A Comparison of Cabronite and CrashPlan Online Computer Backup Services

I came across two companies that provide online backup services. One was Carbonite and the other was CrashPlan. Everyone probably knows about Carbonite as they have been doing a lot of advertising on television these days. The other company, CrashPlan, is a company I stumbled on because of a Twitter conversation. There are other companies, but these are the two that I decided to try.

Similarities

Easy to install

Operates automatically

Does not cause system slowdown when backing up

Can back up multiple computers with one account

Differences
CrashPlan was more versatile. There were several different sources available for backup whereas Carboinite offered only a backup to their online site. With CrashPlan there are several free options. The free options are for personal use. You can use their software to control the backups of all your home computers over your home network. You can use their software to backup your computer over the internet to a friend or family member's computer. If you want to backup to CrashPlan's online site, there is a $4.50 per month charge for an individual computer or you can pay for a full year upfront at $54.00 per year. You can purchase an unlimited family plan at $8.33 a month or $100 per year. To make your subscription cheaper you can purchase either a 2 or 3 year plan. With Carbonite the individual plan is $54.95 per year and then each computer requires its own subscription. Which means if you have four computers that need to be backed up it's going to cost $219.18 per year to keep these computers backed up online.

I chose CrashPlan's free options. Clearly CrashPlan is the winner over Carbonite. With all the different options that CrashPlan offered they have the advantage. I have installed the software on two of my computers and it has worked perfectly. I'm getting ready to install on the other two computers. I back up all of my computers to one external drive that is attached to my laptop.

If you don't all ready have a backup plan don't delay in getting one into place. I can't stress how important it is to have a good backup system. I used to try to do it manually, but wasn't too successful at keeping it done in a timely manner and with four computers it was becoming difficult. I can't tell you how many times I've regretted it. Now I'm just going to set it up and let it go automatically. This is just one less thing to worry about.

Sources:
http://www.carbonite.com/
http://www3.crashplan.com/landing/index.html