The cheapest simple way to back up a whole computer to the cloud, with clear pricing and a 30-day refund, but thin support when a restore goes wrong.
By Brand Verdicts research deskLast updated October 2026Security & privacy
B−
7.4/10
Quality7.6
Value8.5
Service5.0
Policies6.6
Transparency7.7
CONSIDER
Score sheet
Why B−: Unlimited backup at a low, published price with an unusually open company behind it, held back by email-only support, mixed restore reports and a weak Trustpilot record.
Criterion
Score /10
Weight
Product quality
7.6
30%
Value
8.5
25%
Customer service
5.0
15%
Returns & policies
6.6
15%
Transparency
7.7
15%
Overall
7.4
derived
Overall is the weighted mean of the five rows, adjusted by a small slug-seeded offset so that brands never line up in a false staircase, and capped at 9.8. Full working on the Methodology page (v2.1).
Findings in brief
Personal Backup costs $9 a month, $99 a year or $189 for two years per computer, with unlimited data and no file-size limits.
Default version history is 30 days; one-year retention is now free to enable, and Forever retention costs $0.006 per GB a month for files older than a year.
One- and two-year plans can be refunded in full within 30 days of subscribing. Monthly plans get no refunds, and renewals bill automatically at the then-current list price.
Support is a ticket form and email address; the contact page lists a phone number but says it is not for customer support.
Trustpilot sits at 1.9 'Poor' from a small sample, with complaints about restores, renewals and slow replies, and Backblaze does not answer negative reviews there.
What Backblaze sells
Backblaze is a publicly traded US company (Nasdaq: BLZE), started by seven co-founders around 2007 and still run by co-founder Gleb Budman. It sells two things. Computer Backup is a set-and-forget client for Mac and Windows that uploads everything user-generated on the computer and attached external drives, with a flat price per machine and no storage cap. B2 Cloud Storage is S3-compatible object storage priced per terabyte, sold to developers, IT teams and, increasingly, AI and cloud providers. The company says it manages around six exabytes of data for more than 500,000 customers in 175 countries. Business Backup adds an admin console and deployment tools, and Enterprise Control adds legal hold and single sign-on. It suits households and small offices that want an offsite copy of everything without choosing folders.
Item verdicts
6 items. Each chip is a per-product call and can differ from the brand verdict.
Personal Backup BUY
The core product: one computer, unlimited data including attached external drives, and no limit on file type or size. It lists at $9 a month, $99 a year, or $189 for two years, per computer, after a 15-day trial that needs no card. Restores come by web download (zip files up to 500GB per request), the mobile apps, a restore app or a mailed USB drive. The default 30-day version history is the main catch for anyone who notices a deleted file late, so switch on the free one-year option on day one. Recent reviews single out the macOS client.
StrengthUnlimited backup at a flat, published per-computer price
Weakness30-day history by default; one-year must be switched on
The same client managed centrally, at $99 a year per computer, with one-year version history included rather than optional. Admins get a console for backups, restores and retention, silent installs, group controls, and deployment through Jamf, Kandji, Addigy and Intune. For a small office this is about as cheap as managed endpoint backup gets, and the per-machine price makes budgeting easy. It is a backup of files, not an image of the whole system, so rebuilding a laptop still means reinstalling the operating system and applications before restoring data.
StrengthCentral management and one-year history at the personal price
The top tier of Computer Backup, sold on a custom quote with no price published. It adds legal hold for compliance and investigations, OpenID Connect single sign-on, restricted restore permissions, backup lockdown controls and advanced support. Those are the features larger IT and legal teams ask for, and their absence from Business is the right split. The desk marks it CONSIDER only because there is no public price to judge and the advanced support is not described in any detail on the pages read. Ask for response-time commitments in writing before signing.
StrengthLegal hold, SSO and restore lockdown for regulated teams
WeaknessNo published price; support terms undefined in public pages
An add-on to Computer Backup that keeps old versions and deleted files indefinitely. Backblaze charges $0.006 per GB a month, and only for files older than one year, so the first year costs nothing extra. For a photographer or anyone with a large archive that rarely changes, the bill grows slowly and the protection against late-discovered deletions is real. For a laptop with heavily edited files, the cost is harder to predict, because every retained version counts. Set it per computer on the Overview page, and check the monthly charge after the first year.
StrengthProtects against deletions you notice months later
WeaknessCost grows with retained versions and is hard to forecast
For a large restore, Backblaze will ship your backup on an encrypted USB drive, and the product page says the charge is refunded if you mail the drive back within 30 days. For anyone restoring hundreds of gigabytes over a slow home connection, that is the sensible option, and few consumer rivals offer it. The pages read do not state the up-front fee, so expect to pay it first and claim it back. The 30-day return clock matters: copy the data off promptly, and keep tracking on the return parcel.
StrengthFast full restore without a long download
WeaknessFee charged up front; refund depends on a 30-day return
S3-compatible object storage at $6.95 per TB per month on pay-as-you-go, billed by the byte-hour, with the first 10GB free. Egress is free up to three times your average monthly stored data, then $0.01 per GB, and free without limit through partners including Cloudflare, Fastly and bunny.net. There are no minimum file-size or minimum storage-duration fees, which removes the most common surprise on rivals’ bills. Most API calls are free. Premium support is a paid add-on, so standard B2 customers get the same ticket-based help as backup users.
StrengthLow, simple per-TB price with no minimum retention fees
Digital service; restore drives ship worldwide, fee refunded if returned within 30 days
Returns
Full refund within 30 days on 1- and 2-year plans; no refunds on monthly
Warranty / guarantee
Not stated; Terms say all payments are non-refundable unless otherwise noted
Support
Ticket form and helpme@backblaze.com email; listed phone number is not for support
Payment options
Card billed automatically each period; B2 commitments billed at contract start
Subscription / cancellation
Auto-renews at the then-current list price; email reminder before annual renewals
Values are short phrases taken from the brand's own pages at the time of the last update. "Not stated" means the desk could not find the policy in writing.
Watch-outs
Renewal is automatic at the then-current list price, not the price you first paid, and monthly plans are never refunded.
Version history defaults to 30 days, so a file deleted and noticed later is gone unless you turned on the free one-year option.
Trustpilot reviewers describe backups missing files, incomplete restores and automated email replies; Backblaze does not respond to negative reviews there.
There is no phone or live chat support for customers; everything runs through a ticket queue or email.
Sentiment from reviews
Backblaze’s Trustpilot profile reads 1.9 'Poor' at the time of reading, from a small pool of reviews relative to its customer count, and the profile notes that Backblaze does not reply to negative reviews. The complaints that recur are the serious kind for a backup company: files that never appeared in the backup, restores that failed or came back incomplete, and support emails that drew only an automated reply. Others describe a two-year plan renewing without a refund and the macOS client showing a fully backed-up status while still uploading.
The positive reviews are quieter and longer-term. Several describe years of unattended backups and at least one real recovery, and one calls it a reliable layer of protection, though not a complete one, which is a fair summary. Keep a local backup as well.
Rivals worth a look
IDrive
Pick this if you want several computers and phones covered under one plan with a fixed storage allowance.
Arq
Pick this if you want to choose your own storage and keep the encryption keys entirely under your control.
Wasabi
Pick this if you need object storage with egress included and can live with minimum storage-duration rules.
The verdict
Backblaze is the right default for a household that wants every file on a computer copied offsite for a low, published price, and B2 is one of the more honest storage price lists around. The weaker side is what happens when something goes wrong: email-only support, no live help during a restore, and a review record that shows restores do sometimes fail. Turn on one-year history, test a restore early and keep a local copy. Verdict: CONSIDER.
Read backblaze.com Computer Backup pricing, Personal and Business pages in October 2026 for plan prices, trial and restore options.
Read the Extended Version History page and the B2 Cloud Storage pricing page in October 2026 for retention and storage costs.
Read Backblaze’s Terms of Service (effective April 2026) and the Payments and Refunds page for refund and renewal wording.
Read the Backblaze contact and about pages in October 2026 for support channels and company facts.
Read the Trustpilot profile for backblaze.com, most recent reviews first, in October 2026.
Desk research only: the brand's own site and support pages plus published customer reviews. Nothing was purchased or tested by this site. Scored under Methodology v2.1.
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