How Do I Backup My Computer Online?

“I volunteer for a nonprofit (so costs are always important) and they have about 1 TB of data I would like to back it up online in case of any crazy disaster. What are the best online backup services for PC? How can I backup my computer online? Thanks!”

Compared with traditional hard drive computer backup, online backup is favored by more and more users. There is no doubt that online backup services make it very convenient to store all types of data offsite for protection. However, multiple tools can backup my PC online, but they are not easy to use, and moreover, many of them are expensive.

So, here in this article, we have rounded up a list of the top 6 PC cloud backup software that will help you backup computer files online easily and cost-effectively.

What is an Online Backup Service?

Online backup services, also known as cloud backup services, are one of the most popular technologies in data backup and recovery. They provide users with a way to store data off-site by saving it in a secure cloud-based remote data repository over a network connection.

Offsite data backup protects important information (business files, personal photos/videos, etc.) from the risk of loss due to hacking, operational errors, or any other type of technical disaster.

Top 6 Best Online Backup Services for PC in 2023

In this part, you can get a clear overview of the 6 best free cloud backup for PC, including the pricing, features, and drawbacks of each tool. Hope you can find the one that suits you best.

Backblaze

If you want an easy-to-use online PC backup solution, Backblaze is one of the most preferred options. It can continuously backup Windows and Mac computer files and systems files. What’s more, it allows you to create an unlimited number of data backups. When it comes to data recovery, it also offers file versioning for up to 30 days.

However, a Backblaze credential can only backup one computer. If you need the best online backup for multiple computers, please turn to other Backblaze alternative solutions below.

Pricing: 15-day free trial for unlimited backup space; $7 per month/ $70 per year/$130 per two-year for unlimited space.

Carbonite

Carbonite is a popular and free online backup for PC primarily serving home users and small businesses. Supported on both Windows and Mac, it provides unlimited data storage space. It allows users to make scheduled backups to automatically and regularly back up important data. In terms of data security, it offers 128-bit/256-bit AES encryption at rest, private encryption, and two-factor authentication.

But like Backblaze, a Carbonite license is only for a single computer, not for multiple computer backups. Also, in our data backup testings, data uploads were slow.

Pricing: Coming with a 15-day free trial, it costs $4.20/month billed annually to get unlimited space for Basic plan, $6.00/month billed annually for Plus plan, and $7.50/month billed annually for Prime plan.

CBackup

If you're a Windows user, CBackup is your best online backup service for PC. Providing 5GB of free computer backup space, CBackup supports you to backup computer to OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, and other clouds for free. Its backup speed is very fast and it offers flexible automatic backup schedules. Besides, it uses 256-bit AES encryption for increased data security.

It could help you easily manage multiple cloud accounts and create backups for multiple computers in the same cloud. In addition, it also allows performing cloud-to-cloud data backups, making transferring files between different clouds fast and easy. Sadly, it does not currently offer unlimited storage space, but it offers a cloud storage combination that can help you get 1TB cloud storage and more for free.

Pricing: 5GB of free CBackup Cloud space, $7.99/month for 1TB CBackup Cloud storage, and $19.99/month for 5TB CBackup Cloud storage.

IDrive

IDrive is an online backup service for PC that supports Windows and Mac computer backups as well as mobile device backups. You can backup multiple computers with this tool, and it also offers computer clone backups, snapshots, version control, and more. Moreover, it will never delete your backup files without your permission.

There is a problem that IDrive only offers yearly storage plans. Also, aside from PC backup, it lacks additional features like file sharing.

Pricing: 5GB of free storage space, $69.50 per year for 2TB storage, $99.50 per year for 5TB storage, and other business plans.

pCloud

pCloud is a provider of online cloud storage services registered in Switzerland. In addition to computer backup, pCloud also offers file synchronization, file version control, recovery of deleted files, shared files/folders, etc. It provides an embedded player to play media files.

It should be noted that pCloud only offers annual plans and lifetime plans without monthly ones. And, the largest cloud storage space for the annual plan is only 2TB, which may be far from enough for many users.

Pricing: 10GB of free space, offer Premium users 500GB and Premium Plus users 2TB per year for $50.39 and $100.78 (currently).

CrashPlan

CrashPlan is one of the most recommended online backup storage services among all the best online backup solutions. Effective in protecting your important data, CrashPlan also offers unlimited data backups. With this software, you can backup PC files and folders to Crashplan Central's cloud storage service, or you can backup computer to an external hard drive.

However, CrashPlan only provides backup services for small businesses and is not intended for personal use.

Pricing: Offer a one-month free trial, and cost $10 per month per computer for unlimited space.

Step-by-step Guide for Making Online Backup for PC

How can you create a computer cloud backup after getting through the best online backup services for PC? Here, we take CBackup as an example to show you how to backup your entire computer to the cloud.

Step 1. Please free download and install the CBackup desktop app. Sign up for it, and then log in.

Step 2. Tap the Backup tab on the left, then click Backup PC to CBackup Cloud.

★Tips:

If you want to backup your computer to public clouds like Google Drive, you should click Storage > select a cloud drive > Authorize Now to connect your cloud with CBackup. Then, select Backup > Backup PC to Public Cloud.

Step 3. Customize the Task Name, and choose computer files and folders to backup, and determine the backup destination.

Step 4. Press Start Backup to create online backups for PC data easily.

Conclusion

Creating online backups of your computer is one of the most effective ways to keep your data safe. picking any of the best online backup services for PC on this page can easily enable cloud backups for the computer data. You can choose the one that suits you best according to your needs.