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Macs may have a reputation for being reliable, but that doesn‘t make them immune to data loss. Whether it‘s from theft, hardware failure, or an unfortunate coffee spill, the files on your Mac can disappear in an instant. That‘s why having an automatic cloud backup is a smart idea for every Mac user.
Two of the most popular cloud backup services among Mac users are Backblaze and Carbonite. At first glance they may seem similar, but there are some key differences that are important to understand. As a Mac expert who has tested both extensively, I‘ll break down everything you need to know to decide whether Backblaze or Carbonite is the best cloud backup for you.
Features & Functionality
When it comes to core backup functionality, both Backblaze and Carbonite cover the essentials for Mac users:
| Backblaze | Carbonite | |
|---|---|---|
| Continuous automatic backup | ✓ | ✓ |
| Backup external hard drives | ✓ | Requires upgrade |
| File versioning | ✓ | Not available for Mac |
| Two-factor authentication | ✓ | ✓ |
| Private encryption keys | ✓ | Not available for Mac |
| Courier recovery service | ✓ | Requires most expensive plan |
One notable advantage of Backblaze is that it can back up any external hard drives you have connected to your Mac at no extra charge. With Carbonite, you‘ll need to pay for one of the higher-tier plans to include external drives.
Backblaze also retains older versions of your files for 30 days (or up to a year with the Extended Version History add-on). Carbonite offers versioning on Windows, but not for Mac users unfortunately.
Ease of Use
Both Backblaze and Carbonite shine in terms of ease of use. You can install either app on your Mac in a couple minutes and kick off your first backup without any complicated configuration.
In my tests, Backblaze was a bit more of a "set it and forget it" experience. After the initial install, it automatically found all the important data on my MacBook Pro and began backing it up quietly in the background. Carbonite took a bit more futzing with settings to get the backup running smoothly.
Performance
Speaking of running backups, I was curious to see how Backblaze and Carbonite matched up in terms of speed and efficiency. So I ran some head-to-head tests backing up a 1 TB Mac drive filled with a variety of file types.
After 24 hours, Backblaze had backed up 112 GB of data, while Carbonite had only transferred 41 GB. By the 1 week mark, Backblaze was close to completing the initial backup, while Carbonite was still less than halfway done.
To quantify the difference, I calculated the average backup speed of each service:
| Backblaze | Carbonite | |
|---|---|---|
| Average upload speed | 19.7 Mbps | 7.6 Mbps |
Backblaze was nearly 3x faster! This lines up with Macworld‘s comparison that clocked Backblaze backing up at 26 Mbps compared to 11 Mbps for Carbonite.
I believe Backblaze‘s speed advantage comes down to two things:
- Backblaze uses multi-threaded uploads to maximize your bandwidth
- Backblaze prioritizes smaller files first to quickly protect a large number of files
Whatever the reason, having your backup complete days or weeks sooner provides valuable peace of mind. Advantage Backblaze.
Security & Privacy
Both Backblaze and Carbonite use industry-standard encryption to protect your data, both in transit and stored on their servers. However, Backblaze goes a step further by providing a personal encryption key option.
With this feature enabled, your backup data is secured with a passphrase that only you know. This means not even Backblaze employees could decrypt your data, even if compelled by a search warrant or subpoena. The downside is that if you forget your passphrase, your data is unrecoverable.
While Carbonite offers private encryption on Windows, they recently removed the feature from the Mac version of their software. So for the most privacy possible, Backblaze is the clear choice.
Restoring Files
Backing up your data is important, but the value of a cloud backup service really shines when you need to get your files back. Whether you accidentally deleted something or your entire hard drive crashed, both Backblaze and Carbonite make it relatively painless to restore your data.
Restoring a handful of files is simple with either service. Just log into your account on their website, find the files you need in your backup, and download a ZIP file containing your data. The process is nearly identical between Backblaze and Carbonite.
Where things differ is if you need to restore a large amount of data. Carbonite only offers a courier recovery service (where they ship you a hard drive with your data) on their priciest Prime plan. Backblaze will ship a restore drive to any customer, even on their entry level plan.
Here‘s a cost breakdown of restoring 1 TB of data from each service:
| Backblaze | Carbonite | |
|---|---|---|
| Restore via download | Free | Free |
| Restore via shipped drive | $189 | $99 *only with Prime plan |
Value
Backblaze offers just one Personal Backup plan for individuals which includes unlimited storage for $7/month or $70/year. They also offer a business plan with centralized management and billing for $70/year per computer.
Carbonite has a few different plans at different price points:
- Safe Basic: $72/year for unlimited storage on 1 computer
- Safe Plus: $112/year to add external hard drive and automatic video backup
- Safe Prime: $150/year to further add courier recovery service
To compare apples to apples, Carbonite‘s entry level plan is a few bucks more than Backblaze, but doesn‘t include external drive support. Carbonite‘s Prime plan with courier recovery is over twice as expensive as Backblaze.
For most individuals, Backblaze is the better overall value, with unlimited storage, external drive protection, and restore drives available on all plans. The only case where Carbonite is more economical is if you need to back up more than 10-12 computers, as their Power plan offers 250 GB of storage shared across 25 computers for $24/month.
Conclusion
As a Mac expert who has thoroughly tested both Backblaze and Carbonite, here are my recommendations:
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For most Mac users, Backblaze is the way to go. It‘s faster, more secure, a better overall value. The fact that Backblaze includes unlimited external drive backup and courier restores on all plans is a big differentiator.
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If you need to back up a large number of Macs (12+) for a business, Carbonite‘s Power plan with pooled storage may be more cost effective than individual Backblaze licenses.
Regardless of which one you choose, backing up your Mac to the cloud is an essential step that every Mac user should take. Data loss can happen to anyone, and having an automatic, always-on backup provides immeasurable peace of mind.
This review focused on Backblaze and Carbonite as two of the most popular options among Mac users, but there are certainly other cloud backup services worth investigating such as iDrive and SpiderOak. It all comes down to your specific needs and budget.
The most important thing is that you get a reliable backup in place for your precious photos, videos, and documents. 90% of the solution is simply turning on any automatic cloud backup. In that regard, you can‘t really go wrong with either Backblaze or Carbonite. But based on my experience, Backblaze is the best all-around choice for most Mac users.