The Ultimate Online Backup Pricing Guide for 2025
Online backup pricing can feel like a mathematical maze. There are different prices and plans, plus discounts that come and go. To help make it easier to digest, we’re sharing the costs of leading services and the features you’ll get in return.
Written by Dan Ginn (Writer)
Reviewed by Valentina Bravo (Managing Editor)
Facts checked by Simona Ivanovski (Fact-Checker, Formatter)
Last Updated:
All our content is written fully by humans; we do not publish AI writing. Learn more here.
Key Takeaways: Online Backup Pricing
- Backblaze offers the best price for an online backup service with truly unlimited storage space.
- Pound for pound, IDrive is the best solution considering its value for money and current features.
- Free plans are scarce for online backup solutions, but most leading services offer free trials.
Facts & Expert Analysis: Cloud Backup Costs
- Go beyond storage: Services with unlimited storage can often compensate for limited feature sets. Look at the bigger picture before making a commitment.
- Break it down: Although it doesn’t factor in features, you can get a baseline for the best value for money by looking at how much a service charges per terabyte.
- Think long-term: To fully maximize the value you receive, aim to pay upfront for long-term plans on a one-year, two-year or lifetime basis.
The need to back up data continues to grow in our digital world. The only kicker is that it can cost a pretty penny to ensure that your files, operating systems and servers are backed up and continuously accessible. To help you understand the potential costs of backing up your data, we’re breaking it all down in this online backup pricing guide.
When we select the best online backup services, cost is a key factor in our criteria. That’s not to say we prioritize the cheapest options; rather, we look at which service offers the best value for money based on its features. With so many plans available, understanding their pricing can feel like a puzzle — now it’s time to solve it.
-
07/25/2022 Facts checked
Updated to reflect an increase in IDrive’s free plan to 10GB of storage.
-
10/26/2022 Facts checked
Updated Carbonite’s prices.
-
02/26/2024 Facts checked
Updated IDrive’s pricing information.
-
07/20/2025 Facts checked
We updated the article to include some recommended online backup providers
-
10/19/2025 Facts checked
We rewrote this article to reflect current costs associated with our selection of the leading online backup solutions.
How Cloud Backup Pricing & Storage Works
On paper, the pricing structure for online backup seems simple. The more backup storage you need, the more you’ll pay. Some companies charge more for other privileges, such as backing up multiple computers.
However, it can get confusing because different companies prioritize different things. For example, one service may offer cheaper unlimited storage than other services but charge more to back up several devices.
10,000+ Trust Our Free Cloud Storage Tips. Join Today!
- Demystify cloud storage terminology and key concepts in plain language
- Discover easy-to-implement techniques to securely backup and sync your data across devices
- Learn money-saving strategies to optimize your cloud storage costs and usage
To make things more understandable, we’ll break down both limited and unlimited backup options, and highlight what you can expect to pay.
Unlimited Backup Storage Pricing
Backblaze, Carbonite and CrashPlan are our three front runners when it comes to unlimited backups. Currently, Carbonite is the cheapest of the three, but this is due to an ongoing discount it is offering. Discounts removed, Backblaze is consistently the most affordable online backup service with unlimited storage.
Other considerations include the number of devices and the number of users required. Carbonite caps out at one device plus one external hard drive. CrashPlan requires a minimum of five users for its unlimited plan, driving up the cost. Backblaze and JottaCloud have no minimum user requirement, and you can back up multiple devices as well.
| Unlimited Cloud Backup Services | Number of Devices | Monthly Price | Yearly Price |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Unlimited | $9 | $99; $8.25 per month (one-year plan) |
 | 1 | N/A | $71.99; $6 per month (one-year plan) |
 | 2 | $8 | $88; $7.33 per month (one-year plan) |
 | Unlimited | $11.99 | $119.90; $9.99 per month (one-year plan) |
Online Backup Limits, Caps & Throttling
There’s a saying in the online backup space: “Is it truly unlimited?” That’s because some companies market “unlimited” space based on the premise that users won’t actually hit their limit.
Based on our testing, Backblaze, Carbonite and CrashPlan offer truly unlimited storage. Their main restrictions pertain to the number of devices you can back up.
Other unlimited services — like Jottacloud — are known to reduce upload speeds once you hit a certain amount of storage capacity. However, to our knowledge, none of the above three services are guilty of doing this.
Limited Backup Storage Space Pricing
Providers with limited backup storage can still offer plenty of space. IDrive, Acronis True Image and Dropbox Backup provide lots of storage at a pretty reasonable price.
For example, IDrive offers 5TB of storage for around $5.81 per month, annually. You can also back up an unlimited number of devices within your storage quota.
Acronis True Image is a more expensive option. It charges $11.87 per month for 5TB of storage space, and you can back up only one device. Dropbox Backup is also expensive, charging around $16.58 per month for just 3TB of annual storage.
| Limited Cloud Backup Services | Number of Devices | Monthly Price | Yearly Price |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Unlimited | $9.95 for 5TB | $69.66 ($5.81 per month) for 5TB |
 | 1 | N/A | $142.49; ($11.87 per month) for 5TB |
 | 1, plus an external hard drive | $19.99 for 3TB | $199 ($16.58 per month) for 3TB |
 | 1 | $7.99 for 3TB | $79.99 ($6.67 per month) for 3TB |
 | 3 | $9.99 for 2TB | $100 ($8.33 per month) for 1TB |
 | 1 | $9.99 for 2TB | $99.99 ($8.33 per month) for 2TB |
 | 1 | N/A | $15.60 ($1.30 per month) for 1TB |
Online Backup Pricing Comparison: Understanding Value
Providers are inconsistent across the board when it comes to pricing and allotted storage capacities, so it can be difficult to judge how much value you’re truly getting.
The solution is to see how much an online backup service charges per terabyte of storage space. Naturally, this doesn’t apply to those that offer unlimited space.
How Much Does 1TB of Cloud Backup Storage Cost?
Now let’s look at what the leading services are charging per terabyte to get the best indication of where you’ll find the greatest value. To come up with these numbers, we took the cost of each service’s annual plan at the time of writing and divided it by 12 months. We then divided that amount by the number of terabytes offered in each plan.
However, there is a caveat here, and it would be remiss for us to suggest that you’re paying only for storage capacity. We’ve also factored features into the price of every service, such as the number of devices, data restoration costs and more.
| Cloud Backup: | Cost per TB |
|---|---|
| $0.78 (5TB total) |
| $1.16 (5TB total) |
| $1.31 (5TB usage) |
| $1.67 (5TB usage) |
| $2 (5TB usage) |
| $2 (5TB usage) |
| $2.86 (7TB total) |
| $4.16 (2TB total) |
| $4.74 (5TB total) |
| $5.52 (3TB total) |
| $10 (2TB total) |
Internxt is technically the cheapest option but the backup features are extremely limited. Meanwhile Dropbox Backup is the most expensive per terabyte but has streamlined features for business users. Overall, we think IDrive displays the best value, offering strong backup features for 5TB at a cost of $1.16 per terabyte.
Cloud Backup Yearly Plans vs Monthly Plans
Purchasing a one-year plan comes in cheaper than paying month to month, with IDrive displaying the highest cost difference, offering a 41.7% decrease in cost when you pay annually.
| Cloud Backup: | Monthly cost | Monthly cost for annual plans | Annual Discount |
|---|---|---|---|
| $9.95 | $5.80 | 41.7% |
| N/A | $4.79 | N/A |
| $11.99 | $9.99 | 16.7% |
| $9.99 | $8.33 | 16.6% |
| N/A | $2.60 | NA |
| $20 | N/A | NA |
| $7.99 | $6.67 | 16.6% |
| $11.99 | $9.99 | 16.7% |
| $9 | $8.25 | 8.3% |
| N/A | $8.00 | NA |
| $8 | $7.33 | 8.4% |
Moreover, a two-year or lifetime plan will drive these costs down even further. For example, we’ve been using online cloud backup for over a decade. Had we chosen pCloud’s 2TB lifetime plan throughout that time, we would have paid the equivalent of $3.33 per month to use the service.
We understand that people can be reluctant to pay for one year or more in advance. It’s a higher upfront cost, and you may not know if you’ll use the service for that amount of time. However, if you know you need cloud storage, then long-term plans are your best bet for saving money in the long run.
How Much Should You Expect to Pay for Cloud Backup Storage per Year?
From our research, we tend to see around a 20% reduction in the overall cost if you pay yearly rather than monthly. Some services, like IDrive, offer over 40% reduction on certain plans if you pay an annual fee, while others offer closer to 8%.
In terms of actual cash, the average user will typically sign up for a 1TB or 2TB plan. Therefore, you can expect to pay an upfront fee of $99 to $125 per annum if you choose one of the leading providers.
Cloud Backup Free Plans & Trials
You’ll struggle to find online backup solutions that offer a free plan — if you come across one, it’s likely a scam. For example, services like Backblaze and Carbonite don’t offer free subscriptions. However, they do provide free trials of their plans so you can test-drive them before signing up
Hybrid storage solutions — which offer online backup and traditional cloud storage services — tend to be more open to providing a free tier. Both pCloud and IDrive offer 10GB for free, while Dropbox and Internxt provide 2GB and 1GB of free cloud backup space, respectively.
| Cloud Backup: | Free Plan or Trial |
|---|---|
| 10GB |
| 10GB |
| 2GB |
| 1GB |
| 5GB |
| Free 15-day trial |
| Free 30-day trial |
| Free 14-day trial |
| Free 15-day trial |
| Free 30-day trial |
| Free 14-day trial |
Business Cloud Backup Pricing
Business plans differ slightly compared to those tailored for single users. These services often require you to bring a minimum number of users: anywhere from three to 50, depending on the plan you select.
Storage space is spread across the team, too. For example, IDrive’s entry-level business plan costs the same as a personal plan — $69.66 for the year — but users get only 250GB of shared storage space. Backblaze doesn’t change its pricing or storage capacity for its business plans at all, and it lets you manage an unlimited number of users.
The true cost of Business cloud backup will depend on the size of your business. Enterprise-level companies can expect to pay anywhere between $1,000 and $5,000, while cloud storage for small businesses will likely cost hundreds — not thousands — of dollars.
| Provider | Cost |
|---|---|
| $99 per year |
| $69.65 to $1,049.65 per year |
| $540 to $864 per year |
| $47.99 to $59.99 per year (ongoing 80% off deal) |
| $287.99 to $999.99 per year |
| $95.98 to 191.76 per year |
| $155.88 to $551.88 per year |
The Best Online Backup Services
Now that you better understand the costs associated with the best online backup services, we want to dig deeper into some of the leading providers. Below are our top three online and cloud backup solutions, along with some features you can expect to enjoy when you sign up for one of their plans.
1. IDrive
IDrive offers plenty of backup options, like incremental, continuous and scheduled backups. Users can back up network-attached storage (NAS) devices and external hard drives, plus perform image-based backups of operating systems and applications.
Mobile apps are available for iOS and Android, both of which provide automated backup of media files. You can also back up documents, messages and contacts.
The platform implements industry-standard AES encryption for all data transfers and for data stored on its servers. For optimal privacy, you also get client-side encryption; however, this is switched off by default, and you must activate it when you create your account.
Desktop apps are available for local backup, and IDrive is compatible with Windows, macOS and Linux machines. You can learn more about the platform and all its features in our in-depth IDrive review.
- No credit card required.
- 10GB
- One user.
- 100GB
- One user, multiple computers. Plans starting from 5TB up to 100TB. Big discount for first-time signup.
- 5TB
More plans
- 5 computers, 5 users. Starting at 5TB up to 500TB. Big discount for first-time signup.
- 5TB
- 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
- 5TB
2. Backblaze
helps you back up your files right away.
Backblaze is a beginner-friendly online backup solution, thanks to its simplified software. Users can perform full data backups with just one click, and configuring scheduled and incremental backups is straightforward as well. Your first backup will be a full data backup, and then it will perform continuous backups going forward.
However, some features are lacking, which is why it doesn’t take the number-one spot. NAS and external drive backups are not available, nor are mobile backups. Speed is also a concern, as Backblaze’s upload times are among the slowest.
That said, its cost is unrivaled, and the unlimited storage space is a perk not offered by other providers in this selection. You can learn more in our full Backblaze review.
- Unlimited GB
3. pCloud
pCloud is predominantly a cloud storage service that also offers online backup features on the side. All your backup data is stored in the cloud, and you can access it across multiple devices, including mobile. Creating a backup is painless — you simply download the desktop app and choose which folders you want to back up continuously to your pCloud account.
Client-side encryption is available, but you must pay extra to activate your private key. The greatest thing about pCloud is that it’s also one of the best cloud storage services, thanks to its intuitive features for multimedia files. Read our pCloud review to learn more about what it offers.
- 10GB
- 500GB
- 2TB
More plans
- 10TB
- + FREE Encryption
- 2TB
- + FREE Encryption
- 10TB
- Price per user (minimum 3)
- 1TB
- Price per user (minimum 3)
- 2TB
- Encryption for pCloud Drive
Final Thoughts
That’s a wrap on our online backup pricing guide. Remember, don’t rush to the cheapest option as that doesn’t always equate to the greatest value when it comes to all-around functionality. Considering its pricing, features and storage options, IDrive is our top recommendation if you’re looking for the best value.
In addition, we want to remind you that committing to a long-term plan will give you the best bang for your buck. If you’re hesitant about the upfront investment, be sure to trial a service through its free plan or any free trials available. You can also stay ahead of the curve and find the best cloud storage deals currently on offer.
Did you find this pricing guide useful? How much are you currently paying for online backup? Which services would you like us to review? Let us know in the comments. Thanks for reading.
FAQ: Cloud Backup Pricing
We’ve tested all leading online backup services, and we consider IDrive to be the best option. It’s affordable, fast and has plenty of backup options, including local backup features.
Prices differ from one provider to the next. However, IDrive charges $58.31 per month for 100TB when you pay annually.
The most affordable option comes from IDrive. It charges $104 per year for 10TB of cloud backup storage, working out to around $8.65 per month.
Compared to physical on-premises backup, cloud backup is actually cheaper and more scalable. Some services cost more than others, but solutions like Backblaze and IDrive offer affordable cloud backup.