You want to access those backups from anywhere, from any equipment, from any operating system.
There are two excellent services for this:CrashPlanandBackblaze.
Both are popular, and weve recommended both in the past.
Asweve said before, theres no excuse for not backing up your machine.
CrashPlanis owned by Code42, and has been around since 2007.
CrashPlan supports Windows, Mac, and Linux.CrashPlan has long been our(and your) go-to backup solution.
CrashPlan stores your data in their secure data centers located around the world.
While Backblazes 128-bit encryption isnt as powerful as CrashPlans 448-bit encryption, it should be plenty for most users.
Lets dig into what makes them different from each other.
CrashPlan is $59.99/year for one person and one computer.
Backblaze is $50/year for one person and one computer.
Pricing gets a little squirrely beyond that.
As the name suggests, local backup allows you to back up to your personal external hard drive.
Backblaze also doesnt have a family plan, so its best suited for individual users.
When you launch Backblaze, you dont need to tweak any options.
After its installed, it automatically starts backing up your hard drive.
Backblaze will continually back up files in the background as long as you have an internet connection.
Thats not to say Backblaze doesnt have options.
Backblaze works just fine with the default parameters on most computers.
With all that comes a slightly less intuitive backup process.
When you launch CrashPlan for the first time, youre greeted with a ton of options.
Its all useful, but its a little overwhelming if you just want to back up your data.
Those parameters are pretty necessary to tweak, by the way.
CrashPlan has been promising a native app for years, but havent delivered.
The end result is an app thats far too clunky for the average user.
The restoration process is just as important, and smooth backups are useless if you cant restore them easily.
In the CrashPlan app youll find a Restore tab.
Backblazes restore feature is a little odd.
From there, youre sent a link to a downloadable ZIP file.
you might also get your files by mail on a hard drive or flash drive for an additional fee.
While Backblazes ZIP format isnt impossible to navigate, its time consuming and far less intuitive.
Put simply, both services offer everything the average person needs.
But they do both have some exclusive options that are worth considering, especially if youre an advanced user.
Weve already talked about some of these features above, but lets get them all in one easy-to-scan place.
But universally recommending one over the other is difficult.
So, CrashPlans great for advanced users who like to tinker.
But would I recommend CrashPlan to my parents?
No: Id recommend Backblaze.
Backblaze works out of the box with no tinkering.
The native apps make Backblaze a little easier to use and they consume less resources than CrashPlans Java apps.
Illustration by Fruzsina Kuhari.
