Backup software is judged on the one day it is used.
This guide ranks on restore speed rather than backup speed, on whether the product can survive the ransomware event that encrypts the backups too, and on what a full recovery of a working system actually involves once you are the person doing it at three in the morning.
AuthorHannah ReiterSenior Analyst, Business Applications
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In short
What backup software does
Backup software copies data and systems to a second location on a schedule, and restores them when the first location is gone, corrupted or encrypted.
Five things, in this order. Feature counts are not among them: they are the least useful
comparison in software, because every vendor ticks every box.
01
Setup effort in backup software
What the first ninety days of a backup software rollout cost in hours, not in licence fees. A product that needs a partner engagement before it does anything is a different purchase from one a team configures in an afternoon.
02
What backup software really costs
What the bill becomes once the modules a normal buyer of backup software needs are added, and whether you can read that number without a sales conversation.
03
Getting your data out of backup software
How your own data comes back out, in what format, and whether that export is included in the backup software contract or billed as a project.
04
Independence from the vendor
Whether you can buy backup software, run it and leave it on your own terms. This test decides most of the order on this page, and it is why the largest vendors in backup software often sit below the smaller ones.
05
Who the product is built for
The size and shape of company each backup software product was actually built for. Most regret in software comes from buying for a company you are not yet.
The fourth test decides most of the order on this page, and it is the reason the largest
backup software vendors sit below the smaller ones. A product with a published price, an export
that works and no mandatory implementation partner is a product you can leave.
A platform suite that arrives with a quote, a partner and a two-year commitment may well be
the better software and is still the harder decision to reverse. We rank backup software for the
buyer who has to live with that decision without a procurement department, which is a stated
bias rather than a hidden one.
We do not publish a score out of ten. A number like 8.4 is a judgement dressed as a
measurement, and nobody can check it.
What you can check is on this page: what each backup tool costs, where the vendor is
established, whether the price is published, and what we think it is bad at. Our full method
is on the how we work page.
Quoted per organisation; capacity or workload licensing
—
A large enterprise protecting a heterogeneous estate under one policy
A company with a dozen servers and a Microsoft 365 tenant
Country is where the vendor is headquartered or contracts from, which is a
different question from where your data is hosted. Where the two tell different stories, the
entry says so.
Unlimited personal backup, and cheap object storage
Ranked #1 of 14 in Best Backup Software in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
Backblaze's unlimited personal plan is the best value in backup, full stop, and B2 object storage costs a fraction of what the hyperscalers charge with no egress surprise for normal use.
The published hard-drive failure statistics say something about the company's culture. Restoring a large set is slow over the internet, so factor in the shipped-drive option for genuine disaster recovery.
What stands out
Flat unlimited plan
B2 object storage
Published hard-drive stats
Where it costs you
Restores of large sets are slow unless you pay for a shipped drive
Business features are thin
Right for
Someone who wants unlimited backup or very cheap object storage
Wrong for
An enterprise needing instant recovery
United StatesPer computer per year or per TB per month, published
If you already own a Synology NAS, Active Backup is genuinely free and genuinely capable: agents for servers, PCs, virtual machines and Microsoft 365, with fast local restores.
There is no licence to buy. Two limits matter: it ties you to Synology hardware, and a NAS in the same building as the systems it protects is not an offsite backup by any definition.
What stands out
No licence fee
Agent for servers and PCs
Local restore speed
Where it costs you
Ties you to Synology hardware
A NAS in the same building is not offsite
Right for
A company that already owns a Synology NAS
Wrong for
An organisation needing offsite by default
TaiwanFree with a Synology NAS; you pay for the box
NAKIVO covers most of what Veeam does for roughly a third of the licence cost and will run directly on a NAS rather than needing a dedicated server, which suits a smaller IT team with a constrained budget.
Throughput is good. It has fewer integrations, a smaller partner network, and less evidence of behaviour at very large scale.
What stands out
Low licence cost
Runs on a NAS
Good throughput
Where it costs you
Fewer integrations
Less proven at large scale
Right for
A budget-conscious IT team that wants Veeam-class features
Rewind covers the blind spot almost every company has: the Shopify store, the accounting ledger, the GitHub organisation and the ticketing system are not backed up by anyone unless you arrange it, and the platform's own protections are not backups.
Item-level restore works well. It is narrow by design and priced per service, so covering four systems means four subscriptions.
What stands out
Backs up SaaS data
Shopify and QuickBooks
Item-level restore
Where it costs you
Narrow by design
Priced per service
Right for
A business whose critical data lives in SaaS accounts
Encrypts before it leaves the machine and writes to any storage you already pay for, which makes it the honest choice for a small technical team. It is a community project: no support contract, and restores deserve testing before you rely on them.
What stands out
No licence cost
Client-side encryption
Any storage back end
Where it costs you
No support contract
Restores deserve testing before you rely on them
Right for
A small technical team that wants encrypted backup for free
A single binary that does encrypted, deduplicated backups
Ranked #6 of 14 in Best Backup Software in 2026.
Free tierOpen sourcePublished pricingEurope
restic does one thing extremely well: it takes a directory and puts an encrypted, deduplicated, verifiable snapshot into object storage, quickly, with a single binary and no dependencies. Engineers trust it and the restore path is genuinely reliable when it is exercised.
Everything around it is your responsibility — scheduling, retention policy, monitoring that the job ran, alerting when it did not, and rehearsing recovery. Organisations that skip those steps discover the gap at the worst possible time.
What stands out
Free
Encrypted and deduplicated
Any storage backend
Where it costs you
No interface, scheduler or reporting
No vendor and no support contract
Right for
An engineer backing up servers to object storage
Wrong for
A company that needs a console, alerts and someone to call
Incremental backup for virtual machines, open source
Ranked #7 of 14 in Best Backup Software in 2026.
Free tierOpen sourcePublished pricingEurope
Proxmox Backup Server is the companion to a virtualisation platform that a lot of European companies now run instead of VMware. Incremental snapshots, deduplication across the whole datastore, verification jobs and encrypted remote sync all work well, and the paid subscription buys support rather than functionality.
Its scope is the honest limitation: this protects virtual machines and containers. Endpoints, Microsoft 365 mailboxes and SaaS data need a different product, so most organisations end up running two.
What stands out
Open source
Deduplicated VM backup
Support subscription available
Where it costs you
Aimed at Proxmox and Linux virtualisation
Nothing for endpoints or SaaS data
Right for
A company running Proxmox or KVM that wants verified VM backups
Wrong for
A business that needs laptop and Microsoft 365 protection
AustriaFree to use; per-socket support subscriptions published
Windows backup sold as a perpetual licence, not a subscription
Ranked #8 of 14 in Best Backup Software in 2026.
Published pricingEurope
Iperius does a great deal from one Windows installation: file and image backup, SQL Server and Exchange, Hyper-V and ESXi, written to disk, NAS, tape, FTP or S3-compatible storage. The perpetual licence is the reason to shortlist it, because the cost does not recur every year.
The limits come with the design. It is Windows-first, the configuration screens carry every option at once, and the vendor is a small Italian company, so plan restores and support expectations accordingly.
What stands out
Perpetual licence
Windows-centric
Italian vendor
Where it costs you
Linux and macOS coverage is limited next to its Windows features
The dense interface makes a wrong setting easy to miss
Right for
Small Windows businesses wanting a backup licence they buy once
Wrong for
Mixed Linux and Mac estates or SaaS-heavy companies
MSP360 grew up serving managed service providers, and the model reflects it: buy licences per workload, then choose the storage yourself. That unbundling is the reason to consider it — object storage bought directly is far cheaper than the bundled capacity most vendors sell, and you keep the ability to move.
The trade is administration. Bucket policies, lifecycle rules, immutability settings and egress charges are yours to understand, and the console, while capable across servers, endpoints and Microsoft 365, is plainer than the commercial suites.
What stands out
Bring your own storage
Wide workload support
Published licence price
Where it costs you
You manage the storage account yourself
Console is functional rather than refined
Right for
An IT provider that wants to control where backups land
Wrong for
A company that wants one bill and no storage decisions
United StatesPer workload licence, published; storage billed separately
Polish backup platform covering servers, endpoints, Microsoft 365 and Git
Ranked #10 of 14 in Best Backup Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestEurope
Xopero ONE puts virtual machines, physical servers, endpoints, Microsoft 365 and Git repositories under one console, which is broader than most products in the mid-market. It still offers a perpetual licence while competitors phase them out, which helps a buyer who dislikes subscriptions.
Against it: prices come by quote, the channel is partners and managed service providers, and the product is less known outside Poland, so hiring someone who already runs it will take longer.
What stands out
Perpetual option
Microsoft 365 and Git
Central console
Where it costs you
Quoted pricing, often through a partner or MSP
Smaller reference base and community outside Poland
Right for
Mid-sized firms wanting one console for servers, laptops, Microsoft 365 and Git
Wrong for
Buyers who want a published price and a self-service purchase
Acronis puts backup and active anti-ransomware in one agent, which closes the gap where malware encrypts the backups before anyone notices the primary system is gone.
Bare-metal restore works. The agent is heavy compared with pure backup tools, and the product range is segmented in a way that makes working out which edition you need harder than it should be.
What stands out
Swiss company
Anti-ransomware built in
Bare-metal restore
Where it costs you
The agent is heavy
The product range is confusingly segmented
Right for
A company that wants backup and ransomware protection in one agent
The enterprise standard for virtual infrastructure
Ranked #12 of 14 in Best Backup Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestNorth America
Veeam is what serious IT departments run for virtual infrastructure, and instant recovery of a virtual machine works as well as the marketing claims — which is the moment you find out whether backup software was worth the money.
Immutable backup targets are supported. Licensing is complex enough to need a specialist, and the community edition stops well short of business requirements.
What stands out
Instant VM recovery
Immutable backups
Broad platform support
Where it costs you
Licensing is complex
The community edition stops short of business needs
Backs up things nothing else will touch, which is why it survives in banks and hospitals. Everything about it is heavy: the licensing, the console and the consultancy bill.
What stands out
Handles anything
Tape and cloud
Long track record
Where it costs you
Everything about it is heavy
Consultancy cost is part of the deal
Right for
A bank or hospital with an estate nobody can simplify
Enterprise data protection across everything a large estate holds
Ranked #14 of 14 in Best Backup Software in 2026.
Pricing on requestNorth America
Commvault is one of the few products that can genuinely claim to protect everything a large organisation runs: mainframe to laptop, Oracle to Microsoft 365, on-premise to three public clouds, with a single policy and retention model over the lot.
Enterprises with that spread buy it and keep it for a decade. It sits at the bottom here for the same reason it sits at the top of enterprise shortlists — the breadth comes with a licence you must negotiate, a console that rewards trained administrators, and an implementation that assumes a project team.
What stands out
Very broad coverage
Enterprise features
Partner-led delivery
Where it costs you
Complexity requires trained administrators
Quoted licensing that is hard to compare
Right for
A large enterprise protecting a heterogeneous estate under one policy
Wrong for
A company with a dozen servers and a Microsoft 365 tenant
United StatesQuoted per organisation; capacity or workload licensing
Backup software copies data and systems to a second location on a schedule, and restores them when the first location is gone, corrupted or encrypted. The differences that matter are rarely in the feature list, so this is
the order we would work through them.
01
Decide whether you need a published price
10 of the 14 tools here publish what they cost; the other 4 quote per organisation, which means a sales conversation before you can compare anything.
If you are buying without a procurement function, start with the ones that publish: Backblaze, Synology Active Backup, NAKIVO Backup & Replication, Rewind, Duplicati, restic, Proxmox Backup Server, Iperius Backup, MSP360 Backup, Acronis Cyber Protect.
02
Work out what the first ninety days cost in time
Licence cost is the number in the contract; setup effort is the number that surprises people. Ask every shortlisted vendor who does the configuration, how long it took the last customer of your size, and what happens if that person leaves halfway.
03
Check the exit before the entry
Ask for an export of your own data in a format you can open, and ask whether it is included or billed as a project. A vendor that hesitates here is telling you what renewal negotiations will feel like in three years.
04
Match the tool to the size you are, not the size you plan to be
Most regret in this category comes from buying for a headcount that never arrived. The entry-level products here are not worse; they are aimed at a different company.
05
Decide how much the jurisdiction matters
These 14 vendors are established in 8 countries across 3 regions (North America 7, Europe 6, Asia-Pacific 1). Where a vendor is established decides which government can compel access to what it holds, which is a different question from where the servers are. For most buyers that is a factor, not a veto.
06
Consider whether you want the source
3 of these are open source, which means you can host them yourself and read what they do with your data. That control is real, and so is the maintenance it hands you.
A backup you have not restored is not a backup
This is the whole category in one sentence. Every product here copies data; the one that matters is the one that puts it back under pressure, from a machine that no longer exists, at three in the morning.
The restore path is what you are buying and it is the thing almost nobody tests until they need it.
Restore a real file, a real folder and a whole machine during the trial.
Time the full restore. That number is your actual recovery objective.
Test a restore to different hardware, which is the scenario you will face.
Ransomware changed what backup has to survive
Modern ransomware looks for the backups first. The defences are immutability, so a backup cannot be altered or deleted for a fixed period, and separate credentials, so the account that runs the backup is not the account an attacker takes over.
Veeam, Acronis and NAKIVO sell immutability explicitly; a scripted copy to a network share has neither.
Ask whether backups can be made immutable and for how long.
Confirm the backup system uses its own credentials, not a domain administrator.
Check whether deletion requires a second approval or a delay.
Licence, storage and egress are three separate bills
MSP360 licenses the software and bills storage separately; Backblaze bundles both; the open source tools, restic, Duplicati and Proxmox Backup Server, cost nothing and leave the storage bill entirely to you. Egress is the one that ambushes people: some object storage charges to read data back, which is precisely the moment you cannot negotiate.
Price licence, storage and egress separately for a full restore.
Ask what a complete recovery would cost in egress fees.
Check whether backup data is compressed and deduplicated before it is stored.
The three-two-one rule and what people forget in it
Three copies, two media, one off-site remains the right shape, and the part that gets skipped is off-site. A NAS in the same building as the servers is a second copy, not a disaster recovery plan.
Synology Active Backup is excellent and on-site by nature, which makes it half of an answer rather than a whole one.
Confirm one copy is in a different building or region.
Check that SaaS data is covered too: a Microsoft 365 tenant is not backed up by Microsoft.
Write down the recovery point and recovery time you actually need, then test against them.
What goes wrong most often when buying backup software
Never testing a restore. It is the only test that matters and the one that gets postponed.
Keeping every copy in the same building, or reachable with the same credentials.
Forgetting SaaS. Mailboxes, files and repositories in someone else's cloud are your responsibility.
Budgeting for storage and not for the egress a full restore would cost.
07
Frequently asked questions
10 answers
What is the best backup software in 2026?
Backblaze leads our ranking of 14. The unlimited personal plan is the best value in backup, and B2 is a fifth of what the hyperscalers charge for object storage. Restores of large sets are slow unless you pay for a shipped drive.
How did you rank these backup tools?
On what separates products after the demo: how much setup the first ninety days take, what the price becomes once the modules a normal buyer needs are added, how your data comes back out, whether you can buy and leave it without a partner engagement, and who the product is genuinely for.
That fourth test is why the large platform suites usually sit lower here than their market share would suggest. Not on feature counts, and not on a score we invented.
Which backup tools publish their pricing?
10 of the 14, with the pricing model each one publishes:
Backblaze: Per computer per year or per TB per month, published.
Synology Active Backup: Free with a Synology NAS; you pay for the box.
NAKIVO Backup & Replication: Per workload per year, published.
Rewind: Per month by service, published.
Duplicati: Free and open source.
restic: Free open source.
Proxmox Backup Server: Free to use; per-socket support subscriptions published.
Iperius Backup: Perpetual licence per edition, published.
MSP360 Backup: Per workload licence, published; storage billed separately.
Acronis Cyber Protect: Per workload per year, published.
The other 4 quote per organisation.
Is there a free backup tool?
Synology Active Backup, Duplicati, restic, Proxmox Backup Server offer a free tier or a free self-hosted edition. Read what the free tier excludes before you plan around it.
Which backup tools are open source?
Duplicati, restic, Proxmox Backup Server. Open source means you can read what the product does with your data and run it yourself. It does not mean the hosted edition is free.
Where are these backup software vendors established?
In 8 countries across 3 regions: North America 7, Europe 6, Asia-Pacific 1.
Backblaze is established in the United States.
Synology Active Backup is established in Taiwan.
NAKIVO Backup & Replication is established in the United States.
Rewind is established in Canada.
Duplicati is established in Switzerland.
restic is established in Germany.
Proxmox Backup Server is established in Austria.
Iperius Backup is established in Italy.
MSP360 Backup is established in the United States.
Xopero ONE is established in Poland.
Acronis Cyber Protect is established in Switzerland.
Veeam is established in the United States.
Veritas NetBackup is established in the United States.
Commvault is established in the United States.
Establishment decides whose courts and whose disclosure laws apply, which is a separate question from where the data is hosted.
What should you use instead of Backblaze?
Synology Active Backup and NAKIVO Backup & Replication are the next two on this page.
Synology Active Backup is for a company that already owns a Synology NAS; NAKIVO Backup & Replication is for a budget-conscious IT team that wants Veeam-class features. All 14 are ranked here with what each one is bad at.
Who should not buy Backblaze?
An enterprise needing instant recovery. Restores of large sets are slow unless you pay for a shipped drive.
Do you get paid for these rankings?
Vendors can pay for visibility, which affects where and how prominently a product appears. It does not change a word of what the entry says about that product, including the criticism, and it cannot buy inclusion for something that does not belong in the category.
We take no commission when you click through to a vendor and we do not know whether you bought anything. The full arrangement is on our disclosure page.
How often is this backup software guide updated?
Whenever the facts move: a price change, an acquisition, a product that stops being maintained. The published and updated dates at the top of the page are real, and a review means someone went back to the vendor documentation rather than bumping a date.
These 14 products are the ones we judged worth ranking in backup software. If yours belongs here and is missing, tell us what it does and who it is for, and we will look at it. Inclusion is an editorial call and it is not for sale — but nobody gets considered for a list they were never put in front of.
People land on this page with a shortlist to make, not a browsing habit to feed. That is a narrower audience than a banner reaches and a far more decided one.
Written by us, about you
We describe the product in our own words, say who it suits and say who it does not. A vendor never writes the entry and never sees it before it goes up.
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Placement is separate, and disclosed
Where a product sits in the ranking can be paid for, and the notice above the list says so on every page. What the entry says about the product is not for sale at any price.
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