8 Best Online Backup Services of 2026

Backblaze Computer Backup is built for people who want offsite backup to run without decisions. After install it backs up all user-generated data from the computer and any connected external drives, with no limits on file type or size and no storage cap, for $99 per year per computer. The client is native on Mac and Windows and backs up continuously as you work. Restores come three ways: the web, the mobile apps, or a USB drive mailed to you, which is refunded if you send it back within 30 days. Web restores are prepared as zip files of up to 500GB each. Security covers a default public and private key scheme, an optional private encryption key that only you hold, and two-factor verification. The trade-offs are the per-computer price, which adds up in a home with several machines, and the lack of a Linux client. Longer version history is available, but Forever retention is an extra fee.

IDrive Personal is the strongest option here for a household with more than one computer. A single Personal account covers one user and multiple computers, with storage starting at 5 TB and going up to 100 TB. On the yearly bill, 5 TB is $6.99 per month under the current limited-time offer, and $11.99 when paid monthly. If you only need a small offsite copy, IDrive Mini starts at $0.25 per month for 100 GB, and the Basic plan is free for 10 GB. Snapshots give a point-in-time view of your data, and IDrive keeps up to 30 previous versions of each file, which helps after ransomware or an accidental overwrite. IDrive Express sends a physical drive so a first backup or a large restore does not depend on your upload speed. It also backs up Linux computers, phones and tablets, and can restore an entire machine. The cost of that breadth is a busier app and a storage cap that you must size correctly.

Arq comes in two forms. Arq 7 is a $59.99 per-computer app that sends encrypted backups to storage you already have, such as a cloud account, an SFTP server, a NAS or an external drive. Arq Premium, at $69.99 per year, bundles the app for up to 5 computers with 1 TB of cloud storage that Arq manages, plus web access to your backups. Additional storage over 1 TB is billed at $.00699 per GB per month. Backups use filesystem snapshots, so files that change during a run are still captured consistently, and block-level incremental backup, compression and de-duplication keep uploads small. Encryption is end to end, and the backup format is open and documented, with an open-source restore tool. You can schedule hourly or daily runs, pause on battery or on chosen Wi-Fi networks, and cap bandwidth. The cost of that control is a steeper learning curve than Backblaze or Carbonite, and there is no Linux client.

Acronis True Image is the most complete toolkit on this list, but it is a different kind of product from Backblaze or Carbonite. Instead of only copying files to the cloud, it makes full image backups of a drive or an entire machine, backs up to local drives or a network share, clones disks for a move to a new computer, and sends backups to Acronis data centers. It also bundles security: AI-based ransomware detection, real-time blocking of malicious processes and one-click recovery of files a ransomware attack has changed. Plans cover 1, 3 or 5 computers. The Essentials plan is local only, Advanced adds cloud storage from 50 GB to 500 GB, and Premium offers 1 TB up to 10 TB plus extras such as blockchain certification. It supports 64-bit Windows 10 and 11 and macOS Monterey through Tahoe. The pricing page showed euros from our location, so we could not confirm a USD price, and capped cloud space means large photo libraries need a higher plan.

Carbonite Safe is aimed at people who want backup to be someone else's job. Every plan includes unlimited, automatic, encrypted cloud backup for one computer, and you can restore all files or only the ones you pick, or open them from any device and the mobile app. Basic is $71.99 for the first year at the current promotion, against a regular $95.99. Plus, at $78.99 for the first year, adds one external hard drive, automatic video backup and Webroot Computer Antivirus, and Prime adds courier delivery of recovered files. A useful extra is human help after ransomware: if you call support within two weeks of an infection, they restore the pre-infected versions of your files. The limits are real, though. Each plan covers one computer, Basic does not back up videos automatically, and the promotional prices apply to the first year for new customers only. There is a 15-day trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

CrashPlan no longer markets a home plan, but its small business endpoint plan is still a workable offsite backup for one person, and it is the only unlimited option here that runs on Linux. It costs $7.33 per user per month, billed $88 per year, or $158 every two years. The plan includes unlimited cloud storage and unlimited versioning, which means old versions of a file are kept rather than pruned after a set period. Clients run on Windows, macOS and Linux, restores and device migration are self-serve, and protection starts the day you sign up. A free trial is offered. The catch is positioning. CrashPlan's pages talk to IT teams protecting company laptops, so you get admin-style software rather than a consumer app, and the per-user price is above Backblaze's $99 per computer per year. For a Linux desktop or a home office that needs long version history, it is still a sensible pick.

SpiderOak One is for people who rank privacy above price. Files are encrypted on your device before upload and the keys stay with you, so SpiderOak states it cannot read your files, filenames or folder structure. Every plan includes unlimited devices across Linux, Mac and Windows, plus backup, sync, sharing and version history. Backup takes versioned, point-in-time copies of the folders you select, and you can roll back to a snapshot from before a ransomware attack or deletion without the original device. Sync works through a Hive folder or custom folder pairs, and Share Rooms or self-destructing links let you share read-only files with people outside your account. Pricing runs from $6 per month or $69 per year for 150 GB to $29 per month for 5 TB. That makes it expensive per terabyte next to Backblaze or IDrive, and because backups cover selected folders, you have to choose what to include.

Livedrive is a simple unlimited backup service run from UK data centers and owned by Ziff Davis. The Backup plan covers one PC or Mac user account with unlimited cloud backup storage and restores back to the same or a new computer. Briefcase is a separate online folder with 2 TB for opening, editing and sharing files from any device, and it is where tablet and mobile backup lives. Pro Suite combines the two for 5 PC or Mac user accounts with 5 TB of Briefcase storage. Livedrive supports two-factor authentication and says its data centers are ISO 27001 certified with three layers of physical security. Annual billing saves 16% over monthly. The pricing page offers a USD option, but it served GBP prices from our location, so we could not confirm a USD figure. For US households, Backblaze and Carbonite offer the same unlimited model with prices we could verify.