Best Backup Software for Business
Ransomware doesn’t usually announce itself with a ransom note first — it announces itself when someone tries to open last quarter’s accounts and the file won’t load. Backup software is the boring insurance policy that turns that moment from a disaster into an inconvenience. We looked at three business backup tools that don’t require an IT department to run: Backblaze Business Backup, IDrive Team and Carbonite Safe. Each solves the same core problem — getting your files off the machine that could fail — in a noticeably different way.
Key Takeaways
- Simplest unlimited option Backblaze Business Backup backs up everything on a computer automatically for a flat $99/computer/year — no storage limit to plan around.
- Best for shared team storage IDrive Team pools storage across multiple computers and users under one plan, which suits a small office better than per-device pricing.
- Best if you might need a physical restore Carbonite Safe Plus adds external drive backup and an optional courier recovery service for when downloading a full restore isn’t practical.
- Per-computer vs. pooled storage changes the maths Backblaze and Carbonite price per computer; IDrive prices per plan with a shared storage pool — the better deal depends on how many devices you’re protecting.
- Backup is not the same as sync Dropbox or Google Drive syncing a folder is not a backup on its own — a sync tool will happily sync a ransomware-encrypted file to every device, too.
Our Top Picks at a Glance
Best Overall: Backblaze Business Backup
Backblaze's pitch is deliberately simple: install the client, it backs up everything on the computer automatically, and you don't have to think about storage limits. That's a genuine advantage over competitors that make you choose a storage tier upfront and then guess how much you'll actually need.
Official pricing is $99 per computer per year (roughly $8.25/month equivalent), confirmed on Backblaze's own business backup page — no separate charge for the amount of data, which matters a lot if your team works with large design files, video, or CAD projects that would blow through a capped-storage competitor's plan. Pricing is in USD; there's no separate GBP tier, so UK buyers pay at the prevailing exchange rate through checkout.
What you give up for that simplicity is granular control. Backblaze backs up the whole computer by default rather than letting you build a detailed folder-by-folder policy, and restores of very large datasets are faster if you pay for a physical hard drive shipment rather than downloading everything. For a business that mainly wants "don't lose the laptop's data" solved without a lot of configuration, it's hard to beat on price-to-effort ratio.
Best for Teams: IDrive Team
IDrive changes the maths by pooling storage across the whole team instead of selling it per device. The entry Team plan covers 5 computers and 5 users with 5TB of shared storage for $11.99 a month, official USD pricing from IDrive's own site — and it scales up from there (10 computers/10TB, 25/25TB, and so on) rather than making you buy a separate licence per machine.
That pooled model is the reason to pick IDrive over Backblaze once you're protecting more than one or two devices: a five-person team with modest per-computer storage needs will often land on a lower total bill than five separate Backblaze licences, and admins get one dashboard to manage every device's backup status instead of five separate accounts.
IDrive also backs up more than just computers — servers, NAS devices and some SaaS data can sit under the same plan, which is useful if "business backup" for you actually means a small office with a shared NAS as well as laptops. The trade-off is that 5TB shared across five machines can run out faster than Backblaze's genuinely unlimited-per-computer model if any one person works with very large files.
Best Extras: Carbonite Safe Plus
Carbonite's Safe Plus tier sits in a useful middle ground: unlimited cloud storage per computer like Backblaze, but with external drive backup included, which Backblaze's cheaper tiers don't cover in the same way. If your team keeps working files on external drives — common with video editors, photographers or anyone handling large client deliverables — that's not a small distinction.
Pricing tracked by independent monitoring sites puts Safe Plus at around $119.99 per computer per year, sitting above Backblaze but below Carbonite's own Prime tier; treat this as an estimate and confirm current pricing directly with Carbonite before buying, since list prices move and regional/GBP pricing isn't published the same way as the US site.
The feature that actually differentiates Carbonite at the higher tiers is courier recovery — for an additional fee, Carbonite will ship your backed-up data on a physical drive rather than making you download it, which can turn a days-long restore over a typical business broadband connection into an overnight one. That's a niche need, but for a business with genuinely large datasets and no fast fibre connection, it can be the deciding factor.
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Best overall
Backblaze Business Backup
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Best for teams
IDrive Team
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Best extras
Carbonite Safe Plus
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|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $99/computer/yr (official) | $11.99/mo, 5 computers (official) | ~$120/computer/yr (est.) |
| Storage model | Unlimited per computer | 5TB pooled, 5 users | Unlimited per computer |
| External drive backup | No | Yes | Yes |
| Physical/courier restore | – | No | – |
| Best fit | Solo or per-device simplicity | Small teams, shared devices | Large files, slow connections |
| Check Price | Check Price | Check Price |
How to Choose Business Backup Software
Frequently Asked Questions
Is cloud sync (Dropbox, Google Drive) a substitute for backup?
No. Sync tools mirror changes across devices in real time, which means a file corrupted or encrypted by ransomware gets synced everywhere too. Backup software keeps separate, dated versions you can roll back to.
How much backup storage does a small business actually need?
It depends heavily on file types — a team working mostly in documents and spreadsheets might use a few GB per person, while anyone handling video, CAD or design files can use hundreds of GB per computer. Unlimited-storage plans remove the guesswork.
Do I need a separate backup for servers or NAS devices?
Usually yes — most consumer-leaning backup tools cover Windows and Mac computers only. If you run a server or NAS, check the plan explicitly lists that coverage before buying, as IDrive does at the Team tier.
How often should backups run?
Continuous or at least daily, for anything you can’t afford to lose a day of work on. All three tools here back up continuously in the background rather than on a manual schedule.
What happens if I stop paying for backup software?
Most providers keep your existing backup for a short grace period and then delete it — check the specific vendor’s retention policy before cancelling, especially if you’re switching providers and need an overlap period.
Final Verdict
- Want the simplest unlimited option: Backblaze Business Backup
- Protecting several devices as a team: IDrive Team
- Large files, external drives, or slow broadband: Carbonite Safe Plus
Backblaze Business Backup is the easiest default for a small business that wants unlimited backup without configuration decisions. IDrive Team is the better buy once you’re protecting several devices under one plan. Carbonite Safe Plus earns its place for businesses with large files, external drives, or a slow internet connection that makes a fast digital restore unrealistic.
