We recently took on a challenge where we decided to review 3 different backup solutions and put them through their paces. Our last post was all about the curtail necessity of using a backup solution and how Backblaze performed under our testing metrics – read the review here.
This week, its all about another industry leader, Carbonite
Carbonite has a reputation for being a friendly company when it comes to data backups for both business and consumers. Their products are intuitive, and their support staff has a 91 % customer satisfaction rating. Thus, when they say their customer care is award-winning, they do mean that. Throughout this review, we will be using Carbonite Basic.
Introduction to Carbonite
Getting carbonite running on your system is fairly simple. They currently offer a 15-day trial. Once the software is downloaded your backup solutions will be set up automatically. Just like Backblaze, Carbonite backs up all your data and you don’t have to spend time selecting different backup folders. This can be a great feature for those who want to set and forget, but tough for those who want a little bit more control over their backups.
Strengths and Weaknesses of Carbonite
1. Ease of Use
This is carbonites strength. The UI is clutter-free and the color combinations used for the product are very playful. The additional beauty of this product is once you install it, you don’t have to spend any time configuring it or optimizing it for your system. By default, it backs up all your files and offers unlimited cloud storage. Better, during the test period, carbonite didn’t use more than 1 percent of our system resources. The efficiency of carbonite and its intuitive UI is something we can respect.
But there is a major issue, and this for me is a deal-breaker. Although carbonite offers unlimited cloud backup, it does not backup video. If you want it to backup video, you must upgrade to 9 dollar plan. If you want to back up memories of your family, work or school projects, or any other videos, they want you to upgrade. The ability to back up video nowadays is vital.
2. Encryption Used
The encryption used by carbonite is up to industry standards. They use 128-bit encryption, which right now is considered logically unbreakable. Encryption is performed while data is being sent to the carbonite servers and when data is being retrieved from the servers. Thus, your data will make no sense to anyone who might be intercepting your internet connection.
This high degree of encryption does come at a cost. Restoring files must happen individually and affects the user-friendliness of Carbonite. Features like one-click restore are missing. So if your laptop was stolen / your hard drive decides to take a day off, you could easily spend an entire day to get your new system up and running.
3. Cost
Carbonite is personalized here. Carbonite offers a base plan for six dollars, which does not backup videos. To backup videos, you must upgrade to a nine dollar per month plan. This makes carbonite the most expensive amongst Backblaze and Rebit. But if your storage requirements are high, then carbonite would be recommended as the cost per Gb is around 1 cent per Gb per month, should you have a backup of 1000 Gb. But most users won’t back up more than 50 Gb and thus, Carbonite would be the most expensive option on the market.
Our Verdict
While we can appreciate carbonite for its clean user interface and its award-winning support, its pricing structure is slightly on the expensive side. It is also designed to accommodate different users who have different storage requirements. Most users would spend 9 dollars a month as videos are an important part of a user’s life.
If cost is not an issue and you are willing to enter Carbonites 1-year commitment, then in an emergency you can relax safely knowing that there is a sure way to get all your data back.
