Best Cloud Archival Storage Solutions for 2023: Online Backup for Archiving & Long-Term Data Storage
Looking for a cloud archival storage solution? We’ve got you covered with some of the best solutions on the market. This list includes popular backup services that regularly make our lists for good reasons, plus data storage management software that may not have been on your radar until now.
Cloud archival storage is different from online data backup. This type of cloud storage helps you preserve data that you rarely access, helping you maximize data storage space and save on long-term data retention. Data stored this way can be accessed for periodic investigations and audits, but is made inaccessible to unauthorized users.
Key Takeaways:
- IDrive easily takes the top spot for its excellent file and sharing features.
- With unlimited versioning, SpiderOak One works well for archival data, since you don’t need to access your stored data frequently.
- Jottacloud is a great choice for those who need a cheap archival solution and unlimited storage.
- CloudBerry Backup and Duplicati are backup services that give you access to different storage providers but don’t have servers of their own for storing your data, which makes archive storage more flexible.
If you’re looking to archive your data in the cloud, there are a good number of cloud backup providers to choose from. We’ve recommended the best of them in this list. While each of these backup solutions checks most boxes with regard to cloud backup and cloud archive storage, they also come with unique features that make them more attractive for archive storage.
Given the length of time archived data lives in the cloud, there’s no shortage of features that come in handy when storing this type of data. These cloud backup services meet this need in different ways. If you’re just looking for a quick answer, IDrive is your best bet, but one of the other four alternatives on the list might suit your needs better.
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08/24/2022
Updated IDrive’s pricing information.
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11/28/2022
Updated to include new services.
Cloud archive storage involves uploading data to the cloud that doesn’t need to be accessed frequently. This frees up space and saves money on long-term data retention.
Yes. Moreover, cloud archiving is often preferred because it offers more storage capacity for archived data and is cheaper than on-premise storage.
IDrive is the best online backup for archiving, but SpiderOak One, Jottacloud, CloudBerry Backup and Duplicati all have unique strengths that might make them better suited for your individual needs.
Top Cloud Archival Storage Solutions
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What Makes the Best Online Backup for Cloud Archival Storage?
A good cloud archive service must be able to deduplicate data, as this saves archive space and cuts costs.
Data deduplication is a process that prevents data redundancy by minimizing the amount of duplicate data stored on a system, and thus reducing storage overhead. Most cloud archive storage solutions deduplicate data on a block-level basis because it’s faster than file-level deduplication and hits the sweet spot for most users.
Depending on your archival data storage requirements, you may need to back up your entire operating system (Image-based backup), data available to a heterogeneous group of authorized users in a business setting (network-attached storage, or NAS) or data that needs to be stored in both local and cloud locations (hybrid backup).
Moreover, you may need to access this data across different devices, including Windows, macOS and Linux devices.
- IDrive — Feature-rich service with cloud storage features that make it ideal for data archiving
- SpiderOak One — Excellent backup for archival storage, thanks to unlimited versioning
- Jottacloud — Affordable archive solution with unlimited storage
- CloudBerry Backup — Outstanding backup service that gives you access to a host of storage providers for data archiving
- Duplicati — Another backup service that makes data archiving flexible by letting you store your data with more than one cloud storage provider
The services we’ve recommended support different types of backups and operating systems. Also, affordability is critical for successful data archiving. While most of the cloud solutions we’ve recommended have cheap and flexible plans, others offer inexpensive cold data storage as a result of managing infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) providers.
The 5 Best Backup Services for Online Archival Storage
IDrive earns the top spot as a provider that offers tons of backup features and stands out for its cloud storage-esque functionality. The services that follow excel in these areas and also come with their own unique offerings. If you’re an experienced user, you may prefer services like CloudBerry Backup and Duplicati.
1. IDrive
More details about IDrive:
- Pricing: 5TB for $4.97 per month (two-year plan)
- Provider website: idrive.com
Pros:
- Lots of backup features
- Sync & share functionality
- Unlimited devices
Cons:
- No monthly plan
- No unlimited backup
IDrive is a dedicated cloud backup service with many features, but it also has some features typical of cloud storage services, making it a great option for cloud archive storage. It’s one of the few providers that supports true archiving, which preserves your backed-up data, even if you’ve deleted it from your device or computer.
IDrive also supports deduplication, which is an essential feature for cloud archive storage because it only saves changes to your data, rather than saving an entire new copy each time you make changes. This helps conserve storage space, so you can spend less on storing data.
You’ll have access to all your data when you’re ready to recover it, since there’s an initial full backup. IDrive offers block-level deduplication, which involves using snapshot technology to capture modified portions of files.
Excellent File Syncing and Sharing Functionality
One feature that makes IDrive attractive for cloud archive storage is file synchronization and sharing. It is one of the few top-tier backup providers to offer these cloud storage capabilities, and it does them better than most cloud storage providers.
This file sync and share functionality lets you create sync folders that will update the data they contain across multiple devices. You can set up this folder on any device you want and restrict certain files or folders from appearing on specific devices.
Regardless of whether you’re an individual or you run a business, IDrive likely has a plan that will meet your data backup needs. Its Personal plan costs $59.62 per year for 5TB of storage space. The only quibble with IDrive’s subscription packages is that they don’t offer unlimited storage and there’s no monthly payment option.
- Large discount for first-time signup.
- 5TB
- Large discount for first-time signup.
- 10TB
- Large discount for first-time signup.
- 20TB
- Large discount for first-time signup.
- 250GB
- Large discount for first-time signup.
- 500GB
- 1TB
- Large discount for first-time signup.
- 3TB
- Large discount for first-time signup.
- 5TB
- Large discount for first-time signup.
- 13TB
2. SpiderOak One
More details about SpiderOak One:
- Pricing: 5TB for $29 per month (one-month plan)
- Provider website: spideroak.com
Pros:
- Unlimited file retention
- Unlimited devices
- Sync functionality
Cons:
- Expensive
- No two-factor authentication
Like IDrive, SpiderOak One is a feature-rich backup service, and it comes with features that make it ideal for cloud archive storage. SpiderOak One supports block-level sync and allows you to schedule your backups. It also offers backup for external hard drives and removable devices, allowing you to keep your locally archived data in the cloud.
SpiderOak One is another provider with file sharing and syncing capabilities. You can create SpiderOak share rooms, where you can invite users you want to share files with. The sync functionality lets you sync your files and folders, but the syncing is restricted to just your regular backup or storage.
That said, this may be enough if all you want to do is archive your data, since you won’t need to access it often.
Unlimited Versioning
SpiderOak One’s unlimited file versioning makes it an attractive option for cloud archive storage. When you modify or delete a file, SpiderOak One allows you to keep the old versions for as long as you want, and you can restore them at any time. You can also manually delete past versions of your files.
SpiderOak One is quite expensive compared to some of its competitors. It has plans ranging from 150GB to 5TB, coming in at $69 to $320 per year. Luckily, there’s a 14-day free trial that you can test out before committing.
- 5GB
- 10GB
3. Jottacloud
More details about Jottacloud:
- Pricing: Unlimited storage for $8.25 per month (one-year plan)
- Provider website: jottacloud.com
Pros:
- Unlimited devices
- File sharing
- Syncs devices
Cons:
- No zero knowledge security
Jottacloud has an online archive similar to IDrive and SpiderOak One. It also has file syncing and sharing features. That said, Jottacloud is behind these competitors, due to its lack of block-level file copying and local backup. It’s also not as feature-rich as they are.
However, Jottacloud takes its cloud archive storage up a notch with its unique photo and video management tool. This media archive lets you store and manage your photos and videos based on time and location. You can organize these photos into albums and share them, and this feature is integrated with Jottacloud’s file syncing functionality.
Unlimited Storage
In terms of saving costs, one of the perks of using JottaCloud is its unlimited storage, which is available to only individuals. The only drawback to Jottacloud’s unlimited storage offering is that it caps your upload speeds when you store over 5TB of data. If you need alternatives with unlimited storage space, read our best unlimited backup guide.
Another quality that makes Jottacloud attractive is its affordability. It has a personal plan, four home plans and four business plans. The personal plan, which comes with unlimited storage, costs $99 per year. The home plans offer storage ranging 1TB to 20TB, priced at $69.90 to $1149.90 per year.
In addition to a free plan that comes with 5GB of storage, all the business plans offer 1TB of storage, but are priced based on the number of users who have access to it.
- 1 User
- 5GB
- 1 User (2 months free)
- Unlimited GB
- 5 users (2 months free)
- 1TB
- 5 users (2 months free)
- 5TB
- 5 Users (2 months free)
- 10TB
- 5 Users (2 months free)
- 20TB
- 2 Users (2 months free)
- 5GB
- 2 Users (2 months free)
- 1TB
- 10 Users (2 months free)
- 1TB
- Unlimited Users (2 months free)
- 1TB
4. CloudBerry Backup
More details about CloudBerry Backup:
- Pricing: Windows version for $2.50 per month (one-year plan)
- Provider website: msp360.com
Pros:
- Loads of features
- Granular backup control
- Supports many storage providers
Cons:
- Not suitable for basic users
CloudBerry Backup is an online backup service for managing cloud storage services, including infrastructure-as-a-service (or IaaS for short) providers, and online backup services. As with online backup services, IaaS storage services let you archive data, but they do this in a different way.
Some examples of IaaS providers are Microsoft Azure and Amazon Glacier. These are usually aimed at businesses and feature a “pay-as-you-go” model where you’re only charged for the data you actually use. If you want to learn more about IaaS providers, check out our guide to cloud terminology.
For CloudBerry, this means that a subscription doesn’t come with any actual storage space. Instead, you connect your CloudBerry account to another backup provider, which is where your data is actually stored.
Advanced Backup Tools
CloudBerry Backup offers many advanced tools that favor the experienced user. With these tools, you can set up a bootable USB device, enable remote desktop access and put a cap on the amount of RAM the client can consume. CloudBerry Backup also shows you analytics on how much storage you’re using.
CloudBerry’s pricing structure is quite unusual, with each plan structured according to the operating system it is compatible with, the available backup features and the amount of storage your upload requires.
All the plans come with a 15-day free trial and have different maintenance fees you have to pay if you want updates. To learn more about its pricing structure, you can read our CloudBerry review.
- 200GB
- 5TB
- $6 annual maintenance fee
- 5TB
- $6 annual maintenance fee
- Unlimited GB
- 1TB
- $16 annual maintenance fee
- 5TB
- 1TB
- Unlimited GB
- $30 annual maintenance fee
- Unlimited GB
- 2 sockets included ($89.99 per socket)
- Unlimited GB
5. Duplicati
More details about Duplicati:
- Pricing: Free, but requires third-party storage
- Provider website: duplicati.com
Pros:
- Works with most storage providers
- Completely free
- Large feature set
Cons:
- Advanced functionality may require some getting used to
- No mobile apps
Duplicati is a free alternative to CloudBerry Backup. Like CloudBerry Backup, it doesn’t come with its own servers for archive storage, but lets you pick the storage provider you want to store your data with. Duplicati supports most of the top-tier IaaS providers, including Microsoft Azure, Amazon S3, Google Cloud and Backblaze B2, as well as cloud services like Google Drive, MEGA, Dropbox and Microsoft OneDrive.
Also, like CloudBerry Backup, Duplicati doesn’t offer backup support for mobile devices. That said, you can back up other devices like Windows, macOS and Linux desktops. You can also do an external hard drive backup or a NAS backup. To save data storage space and boost the speed of your backups (which is essential for archival data), Duplicati has capabilities such as block-level backup, bandwidth throttling and multi-threaded backups.
Free and Open Source
One of the most unique aspects about Duplicati is that it is open source, which means that its source code is available to anyone who wants to view it, make changes to it or share it. As a result, Duplicati’s features come at no cost, and it has lots of them.
As a management platform for cloud storage services, Duplicati lets you choose between free storage services and paid options. While free data storage services are often limited in the features they offer, you can fix this issue by making use of more than one free storage service. That said, a paid service will be your best bet if you need more storage space for your archived data.
- $0.0050 per GB per month
- 2TB
- $0.0042 per GB per month
- 2TB
- $0.0058 per GB per month
- 1TB
- $0.0049 per GB per month
- 2TB
- $0.0059 per GB per month
- 1TB
- 0.023 per GB per month
- 1TB
- $0.0050 per GB per month
- 1TB
- $0.0200+ per GB per month
- 1TB
Honorable Mention: Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office
Acronis Cyber Protect Home is a solid option for cloud archive storage, thanks to its rich feature set. It’s particularly good at backing up files to external hard drives and network-attached storage (NAS) devices. Acronis also comes with cloud storage features like an archive and file syncing and sharing features.
Acronis offers plans tailored to both individuals and businesses — namely, Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office and Acronis Cyber Protect. While Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office supports up to five computers, Acronis Cyber Protect lets you manage multiple computers and servers.
Both options offer different types of backup functionality, including image-based backups, file-based backup and hybrid backups, and backups can be scheduled in advance.
Final Thoughts
Long-term data retention is expensive and consumes a lot of storage space. With the right archive storage solution, you can minimize these costs and focus more on achieving your business objectives.
All of the services we’ve recommended in this list have one feature or another that makes them ideal for archive storage. IDrive earns the top spot because, in addition to its cloud archive feature, it has cloud storage features like file syncing and sharing, which make archive storage more flexible.
SpiderOak One comes second because of its unlimited versioning, which pairs well with cloud archive storage. Jottacloud is a cheap solution that offers unlimited storage, making it a great choice if you’re looking for a low-cost archive option. Finally, CloudBerry Backup and Duplicati are ideal for users who prefer to use another storage service or IaaS providers.
Which backup software impressed you the most? Do you have other recommendations for archival data? If so, let us know in the comments section below, and as always, thanks for reading.
