A brief examination of free online backup services
Introduction
Online backups can be a very good way of protecting data stored on your computer; if this service can be offered for free then that adds to its appeal. Fortunately there are many providers offering online backups as a complete solution and these providers need to compete in order to get your custom. This competition has led to a number of very reputable companies offering a free version of their backup solution. While this free version might not offer all the bells and whistles of the advance premium versions, they still offer many advantages.
This article attempts to shed some light on the free online backup services currently available, and to offer some assistance to the interested consumer in making his final decision. Before you continue, we suggest you take a look at the various advantages to online backups as well as the disadvantages to online backups. Once you’ve got a balanced view of the good, the bad, and occasionally ugly (but hey, let’s not talk about me) you’ll be a much better position to make your decision.
How free is free
The old adage tells us that you don’t get anything for nothing. In most cases this is true; in this case, fortunately, it isn’t. While some ‘free’ services may bombard you with advertising, or worse try sell your email address, the major free online backup services are mercifully free from both. The companies behind the services are large enough that they would not want to risk the legal and moral trouble they might land themselves in if they were selling email addresses; it’s possible also that they are making enough profit from their chargeable ventures that the free PR coming from the free services they provide is reward enough. Either way they all need to provide a free service in order to compete with the other offerings. While it might not last forever, it does appear that free is free for the moment.
Why would I pay for online backups?
So if it’s all free, and the free service happens to be fine and dandy, why on earth would I want to use a paid-for alternative? Good question.
Naturally the benevolent organisations offering free online backups are not doing it out of the goodness of their souls - they have businesses to run and mouths to feed. They all, without any notable exceptions, have a premium or business version of their service which people pay for. The paid versions invariably offer better features: more capacity, faster transfer speeds (though as you will note from our article Why Do Online Backups Take So Long? the upload speed is usually limited by your bandwidth provider’s technology), and better security features. While the free service might be okay for casual use there’s a good chance that if you seriously consider your online backup requirements you’ll need a little more than what is offered by the free solution. And this is to be expected: the providers don’t want to price themselves out of the market by offering a free package this is too good.
Conclusion
All the providers noted in our article on Leading Online Backup Services provide a free version of their service. Check out the list there and sign up.
While the old idea that you ‘get what you pay for’ may still be true, it is still entirely possible to get something for nothing. Why not take advantage of free online backups while you can?
