I've started using Mozilla Firefox and now I can never go back to Google Chrome, The James Webb telescope is packing some very unimpressive storage, Don't buy PS Plus this Prime Day I mean it, iPhone 14 could be the first step in Apples plan to fracture the iPhone line, How to save a webpage as PDF on Windows and Mac, This $280 phone is a lesson in affordability I hope Apple and Samsung are paying attention. Real-world speeds were typically closer to 50 Mbps down and 60 Mbps up, according to Speedtest.net. The most expensive plan is called Carbonite Safe Prime and it reduces the cost of Carbonite's Courier Recovery service from $99.99 per instance to just $9.99. Please refresh the page and try again. I have been calling for the upgrade for more than a month now. It would cost too much and take too long to use a syncing service to back up all your files. 0000005989 00000 n (It's $212.78 for two years and $302.37 for three.) Backups can be set to happen continuously, which will back up any new or changed files within 10 minutes. Tom's Guide is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. 12 month plan - $6 per month ($72 total cost), Are you a pro? Back to school sales 2022 best deals right now, Best womens running shoes 2022: Tested and rated, Tom's Guide Awards 2022: All the big winners as they're announced, Samsung puzzle tweet just confirmed Galaxy Unpacked event for August 10, 7 best new movies to stream this week on Netflix, Hulu and Prime Video (July 19-24), The best tech tutorials and in-depth reviews, Try a single issue or save on a subscription, Issues delivered straight to your door or device. It is horrid to depend on it for a restore in the event of a drive failure. 0000124733 00000 n Carbonite is easy to use for backup. TechRadar is supported by its audience.

These are prices for a single computer, and you'll pay the full price for each additional machine. I hope this is a sign that changes are coming to make Carbonite a stronger option again, but until those changes come, I would recommend looking elsewhere. Our test set of files to back up consisted of 15.6GB of documents, photos, videos and music. My system stopped the restore three times and had to be restarted. When I did that ($1200 for the year for one of our servers), it told me that I don't have the written version. Heres why you can trust us. NY 10036. 0000082500 00000 n Any files that you delete from your Carbonite cloud storage can be brought back from digital death for a period of 30 days afterwards, though oddly, versioning (where you can go back through several versions of a file) is only available on the Windows client and not the macOS one. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab). 0000019915 00000 n , (McZg+A"a{d2"z]$&1C-Jn $fz@vQ%L7&Dh f0s wIG=Qy11r| UR# That said, it's worth a look if you need unlimited backups from a single computer, as pricing for this is relatively competitive especially when combined with occasional discounts.