Losing data is all too common. 39% of consumers have lost files or devices in the last two years alone, according to a 2023 report by data recovery firm Kroll Ontrack. The potential costs are staggering: it‘s estimated that one hour of downtime caused by data loss costs enterprise businesses an average of $300,000, while small companies lose $8,000-$20,000 annually due to data-related issues.
The clear solution is to implement a robust backup strategy. Cloud backup services like IDrive and Carbonite have emerged as a convenient and affordable way for businesses and individuals to automatically protect their invaluable data. But choosing between these two popular platforms isn‘t always straightforward.
In this comprehensive comparison, we‘ll pit IDrive vs Carbonite head-to-head in eight crucial categories: supported devices, security, performance, storage limits, ease of use, file syncing, cost, and overall value. Whether you‘re looking to safeguard a single laptop or an entire organization‘s worth of computers and servers, by the end of this guide you‘ll have a clear understanding of which cloud backup service is the better choice for your needs.
1. Supported Platforms
A backup service is only useful if it‘s compatible with your devices. Here‘s a breakdown of desktop and mobile operating systems supported by each service:
IDrive:
- Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP (including Server editions)
- Mac OS X 10.12+ (macOS Sierra or later)
- Linux distributions including Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS, Debian
- iOS 13+ and Android 4.0+ mobile apps to back up and access files
Carbonite:
- Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7 (including Server editions)
- Mac OS X 10.13+ (macOS High Sierra or later)
- iOS 13+ and Android 7+ mobile apps to access files only (no mobile backup)
IDrive is the clear winner in terms of platform support. Its desktop app works with a wider range of operating systems, including more legacy versions of Windows, macOS, and multiple flavors of Linux.
IDrive‘s mobile apps also go a step further by allowing full backup of your smartphone or tablet, contacts, photos, videos, and calendars. This is incredibly useful in an era where more and more critical data resides on our mobile devices. Carbonite‘s mobile presence is more limited, with apps that can only access and share files from your PC backup, but not actually back up your phone or tablet.
Verdict: IDrive supports more operating systems and offers true mobile device backup, making it the superior choice for those with diverse devices.
2. Security & Reliability
Entrusting your data to the cloud requires rock-solid security. Both IDrive and Carbonite employ industry-standard practices to protect your files:
- All account access is locked down by 256-bit AES encryption
- Files are encrypted at rest using 256-bit AES
- Files are protected in transit with SSL/TLS encryption
- Multifactor authentication protects against unauthorized account access
Additionally, both providers allow you to set a private encryption key. This ensures that your data is only ever decrypted on your local device and not on the cloud servers. Even if the government subpoenaed your backup data (as unlikely as that may be), it would be unreadable without your unique private key.
The key difference is that IDrive allows private encryption keys across all devices and operating systems, whereas Carbonite restricts it to only the Windows app. This means Mac, mobile, and Linux users can‘t access Carbonite‘s highest level of security.
In terms of redundancy, both IDrive and Carbonite utilize hardened, access-controlled data centers with 24/7 monitoring, temperature control, and onsite backup power. Your data is stored on enterprise-grade hard drives with RAID redundancy, ensuring that the loss of any single drive won‘t result in data loss. IDrive uses a slightly more modern storage standard: RAID-6 vs RAID-5 in Carbonite‘s data centers.
IDrive also retains the last 30 versions of all files indefinitely, while Carbonite only keeps 12 versions for 30/60 days (depending on plan). For rapidly changing files, IDrive‘s lengthier retention policy could make the difference between a successful point-in-time restore or permanent data loss.
Verdict: Both are secure and reliable, but IDrive provides private encryption keys on more platforms and stores more prior file versions. Edge to IDrive.
3. Backup Performance
Backup speed is critical, especially for the initial upload of your files. Faster speeds mean reaching a protected state sooner. To test the backup performance of IDrive and Carbonite, I backed up a 4.7 GB folder of mixed file types – documents, photos, videos, and installers.
IDrive results:
- Initial backup completed in 2 hours 14 minutes
- Average data transfer rate: 35.8 Mbps
- CPU usage peaked at 12.4% but generally stayed under 5%
Carbonite results:
- Initial backup completed in 8 hours 47 minutes
- Average data transfer rate: 8.9 Mbps
- CPU usage regularly exceeded 25% and spiked above 50% a few times
Analyzing the raw data, IDrive comes out ahead by a substantial margin. It backed up my test data set nearly 4x faster, thanks to its significantly higher data transfer rate. This performance advantage remained on my 100 Mbps and 1000 Mbps test connections.
However, actual backup speeds can vary depending on your device‘s hardware, encryption settings, and network environment. Users with many small files may see speeds closer together, as Carbonite seems to have lower overhead for creating many individual encrypted files. But on a typical home-office network with a common mix of file sizes, I expect IDrive to handily outpace Carbonite.
Resource usage was also night and day. IDrive sipped CPU cycles during backup, while Carbonite caused noticeable slowdowns during processor-intensive tasks. If you will be backing up in the background, IDrive will be much less disruptive.
Verdict: IDrive significantly outperformed Carbonite in average transfer speeds and resource utilization. Advantage IDrive.
4. Storage Limits
Storage limits can get confusing with cloud backup services, but here‘s a simplified breakdown:
IDrive Personal:
- 5 TB plan for $79.50/year
- 10 TB plan for $99.50/year
- Unlimited devices/computers
IDrive Business:
- Plans start at 250 GB for $99.50/year
- Scales up to 50 TB for $2,999.50/year
- Unlimited users, computers, and servers
Carbonite Safe (Personal):
- Unlimited plan for 1 computer starting at $83.99/year
- No multi-computer unlimited plans
Carbonite Safe Backup (Business):
- 250 GB plan for 25 computers at $287.99/year
- Overage fees: $99/year per additional 100 GB and $99/year per additional 25 computers
- Servers not included
Carbonite‘s appeal is its straightforward unlimited storage plan for a single computer. You don‘t have to worry about quotas. But things get pricey for multi-computer backup. Upgrading Carbonite‘s entry-level business plan to match IDrive‘s 5 TB of storage would cost over $5,000 per year!
By comparison, IDrive‘s 5 TB and 10 TB personal plans are an excellent value for households with many computers, smartphones, and tablets to protect. The company‘s business plans are also very competitive, including unlimited server backup and easily scaling into multiple TBs of storage.
One unique perk to call out is IDrive Express, which lets you "seed" your initial backup by mailing in a hard drive rather than uploading everything over the internet. Carbonite only includes courier recovery on its most expensive personal plan, and charges extra for the service with business plans.
Verdict: IDrive delivers significantly more storage per dollar, especially for backing up multiple machines. Carbonite only makes sense for unlimited storage on a single computer.
5. Ease of Use
Powerful doesn‘t have to mean complicated. Both IDrive and Carbonite provide user-friendly desktop clients for managing your backups:
IDrive‘s desktop app has a clean layout with customizable backup sets, drag-and-drop file selection, and granular scheduling controls. Even with hundreds of thousands of files, the interface remains snappy.
Carbonite takes a more minimalistic approach, with few options beyond choosing folders for backup. This streamlined interface is great for novices, but power users may crave more control.
IDrive also includes two standout ease-of-use features:
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IDrive BMR: Bare Metal Recovery (BMR) lets you restore your entire computer‘s data, applications, and operating system in the event of a natural disaster.
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IDrive Disk Image: With a few clicks, you can automatically create an image backup of an entire server or hard drive, including the bootloader and partition information.
Both utilities can save countless hours of rebuilding after a major crash or system meltdown.
Carbonite does deserve credit for making the backup process rather effortless. You install the app, log in, and let it automatically select important folders to back up on a recurring schedule. If you want to "set it and forget it," Carbonite gets the job done.
Verdict: IDrive packs in more advanced functionality while still being easy to navigate. Carbonite is a bit more streamlined overall.
6. File Syncing & Sharing
IDrive includes file syncing and sharing capabilities, essentially giving you a Dropbox-style workspace in addition to your cloud backup storage. After installing the IDrive desktop app, any changes made to files in your specified sync folder will automatically propagate to your other linked devices, as well as to IDrive‘s cloud servers.
Sharing from the IDrive web app is simple. You can share backed up files by email address or generate a shareable link. The recipient can then view or download the file, even without an IDrive account. For more advanced collaboration, you can finely tune permissions, set expiration dates, and even require a password to access shares.
Carbonite lacks any file syncing functionality, nor does its desktop app integrate any sharing features. You can share specific files from the Carbonite web app, but the implementation feels like more of an afterthought compared to the robust sharing and collaboration features offered by IDrive.
Verdict: IDrive includes file sync and more advanced sharing features. Carbonite is a no-show in this category.
7. Value for Money
Ultimately, a backup service must deliver enough value to justify the recurring subscription fee. To fairly compare IDrive and Carbonite‘s bang for the buck, let‘s look at annual costs for a range of common backup scenarios:
| Backup Scenario | IDrive Cost | Carbonite Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1 computer (1 TB data) | $79.50 | $83.99 |
| 3 computers (3 TB data) | $79.50 | $251.97 |
| 5 computers (5 TB data) | $99.50 | $419.95 |
| 10 computers (10 TB data) | $99.50 | $5,187.30 |
As you can see, IDrive scales up far more affordably for multiple computers. Even its entry-level 5 TB plan – currently available for $79.50/year – lets you back up an unlimited number of devices. Purchasing a multi-computer licence that covers 3 PCs, 2 Macs, 2 iPhones and 3 Android phones is no problem.
With Carbonite, additional computers cost at least $83.99 each. And if you exceed the default 250 GB of the Safe Backup Pro plan, you‘ll have to tack on overage fees of $99/year per additional 100 GB.
Now, Carbonite Safe can be marginally cheaper for a single machine if you go with the base-level Personal plans ($71.99/year for Carbonite, $79.50/year for IDrive). But considering IDrive bundles in mobile backup, file sync, and expanded versioning, it‘s easy to justify the small premium. IDrive also runs promotions more frequently.
Verdict: IDrive offers significantly better value for the majority of backup scenarios. Carbonite is only price-competitive if backing up one computer with under 1 TB of data.
Bottom Line
Putting it all together, IDrive emerges as the clear winner in this cloud backup battle. It‘s faster, more secure, and more feature-rich than Carbonite, and delivers considerably more storage per dollar. IDrive is an excellent choice for:
- Households with multiple computers and mobile devices
- Businesses backing up employee workstations and servers
- Users who want the most control over their backup settings
- Anyone who needs both cloud backup and file sync capabilities
Carbonite is really only a sensible option if you 1) have a single computer to back up, 2) don‘t foresee yourself exceeding 1 TB of data, and 3) strongly prefer its streamlined "hands-off" approach to backups. For all other use cases, IDrive simply delivers more bang for your buck.
Of course, IDrive and Carbonite aren‘t the only games in town. If neither sounds quite right, consider checking out:
- Backblaze: Unlimited backup for 1 computer starting at $70/year
- SpiderOak One: Excellent security with a 2 TB plan for $149/year
- Acronis True Image: Full image backups starting at $49.99/year for 1 computer
- Crashplan for Small Business: Unlimited backup for 1-199 computers at $10/device/month
But for the vast majority of users, IDrive will provide the best combination of price, performance, and functionality to ensure your precious files are easily protected and always accessible. With ransomware attacks on the rise and the ever-looming threat of drive failures, there‘s never been a better time to start backing up to the cloud.
