{"slug":"backblaze-vs-carbonite","title":"Backblaze vs Carbonite","url":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/backblaze-vs-carbonite","faqCount":5,"faqs":[{"question":"Is Backblaze truly unlimited backup?","answer":"Yes — Backblaze Personal Backup is genuinely unlimited. No data cap, no per-GB pricing, no throttling after a threshold. It backs up all files on your internal hard drive(s) plus connected external drives (if they stay connected for at least 30 days — Backblaze's continuous connection rule). Common exclusions: OS system files, applications and executables, temp/cache files, and a short list of system folders — but all your personal data (photos, documents, videos, music) is included. The $99/year price covers one computer. For multiple computers, each needs its own Backblaze subscription. Backblaze is one of the very few cloud backup services that truly delivers on \"unlimited\" without hidden throttles."},{"question":"How long does Backblaze initial backup take?","answer":"Initial Backblaze backup time depends entirely on your data volume and upload speed. Rough estimates: 100GB on a 50 Mbps upload ≈ 5–6 hours; 500GB on 50 Mbps ≈ 1–2 days; 1TB on 50 Mbps ≈ 3–4 days; 5TB on 50 Mbps ≈ 2–3 weeks. Most home internet connections have asymmetric speeds — upload is typically much slower than download (a 500 Mbps download connection may only have 25 Mbps upload). Backblaze offers bandwidth throttling controls to prevent the backup from consuming all your upload bandwidth. After the initial backup completes, ongoing backups are incremental (only changed/new files) and run continuously in the background with negligible impact."},{"question":"Does Carbonite back up video files?","answer":"Not on the Basic plan. Carbonite Basic ($72/year) explicitly excludes video files. Video backup requires Carbonite Plus ($112/year) or Prime ($149/year). This is a significant limitation because most users' largest data footprint is video. By comparison, Backblaze Personal Backup ($99/year) includes video files with no restrictions. If you shoot video on your phone and import it to your computer, travel with a camera, or have any video collection, Backblaze is the better value at $99/year vs Carbonite Plus at $112/year — you get video plus better version history and private key encryption."},{"question":"Is online backup enough or do I need local backup too?","answer":"The \"3-2-1 backup rule\" is the gold standard: 3 copies of your data, on 2 different media types, with 1 offsite. Online backup (Backblaze/Carbonite) is your offsite copy — excellent for disaster recovery (fire, flood, theft), but slow to restore large datasets. You should also maintain local backup via an external hard drive with Time Machine (Mac) or File History/third-party software (Windows). Local backup restores in hours vs. potentially days for large cloud restores. For critical files (irreplaceable photos, business documents), use both: local backup for speed, cloud backup for disaster resilience. A $60/year cloud backup + a $80 external hard drive covers both scenarios."},{"question":"Does Backblaze back up external hard drives?","answer":"Yes — Backblaze Personal Backup automatically includes external hard drives (USB, FireWire) connected to your computer during backup runs, at no extra cost and within the same unlimited storage plan. This is a significant advantage over Carbonite, which does not back up external drives on its basic or Plus plans (only the Prime plan at $149.99/year adds external drive backup). Photographers and videographers with large external storage particularly benefit from Backblaze's external drive inclusion. The external drive must be connected when Backblaze runs — it doesn't back up drives that were connected in the past but are now disconnected."}],"faqPageSchema":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/backblaze-vs-carbonite#faq","url":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/backblaze-vs-carbonite","inLanguage":"en-US","name":"Backblaze vs Carbonite — FAQ","description":"Frequently asked questions about Backblaze vs Carbonite","dateModified":"2026-09-22T09:00:06.629Z","author":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.aversusb.net/#organization","name":"A Versus B"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.aversusb.net/#organization","name":"A Versus B"},"isPartOf":{"@type":"Article","@id":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/backblaze-vs-carbonite#article"},"license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","speakable":{"@type":"SpeakableSpecification","@id":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/backblaze-vs-carbonite#faq-speakable","cssSelector":[".faq-answer"]},"mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","@id":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/backblaze-vs-carbonite#q1","name":"Is Backblaze truly unlimited backup?","answerCount":1,"acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","@id":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/backblaze-vs-carbonite#a1","text":"Yes — Backblaze Personal Backup is genuinely unlimited. No data cap, no per-GB pricing, no throttling after a threshold. It backs up all files on your internal hard drive(s) plus connected external drives (if they stay connected for at least 30 days — Backblaze's continuous connection rule). Common exclusions: OS system files, applications and executables, temp/cache files, and a short list of system folders — but all your personal data (photos, documents, videos, music) is included. The $99/year price covers one computer. For multiple computers, each needs its own Backblaze subscription. Backblaze is one of the very few cloud backup services that truly delivers on \"unlimited\" without hidden throttles.","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/backblaze-vs-carbonite","upvoteCount":1,"author":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.aversusb.net/#organization","name":"A Versus B"}}},{"@type":"Question","@id":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/backblaze-vs-carbonite#q2","name":"How long does Backblaze initial backup take?","answerCount":1,"acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","@id":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/backblaze-vs-carbonite#a2","text":"Initial Backblaze backup time depends entirely on your data volume and upload speed. Rough estimates: 100GB on a 50 Mbps upload ≈ 5–6 hours; 500GB on 50 Mbps ≈ 1–2 days; 1TB on 50 Mbps ≈ 3–4 days; 5TB on 50 Mbps ≈ 2–3 weeks. Most home internet connections have asymmetric speeds — upload is typically much slower than download (a 500 Mbps download connection may only have 25 Mbps upload). Backblaze offers bandwidth throttling controls to prevent the backup from consuming all your upload bandwidth. After the initial backup completes, ongoing backups are incremental (only changed/new files) and run continuously in the background with negligible impact.","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/backblaze-vs-carbonite","upvoteCount":1,"author":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.aversusb.net/#organization","name":"A Versus B"}}},{"@type":"Question","@id":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/backblaze-vs-carbonite#q3","name":"Does Carbonite back up video files?","answerCount":1,"acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","@id":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/backblaze-vs-carbonite#a3","text":"Not on the Basic plan. Carbonite Basic ($72/year) explicitly excludes video files. Video backup requires Carbonite Plus ($112/year) or Prime ($149/year). This is a significant limitation because most users' largest data footprint is video. By comparison, Backblaze Personal Backup ($99/year) includes video files with no restrictions. If you shoot video on your phone and import it to your computer, travel with a camera, or have any video collection, Backblaze is the better value at $99/year vs Carbonite Plus at $112/year — you get video plus better version history and private key encryption.","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/backblaze-vs-carbonite","upvoteCount":1,"author":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.aversusb.net/#organization","name":"A Versus B"}}},{"@type":"Question","@id":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/backblaze-vs-carbonite#q4","name":"Is online backup enough or do I need local backup too?","answerCount":1,"acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","@id":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/backblaze-vs-carbonite#a4","text":"The \"3-2-1 backup rule\" is the gold standard: 3 copies of your data, on 2 different media types, with 1 offsite. Online backup (Backblaze/Carbonite) is your offsite copy — excellent for disaster recovery (fire, flood, theft), but slow to restore large datasets. You should also maintain local backup via an external hard drive with Time Machine (Mac) or File History/third-party software (Windows). Local backup restores in hours vs. potentially days for large cloud restores. For critical files (irreplaceable photos, business documents), use both: local backup for speed, cloud backup for disaster resilience. A $60/year cloud backup + a $80 external hard drive covers both scenarios.","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/backblaze-vs-carbonite","upvoteCount":1,"author":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.aversusb.net/#organization","name":"A Versus B"}}},{"@type":"Question","@id":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/backblaze-vs-carbonite#q5","name":"Does Backblaze back up external hard drives?","answerCount":1,"acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","@id":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/backblaze-vs-carbonite#a5","text":"Yes — Backblaze Personal Backup automatically includes external hard drives (USB, FireWire) connected to your computer during backup runs, at no extra cost and within the same unlimited storage plan. This is a significant advantage over Carbonite, which does not back up external drives on its basic or Plus plans (only the Prime plan at $149.99/year adds external drive backup). Photographers and videographers with large external storage particularly benefit from Backblaze's external drive inclusion. The external drive must be connected when Backblaze runs — it doesn't back up drives that were connected in the past but are now disconnected.","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://www.aversusb.net/compare/backblaze-vs-carbonite","upvoteCount":1,"author":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://www.aversusb.net/#organization","name":"A Versus B"}}}]}}