Online backup is your protection against any physical disaster that might befall your computer or local storage devices. Mechanical failure, acts of malice, or natural disasters are serious threats to the data you have stored on your PC.
While I always recommend keeping a local backup for quick restores (see our roundup of the best Windows backup software for desktop solutions), uploading your data to a cloud backup service is a reliable way to cover your bases. The “backup rule of three,” which includes an offsite copy, exists for a reason.
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The good news for consumers is that there are a multitude of affordable and convenient online backup options, many offering unique selling points. The primary concern here is backup, but I do discuss other roles that a service can fulfill, such as document viewing and editing, file sharing, multiple-device support, and emergency-restore options.
On a bit of a side note, there are some very affordable 1TB storage options available with Easeus ToDo Backup and Aomei Backupper.
Note: There’s a good reason why you won’t see familiar names like Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox on this list. Those are more accurately defined as synced cloud storage. Besides typically lacking a desktop client, and offering limited, if any, automatic backup functionality, online storage syncing involves mirroring — where any deletions or changes are reflected on the other end. Online backup uses versioning, so older data is retained — an important failsafe feature.
Why you should trust PCWorld for online backup reviews and buying advice: It’s in our name, PCWorld. Our reviewers have been testing PC hardware, software, and services for decades. Our backup evaluations are thorough and rigorous, testing the promises and limitations of every product — from performance to the practicalities of regular use. As PC users ourselves, we know what makes a product stand out. Only the best online backup services make this list.
PROMOTION
EaseUS Todo Backup – Cloud backup software
EaseUS Todo Backup covers everything you need for backups, with great features and fair pricing. With free cloud storage space, you’ll always have an extra copy of any files stored securely in the cloud. Security Zone protects vital data from ransomware in real-time.
Now 25% OFF Exclusive Code: PCWORLD25
iDrive – Best cloud backup overall
Pros
- Online and local backup
- Supports multiple PCs and devices on the same account
- Can back up Office 365, Google Workspace, and NAS
- Low price per terabyte
- Basic imaging and disaster recovery
Cons
- QNAP app install issues
- Needs better imaging and disaster recovery implementation
Who should use iDrive?
iDrive will satisfy most any user. It remains the most comprehensive online backup service I’ve tested. Though it’s not the cheapest, it’s still competitive price-wise and offers backup clients for nearly every PC/device operating system. The company also provides additional storage for syncing all your devices and PCs, allows sharing of files with anyone, has the ability to back up to a local drive, and supports basic imaging and disaster recovery.
iDrive: Further considerations
Since our last review, iDrive has expanded its backup offerings to cover a variety of personal and team needs. Besides the free 10GB tier, there’s a Personal plan that starts at 5TB/$69.65 for the first year (or $149.25 for two years), and $99.50 each year after, covering one user and multiple devices.
Additional Personal tiers offer 10TB, 20TB, 50TB, and 100TB options, though of course with significant price increases. There are also Team plans that cover multiple users and multiple computers.
Read our full iDrive Online Cloud Backup review
Livedrive – Best for unlimited storage
Pros
- Fast, glitch-free performance
- Syncing briefcase with online editing (Pro version) or separate service
- Unlimited backup
Cons
- Mac Client requires third-party software for briefcase functionality
Who should use Livedrive?
In my most recent look at Livedrive, I reviewer summed up the service up with one word: smooth. That’s really no surprise, as Livedrive’s elegant setup, ease of use, and reliability are the very things (along with unlimited storage) that made it one of my top picks for online backup over the last several years. There’s something very reassuring about using a product that is artfully designed and executed.
But Livedrive should be of particular interest to anyone who wants the benefit of unlimited storage — the service’s real value proposition. Yes, Backblaze and Carbonite also offer unlimited storage, and are strong services in their own right, but there are caveats for both that push the highly polished Livedrive client ahead of them in my book.
Livedrive: Further considerations
Currently, the standard Backup plan for one PC is approximately $124 per year (being a UK-based company, prices are listed in pounds and the conversion to dollars will fluctuate). A Pro Suite that covers five machines is $284 per year.
Despite the servers being located “across the pond,” I experienced a brisk 5- to 10MBps upload rate from our base in San Francisco, CA, which should stave off any bandwidth worries for U.S.-based customers.
Read our full Livedrive online backup review
OpenDrive – Best online storage for smaller data sets
Pros
- Plans for every budget and need
- Simple, effective interface
- Reliable, bug-free clients
- Sharing, encryption, and mobile apps
Cons
- No online editing
- Small operational inConsistencies between the Windows and macOS clients
Who should use OpenDrive?
OpenDrive offers a 500GB plan for $50 a year — which will cover a lot of users, and is just about the most affordable 1TB service these days at $60. In case you hadn’t noticed, most services have upped the price of admission recently. Case in point: OneDrive went from $70 to $120.
And OpenDrive’s plans are full boat. A lot of services offer a super affordable first year that turns not so affordable after that.
OpenDrive: Further considerations
While the service doesn’t offer anything particularly fancy, there is both a local virtual drive à la Dropbox, etc and a client for backup jobs. The backup job is true backup where files are never overwritten. OpenDrive is also one of the most solid experiences I’ve had when it comes to operations and reliability.
OpenDrive was also a very close contender for best online backup overall. A few more features and it could end up at the top of this list.
Read our full OpenDrive review
pCloud – Best budget online backup
Pros
- Online storage, multi-device sync, and mirroring
- Fantastically affordable lifetime plans
- Extremely secure and private
- Free 6GB account
Cons
- Virtual drive integrates with Windows Explorer as a drive letter
Who should use pCloud?
For those desiring a feature-packed online backup solution that’s insanely affordable over time, pCloud is our current pick. Why? $199 for 500GB forever ($59.88 yearly), or $399 for 2TB forever ($119.88 yearly). With many 1TB plans costing $80 to $100 or more a year (OneDrive is now $100), you’ll be saving money after only a few years.
pCloud: Further considerations
Aside from an absurdly affordable 1TB plan, pCloud’s other neat trick is backing up from your other online accounts: Google Drive, OneDrive, Drop Box, and even Facebook. That’s a very handy end-user feature. As are the phone apps to back up your photos, etc.
pCloud’s backup is actually two-way sync, but revisions are maintained for 30-days. A lifetime plan is only good while the company exists, but the Swiss-based firm has been around since 2013, so we expect continued solvency. Note that this is our standard caveat for any online storage/backup service offering lifetime plans.
Note that OpenDrive (listed above), and Nordlocker vied for best budget distinction. There are also S3-compatible services that are very affordable if all you want to do with your online storage is to back up to it.
Arq 7 Backup – Best for consolidating online storage
Pros
- Super-clean interface and setup
- Affordable online storage
- Local and online backup
- Backs up to and from a wide variety of third-party online storage services
- Flawless operationally in our testing
Cons
- No plain file backup
- Solo client software is a tad pricey
Who should use Arq 7?
Anyone who leverages multiple storage services for backup will be interested in Arq 7, which allows you to create multiple jobs under one roof to upload and download from the majority of them.
Supported services include Amazon, Google Drive and Cloud, OneDrive, Dropbox, BackBlaze B2, SFTP, S3-compatibles, some less known vendors such as pCloud, and more.
The Arq 7 interface is easy-to-use and navigate, which is a huge boon considering how intimidating backing up to multiple services can be for new users. It’s also rather spartan; if you’re looking for bling, forget it.
My only minor quibble with Arq 7 is that it’s a bit of a one-trick pony — only backing up. There are no perquisites such as partition or drive-image backups, cloning, recovery via boot media, such as those offered by iDrive. Not even sync is supported.
Arq 7: Further considerations
If you only want to leverage your own existing online storage services, Arq 7 is available as a $49 standalone client with a perpetual license. With Arq’s own storage, it’s still only $6 a month, or $60 yearly for 1TB and five users.
Still, backup is by far the most important task and Arq 7 does an excellent job of consolidating data to or from multiple online storage services.
Read our full Arq 7 Backup review
Icedrive.net – Best free cloud backup
Pros
- 10GB free account
- Decently affordable pay accounts
- Virtual drive and sync jobs
- Easy, attractive client
Cons
- Mac client not as responsive as it should be
Who should use Icedrive?
Icedrive offers both a free 10GB service and paid tiers. That’s 5GB more for free than with our former pick, Sync.com. The Icedrive web interface is both an attractive and easy to navigate, as is the client software (Windows, macOS, iOS, Linux, and Android). Said client software offers the same sync functions for free accounts as it does for paid tiers, which gives it a leg up over the free tiers of many other services.
There’s also a local virtual drive à la Dropbox, Google Drive, and others.
Icedrive: Further considerations
While 10GB of storage isn’t enough for power users or businesses, if you’re simply looking to keep documents online with the ability to sync them across multiple devices for free, Icedrive is a reliable service with an excellent client. Plus, you can always upgrade to a paid tier for more storage as needed.
That might not be as pricey as you’d think, though the discounted prices on the site are for the first year only. Annually, Icedrive is $29 for 2TB (discounted from $99), $49 for 4TB (discounted from $159), and $99 for 6TB (marked down from $269). Most users will be best off with the 2TB plan which is quite competitive.
Note that those discounted prices are for the first year only, reverting to full boat after that.
Read our full Icedrive online storage review
Backup software with cloud backup/storage support
Typically, we separate our reviews of cloud backup services from local backup software (as seen in our best Windows backup software roundup.) But those lines have been blurred with backup software that includes support for cloud backup and storage. The following are reviews of such hybrid offerings:
- Dropbox Backup: Dropbox Backup is a nice solution for one-person account users, despite surcharges for long-term version retention.
- MSP360 Managed Backup: Backup for multiple computers at a decently low fee. Local and online, file-based and imaging, along with disaster recovery are all provided via manageable local clients.
- R-Drive Image 7.3: This backup program has expanded support for cloud storage services — including the Amazon S3 and S3-compatible repositories
- Iperius Backup Basic: This backup program offers power aplenty, but the learning curve and interface might occasionally flummox less-experienced users.
- EaseUS ToDo Backup 2025: A full-featured program that ranks among the top; its free version is particular robust.
- Handy Backup 8.5 Professional: Top-notch features might’ve garnered an Editors’ Choice award had it been entirely glitch-free and a bit easier to learn.
- Ashampoo Backup Pro 26: Overarching support for myriad backup chores with easy-to-understand wizards.
- Zinstall FullBack: Unique among backup programs, it offers full migration of backed up data and apps to a new OS installation — for a relatively steep price.
- Aomei Backupper Pro: A complete backup solution capable of preserving your important data both locally and remotely.
- Aomei Backupper Standard: A respectable free backup program, if you can tolerate the occasional ad. It’s cloud storage is affordable but can only be used for backups, no other data.
- Acronis True Image: Besides being feature-packed, including support for cloud backup storage, Acronis throws in protection against viruses and malware.
- Retrospect 19 Solo: We like that this backup program includes support for both proprietary and third-party cloud storage, but not its lack of disaster recovery.
- Retrospect 19 Desktop: The pro version to Solo’s consumer version, Retrospect Desktop covers all the bases, but has a steep learning curve and high price.
Even local backup software that doesn’t offer a formal cloud component can be made to incorporate the most popular online storage services, using a cloud storage manager.
The good news is that you have lots of options for putting together a comprehensive backup strategy including local and remote copies of all your data!
How PCWorld tests and evaluates online backup services
As noted above, the performance of online backup services will vary wildly according to their location and the network equipment between you and the data depository. We installed the software and backed up the same 2GB data set to check for any major issues or glitches in the client software. These are noted in the reviews.
See our article on how PCWorld tests cloud backup services for all the details.
Who curated this article
Jon Jacobi has been dabbling in the computing arts since the days when that required flipping switches. He has witnessed data storage morph from punch cards and tape to solid state drives. He’s been using and testing HDDs, SATA SSDs, and NVMe SSDs for PCWorld for well over two decades. That necessarily includes the software and services that support data storage. To paraphrase a well-known commercial, you might say he’s seen a thing or two.
How to pick an online storage and backup service
Cloud backup has unique considerations. Familiarizing yourself with the following key areas can help you find the cloud backup service that best meets your needs.
Capacity
Obviously, you’ll need as much storage as you have data, plus a little, or possibly a lot, more if you want to track changes and save previous versions of files — if that’s supported. Some services keep multiple versions of files, some don’t. In many cases there’s a time limit.
Price
Nearly all online services charge differently depending on amount of storage involved. Uploads are free, but downloads may be limited. In some cases, there are upload and download charges. Read the fine print.
Aside from the free tiers available from a service like Dropbox, pricing is fairly consistent across services, though you definitely get more capacity for your money from some vendors.
Features
As we mentioned previously, in addition to backup, you may want to share your files with others, work with them from mobile devices, or even edit them with office applications such as those available with Dropbox, Google, and OneDrive. If you do intend to work online, we recommend that you maintain a local copy as far-more-quickly-restored backup, as well as a hedge against Internet downtime.
OS and device support
Most services provide client backup software for the major operating systems (Linux, OS X, and Windows) and both Android and iOS. Make sure the service you sign up for supports your entire panoply of computers and devices.
Privacy
If you’re concerned about the privacy of your data, make sure you use a service that allows the use of a personal encryption key that you define. Do NOT lose it, as it is absolutely required to restore your data. Sadly, using your own key often limits the types of services (e.g., no mobile backup) available.
If private encryption keys aren’t available, read the privacy policy, especially with the free services—there are significant differences.
FAQ
What’s the best cheap online backup?
Much of the “cheap” equation depends on how much storage you need. Icedrive in its 10GB free incarnation is PCWorld’s top pick for small amounts of data, with 5GB Sync.com next in freebie line. If you’re wondering why no OneDrive, Google Drive, etc. it’s because they don’t offer backup functions. Dropbox now offers a backup function (beta), so that’s another runner-up. Just avoid the Teams version of Dropbox Backup, which moves data before actually backing it up.
For up to 1TB of storage, the lifetime deal of $199 from pCloud is hard to beat.
How reliable is cloud backup?
Generally speaking, data centers are backed up to the hilt, and some of the larger ones even back up to different geographical locations. Availability (hopefully 24/7) can also be important. Check for news of outages and the vendor’s own service blogs. All the services we’re aware of have been near-100 percent reliable.
What speed and data transfer rates should I look for?
Speed in most cases these days is far more dependent upon the speed of your broadband connection than that of the online service, though the geographical location of the storage and the equipment in between can make a significant difference. Check the location of the service’s data servers if speed is important to you. Or, just give the trial a whirl and see if you can live with it.
How often should you schedule backups?
Ideally, you should back up your data as often as possible. This is especially true if you are working on an important project or have data that you absolutely cannot afford to lose. It’s a good idea to automate the backup process and have the cloud service back up your data every hour or so. You might also consider real time (as files are changed), or continuous (more granular scheduling such as every 5 minutes.)
What’s the difference between cloud backup services and services like Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive?
Services such as Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive are considered cloud storage services because they don’t offer local backup clients, but sync via a local virtual drive or web interface. A user must place their files onto the service’s cloud manually.
A cloud backup service provides a desktop client with either versioning or retention of all the files you’ve backed up. Cloud backup service providers may also offer additional data security measures such as end-to-end encryption.
Is it safe to store my data online?
Yes! All cloud backup services offer encryption of your data both during the transfer to and from your computer as well as while your data is stored on the provider’s servers.
While this encryption stops others from being able to view your data, it doesn’t necessarily stop them from stealing it. Generally speaking, while not infallible, cloud backup services are one of the most secure options for storing your data.
Do you need to back up everything on your computer?
You should at least back up all data that you can’t stand to lose. All devices will likely experience technical issues over time and oftentimes this leads to your data being lost from that device. So you should do regular backups of everything that is important to you. However, backup services typically offer more storage than most people can use, so it’s never a bad idea to safely store all of your data in case of emergency.
What’s the difference between sync and backup?
Though there can be variations such as one-way and mirroring, sync is generally thought of as any change (deletions included) to a data set reflected on all the data repositories involved in the sync. The change can be made in any repository and will propagate to the others. That includes the source, the online storage, and any devices linked to the account.
Backup, on the other hand, should be an immutable copy of your source data from a point of time. In practice, however, vendors may use what’s known as versioning, i.e. retaining older copies of files while using the most recent version as the file shown in the backup. The effect is largely the same as incremental backup and requires a lot less time and space.
Alas, when versioning or even plain backup are involved, there may be limits on how long older versions and deleted files are retained. This isn’t true backup, but simply a safer version of sync that allows vendors to reclaim space after a period of time. The good news? Most users won’t really need those older files. For those that do, be careful which service you choose.