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Best Cloud Backup for iPhone in 2025: Ditching iCloud

Finding alternatives to iCloud may seem difficult at first, however, that's why we're here. Join us as we pick out the top five best cloud backup apps for the iPhone, so you don't have to stay chained to Apple's cloud service.

Aleksander HougenAleksandar Kochovski

Written by Aleksander Hougen (Co-Chief Editor)

Reviewed by Aleksandar Kochovski (Writer)

Last Updated: 2025-02-07T13:18:03+00:00

All our content is written fully by humans; we do not publish AI writing. Learn more here.

Best cloud backup for iPhone

With as much as a quarter of all mobile devices worldwide running iOS, there is a huge market for providing a secure and simple way to backup the data contained on these devices in order to prevent data loss. Most iPhone users probably default to iCloud for this purpose, but in this article, we’ll show you why this is a terrible idea, as well as give you a list of the best iPhone backup solutions so that you can find an iCloud alternative.

Key Takeaways:

To spoil things a bit, the winner is IDrive, which — despite following the Apple naming convention — is not affiliated with the tech giant in any way. This is also our top pick for the best backup service in general, followed by Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office and BigMIND Home, which are also excellent options.

  • 08/24/2022

    Updated IDrive’s pricing information.

  • 05/23/2023

    Updated to remove IDrive’s discontinued free plan and add its new free 30-day trial.

  • Updated IDrive’s pricing information.

  • 02/07/2025 Facts checked

    We updated the sections for our top five providers to include new information.

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    50GB - 1TB$4.17 / month(All Plans)
    Visit Acronis Cyber ProtectReview
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    250GB - 1TB$30 / month(All Plans)
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    1TB - Unlimited GB$5.83 / month(save 16%)(All Plans)
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      100GB - 30TB$1.67 / month(save 16%)(All Plans)

    What Makes the Best iPhone Backup Services

    For this list, we’ve picked five backup services that we think represent the best ways that you can go about backing up your iPhone, iPad or other iOS devices. Whichever one of these you want to pick depends largely on your priorities, as they have different strengths and weaknesses. That said, all will work perfectly well and give you a way to protect the data stored on your iOS device.

    1. IDrive — Feature-rich and easy-to-use backup with relatively affordable plans
    2. Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office — A backup service with a wealth of additional security tools
    3. BigMIND Home — An easy-to-use backup with excellent photo management
    4. Jottacloud — Unlimited backup with tools for organizing media files
    5. Google Drive — An exceptionally simple way to backup your iPhone if you don’t care about privacy

    The first and most obvious feature that a backup service needs to secure a spot on this list is the ability to back up iOS devices. Many services, such as CrashPlan (read our CrashPlan review), offer iOS apps, but only for managing and downloading already backed-up data. Others, such as Carbonite (see our Carbonite review) simply don’t offer an iOS app at all.

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    Beyond this, all the standard criteria we use to evaluate backup providers apply. This means that we look at features, both directly and tangentially related to backups. For instance, the ability to perform wireless backups over WiFi without requiring a physical connection is increasingly important for modern backup solutions.

    Security and privacy are also huge concerns, as these are the main reasons why just using the built-in iCloud isn’t a great option. There’s also ease of use, speed and last but not least, pricing.

    Why iCloud Isn’t a Safe Option

    The direct integration of iCloud into iOS certainly makes it convenient. It allows you to backup contacts, messages, photos and videos, even your purchase history from Apple services. However, it’s far from safe if data privacy is something that concerns you. 

    Although Apple has famously refused to hand over information stored locally on users’ iPhones to the authorities — mostly because it would have to create a backdoor into its own encryption, which could then be abused — this stance doesn’t extend to anything stored on iCloud’s servers.

    This means that if you want to keep your data out of the hands of the authorities, or Apple itself, then you should keep it far away from iCloud and iTunes. According to a report by Reuters, Apple had plans to implement encryption for its cloud storage service but dropped them after complaints from the FBI that this would hurt their ability to conduct investigations.

    If you still aren’t convinced that iCloud isn’t safe, look no further than the 2014 iCloud photo leak that exposed dozens of celebrities’ private photos and videos.

    In case you’re still considering using iTunes and iCloud for your backups, or you want to get all the details about the service, make sure to read our full iCloud review before you make up your mind.

    Best iPhone Backup Software for 2021

    So, now that we’ve covered why you shouldn’t be relying on iCloud backup to keep you safe, let’s get started and dig into the actual list of third-party alternatives. As we mentioned earlier, IDrive is our clear favorite, which means that’s where we’ll start.

    1. IDrive

    Best backup for iPhone IDrive
    IDrive offers a diverse range of features for a great price.

    More details about IDrive:

    Pros:

    • Feature rich
    • Unlimited devices
    • Sync & share functionality

    Cons:

    • No unlimited storage
    • Expensive

    IDrive is our favorite backup solution here at Cloudwards, mainly due to its incredibly extensive list of features. Although most of its features are irrelevant in the context of iPhone backup, the service still packs a punch on the platform despite the restrictive nature of iOS. This includes automatic camera uploads as well as a timeline of all your photos and videos.

    The iOS app offers granular control over camera uploads, letting you configure options like WiFi-only uploads, background upload settings and battery-saving modes to ensure your backup process doesn’t impact device performance.

    IDrive can back up your contacts, photos, videos and calendars from your iOS device. In addition, the service’s continuous data protection ensures that any changes to your files are backed up in real-time, minimizing potential data loss.

    However, if there’s anything else you’d like to backup, such as app data or messages, you’ll need to use a different service, though most backup providers have the same restrictions.

    Secure Online Backup

    Unfortunately, there’s no way to get unlimited storage and there’s no monthly plan, meaning you have to pay for a full year at a time. Luckily, there’s a 10GB free plan that lets you try it out before committing to anything.

    In terms of privacy and security, IDrive knocks it out of the park. Your backups are protected with strong zero-knowledge encryption, both in transit and at rest. Its iOS app supports Face ID and Touch ID authentication, adding an extra layer of security to prevent unauthorized access to your data, even if someone gains access to your unlocked device.

    If all this sounds appealing to you, and you’re not too worried about the speed of your backups, make sure to check out our full IDrive review for all the details.

    Basic
    • No credit card required.
    • 10GB
    Personal
    • One user, multiple computers. Plans starting from 5TB up to 100TB. Big discount for first-time signup.
    • 5TB
    More plans
    Team
    • 5 computers, 5 users. Starting at 5TB up to 500TB. Big discount for first-time signup.
    • 5TB
    Business
    • Monthly Plan storage starts at 1.25TB up to 50TB Unlimited users, multiple computers and servers. NAS devices. 250GB storage. Starting at 250GB up to 50TB. Large discount for first-time signup.
    • 250GB

    2. Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office

    Best backup for iPhone Acronis
    Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office is one of the best backup services for security-minded users.

    More details about Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office:

    Pros:

    • Lots of features
    • Antivirus tools on desktop
    • Flexible server locations

    Cons:

    • Expensive
    • Complicated pricing scheme

    Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office is an interesting backup service that basically doubles as a dedicated antivirus suite, if you’re using it on a desktop device. Although these features aren’t available — or even really necessary — on iPhones, they’re still a nice little extra.

    As for actual iPhone features, Acronis outdoes IDrive slightly by allowing backups of reminders in addition to contacts, calendars and photos/videos. It also offers excellent disk imaging capabilities, allowing you to create complete byte-by-byte copies of your iPhone’s storage.

    Unsurprisingly, for a service so concerned with ransomware protection, Acronis performs excellently, both in terms of security and privacy. A standout feature is its active ransomware detection, which can identify and block suspicious encryption attempts in real-time.

    Everything you back up is encrypted using zero-knowledge encryption, and you can even pick exactly what country your data will be stored in, which is a rare but welcome feature.

    Acronis on iOS

    The user interface on iOS is a joy to use — unlike the somewhat unintuitive and unresponsive desktop client — and everything is exactly where you’d expect. There are a few settings you can tweak, including a battery-saving mode and continuous backup. You can also perform backups not just to the Acronis cloud but also to a desktop machine or a NAS device.

    Unfortunately, Acronis is quite a bit more expensive than other options on this list, with its cheapest plan offering only 500GB of unrestricted storage for $89.99 per year. This isn’t a huge concern for desktop users, as each plan gets to backup a full disk image of a computer regardless of size, but iPhone backups will have to fit on the limited storage. As always, check out our Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office review for the full rundown.

    Essentials - 1 computer
    • Flexible backups: full image to file-level Active disk cloning Universal restore and fast recovery Ransomware protection
    Advanced - 1 computer (50GB)
    • Flexible backups: full image to file-level Active disk cloning Universal restore and fast recovery Ransomware protection + Block viruses and malware Cloud backup and features Automatic replication of data in the cloud Microsoft 365 backups
    • 50GB
    Advanced - 1 computer (250GB)
    • Flexible backups: full image to file-level Active disk cloning Universal restore and fast recovery Ransomware protection + Block viruses and malware Cloud backup and features Automatic replication of data in the cloud Microsoft 365 backups
    • 250GB
    More plans
    Advanced - 1 computer (500GB)
    • Flexible backups: full image to file-level Active disk cloning Universal restore and fast recovery Ransomware protection + Block viruses and malware Cloud backup and features Automatic replication of data in the cloud Microsoft 365 backups
    • 500GB
    Premium - 1 computer (1TB free)
    • Flexible backups: full image to file-level Active disk cloning Universal restore and fast recovery Ransomware protection + Block viruses and malware Cloud backup and features Automatic replication of data in the cloud Microsoft 365 backups + Blockchain certification of files Electronic signatures on files Ability to add up to 5TB of cloud storage
    • 1TB
    Acronis Cyber Protect Standard (Workstation)
      Acronis Cyber Protect Advanced (Workstation)
        Acronis Cyber Protect Backup Advanced (Workstation)
          Acronis Cyber Protect Standard (Server/VM)
            Acronis Cyber Protect Advanced (Server/VM)
              Acronis Cyber Protect Backup Advanced (Server/VM)

                3. BigMIND Home

                Best backup for iPhone BigMIND
                BigMIND is an excellent mobile backup provider if you want a strong set of photo-management features.

                More details about BigMind Home:

                Pros:

                • Great photo management
                • Easy to use
                • Stream videos directly from storage

                Cons:

                • Expensive
                • No private encryption
                • Limited storage space

                For those mostly concerned with backing up photos and video — and then being able to manage and organize them easily — BigMIND is one of the best backup providers out there.

                The most interesting of these photo-specific features is the A.I.-powered photo identification algorithm. This is separated into two categories — objects and faces — and allows you to easily find a photo based on a person or object that’s shown in it. For example, if you want all your photos that show mountains, you simply tap on “mountains” and BigMIND will find all the relevant images.

                Unlike many backup solutions, BigMIND Home integrates deeply with iOS features, allowing you to airdrop backed-up files to other Apple devices and print documents directly via WiFi. This makes it feel like a native iOS application.

                Additional BigMIND Features

                Besides photos, you can also backup your calendars and contacts. Other notable features include the ability to connect other services, such as Dropbox (read our Dropbox review), Facebook and OneDrive (read our OneDrive review), directly to your BigMIND storage. You can also disable mobile data and background backups as well as monitor your available storage directly from the app’s dashboard.

                As for the downsides, there are a few. When you break down the price in relation to the storage, BigMIND is outrageously expensive compared to its competitors. You’re also pretty limited in terms of maximum storage, as even the largest personal plan only comes with 1TB of space. Finally, the lack of private encryption means that BigMIND’s security and privacy leaves a bit to be desired. For more information on all of this, check out our full BigMIND Home review.

                Free
                • **Expires after 15 days Users: 10 Server: 1 - AI Photo detection
                • 100GB
                Standard
                • Users: 100 Servers 10 Media Streaming Unlimited Network and External Drives Basic Audit User & Policy Management A.I. Photo Detection
                • 250GB
                Premium
                • Users: 500 Servers 50 Media Streaming Unlimited Network and External Drives Lifetime Audit User & Policy Management A.I. Photo Detection eDiscovery
                • 250GB
                Custom
                • Users: 500 Servers 50 Media Streaming Unlimited Network and External Drives Lifetime Audit User & Policy Management A.I. Photo Detection
                • 1TB

                4. Jottacloud

                Best backup for iPhone Jottacloud
                Jottacloud is another excellent backup solution for those looking to store and manage their photo libraries.

                More details about Jottacloud:

                Pros:

                • Unlimited backup
                • Great for photos
                • Fast

                Cons:

                • No block-level file copying
                • No private encryption
                • Capped speed once storage exceeds 5TB

                In fourth place on our list, we have Jottacloud, a backup service based in privacy-friendly Norway. This location is a big boon for those concerned with the authorities (or advertisers) snooping in their data, though unfortunately, the service does not support zero-knowledge encryption. Security and privacy are otherwise top-notch though, so it’s a small problem given where the servers are located.

                One of the best things about Jottacloud is that you can backup and restore more than the usual selection of items, those being contacts and calendars as well as media files. In addition to these usual suspects, you can upload regular files and take photos directly from the Jottacloud app.

                The service even includes a built-in document scanner feature, allowing you to digitize physical documents directly through the mobile app. There’s also a setting for automatic camera uploads.

                Jottacloud offers full sharing functionality within the Jottacloud app, meaning you can easily share any file you’ve backed up to its servers with other people with just a couple of taps. Overall, the interface is well-designed and pleasant to use, with a nice black-and-purple color scheme that’s easy on the eyes, regardless of where you find yourself.

                Issues With Jottacloud

                While Jottacloud offers strong security measures, it lacks client-side encryption, meaning files are encrypted on their servers rather than your device.

                Aside from this lack of private encryption, the only major flaw of Jottacloud is the absence of block-level file copying — meaning you might waste time and resources reuploading entire files when only small parts have changed. There’s also the fact that Jottacloud caps your upload speed if you exceed 5TB of storage.

                Jottacloud has a free plan in addition to four paid plans — note that the pricing is converted from euros. As always, we invite you to read our full Jottacloud review if this data backup solution appeals to you.

                Free
                • 1 User
                • 5GB
                Personal
                • 1 User (2 months free)
                • Unlimited GB
                More plans
                Business Free
                • 2 Users (2 months free)
                • 5GB
                Business Small
                • 2 Users (2 months free)
                • 1TB
                Business Medium
                • 10 Users (2 months free)
                • 1TB
                Business Large
                • Unlimited Users (2 months free)
                • 1TB

                5. Google Drive

                Best backup for iPhone GDrive
                Google Drive, not technically a backup service, is still a very convenient way to backup your iPhone for those not concerned with data privacy.

                More details about Google Drive:

                Pros:

                • Excellent photo management
                • Reasonable prices
                • Incredibly well-designed iOS apps

                Cons:

                • Massive privacy concerns
                • Limited storage
                • No block-level file copying

                Our fifth pick for this list stands out from the others in that it’s not technically an online backup service but rather a cloud storage provider (you can read about the difference here). That said, it deserves a spot here due to the dearth of dedicated backup solutions that are compatible with iPhones, as well as the fact that it’s actually pretty well-suited to the task.

                Before going any further, we should make it clear that most of the privacy concerns we listed for iCloud at the start of this article are just as true — if not more so — for Google Drive. While Google Drive hasn’t had a photo leak like iCloud had, Google employees were caught snooping on consumers, which doesn’t paint a good picture of the company’s ethics.

                That said, unlike iCloud, Google Drive actually offers a ton of functionality that makes it a more reasonable trade-off for users not all that concerned with the privacy of their data. You can read more about these privacy concerns in our full Google Drive review.

                Google Drive Mobile Apps

                Google Drive offers two separate applications for iPhone. One is the standard Google Drive application, where you can upload any kind of file and manage what you already have in storage. The more important application, though, is the dedicated Google Photos app.

                While Google Drive itself doesn’t include photo organization features, using it alongside Google Photos provides an intuitive timeline view that automatically organizes your backed-up photos and videos by date and location. You can also enable automatic camera uploads and manage your photos with ease by using the timeline or your own custom albums.

                Better yet, any photos and videos you upload before June 1, 2021, won’t take up any of your storage cap. Unfortunately, this policy will end at the aforementioned date, but anything you’ve already uploaded will remain on Google’s servers for free. If you’re already using Google Photos and want to find an alternative once the change in policy hits, check out our list of the best Google Photos alternatives.

                15GB
                • Free plan
                • 15GB
                Standard 200GB
                • *The plan is "hidden." To find the 200GB plan, you need to be subscribed to one of the other plans, upgrade or downgrade to the 200GB through your account's settings.
                • 200GB
                More plans

                Final Thoughts

                With that, we’ve reached the end of our list of the best iPhone backup software. Although we think IDrive is the best, those who need unlimited storage would probably disagree. Photo enthusiasts might be best served by BigMIND Home or Jottacloud, while Acronis is the clear choice for security and privacy buffs.

                Those fully integrated in the Apple ecosystem might also be interested in the best cloud backup for Mac, where Backblaze (read our Backblaze review) takes the overall victory, just ahead of IDrive. On the other hand, if you’re not that committed to Apple, you might be more interested in our list of the best online backup for Windows instead.

                For related guides, check out our article on how to backup text messages on iPhone.

                What did you think of our best iPhone backup list? Do you agree that IDrive is the top choice, or do you think its lack of unlimited storage or monthly plans are a deal-breaker? Have you used any of our top five services; if so, what was your experience? Let us know in the comments below. As always, thank you for reading.

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