CrashPlan for Home Users is Shutting Down, What Now?
CrashPlan, the backup service from Code42, announced it will no longer support Home subscriptions. Here’s a look at alternatives.
CrashPlan, the cloud-based backup service developed by Code42, recently announced that it will no longer support Home subscriptions and will instead move its focus to small businesses and enterprises. This was our favorite backup service for home users to get secure, automatic, and continuous backup to the cloud. Unfortunately, this leaves existing users in a bit of a pickle. Here’s a look at other secure cloud-based backup solutions available. And we’ll cover what Code42 is doing to allow you time to make a transition to a new backup service.
In a statement to its existing CrashPlan for Home subscribers the company says the following:
Effective August 22, 2017, Code42 will no longer offer new – or renew – CrashPlan for Home subscriptions, and we will begin to sunset the product over several months. CrashPlan for Home will no longer be available for use starting October 23, 2018. At Code42, protecting your data is important to us. As we shift our business strategy to focus exclusively on enterprise and small business segments, you have two great options to continue getting the best backup solution.
We will honor your existing CrashPlan for Home subscription, keeping your data safe, as always. To allow you time to transition to a new backup solution, we’ve extended your subscription (at no cost to you) by 60 days. We are committed to providing you with the easiest and most efficient transition possible.
Options for Moving from CrashPlan for Home
This is going to be a pain if you’ve been using CrashPlan as part of your data backup strategy for years. You do have various options, though. Here is a look at the pros and cons of each one.
Backblaze.
While Code42 is pointing its users to Carbonite, there are plenty of other services on the market to consider. Out of the popular, trusted cloud-based backup services, Backblaze is the most affordable compared to other services. Unlimited backup for Mac or PC starts at just $5/month. Or, you can save 10 bucks by purchasing a full year for $50 and save $25 by purchasing a two-year subscription for $95. Plus, Backblaze doesn’t charge extra to back up an external USB drive as Carbonite does. Backblaze offers a 15-day free trial and no credit card is required. Backblaze offers mobile apps for iPhone and Android, too.
Just because it’s more affordable doesn’t mean it skimps on features or security. Backblaze boasts that it stores over 350 Petabytes of data, has restored over 20 billion files, and has customers in over 120 countries around the world. It keeps your data secure with what the company calls “Invisible Encryption”. Files are encrypted before they leave your computer, transferred over a secure SSL connection to the Backblaze data center, and your data is stored on an encrypted disk. It also provides two-factor authentication which adds an extra layer of security when you sign in to access your data.
ElephandDrive
ElephantDrive provides ordinary people with the type of robust backup, storage, and data management that has historically only been available to big corporations. Secure data backup with easy access – available on all of your devices. The platform supports Windows, macOS, Linux, Mobile (iOS & Android), and even Network Attached Storage (NAS). The service includes plans for both Home, Business, and the Enterprise — starting at $10, $20, or $30 for the first 1,000 GB (depending on which plan you choose).
We’ll be taking a deeper dive into each of these cloud-based backup services over the coming weeks. But this should give you an idea of what to look for and figure out what will work best for your situation. Right now, we are leaning toward Backblaze as our recommended service. To get a general idea of how Backblaze works, read our article: Backblaze is a Straightforward Online Backup Solution. That article was written a few years back, but I will take a fresh look at where the service is now, so expect an updated article about it, and other backup solutions soon.
14 Comments
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Dr Paul Hendley
August 28, 2017 at 10:10 am
I am tending to think I will default to Crashplan for small business. One of the issues I will be interestied in that is certainly coloring my thinking is the time it wil take to “start again” with a new service. so can you over the upload/download speeds for each of the services you look at – and whether any encryption slows things down.
thanks
Dr Paul Hendley
Allan Levy
August 28, 2017 at 10:49 am
Mozy, when it was bought by EMC stopped caring about home users. Crashplan probably is getting a kickback from Carbonite. Still looking for a new backup system.
Ron Lund
August 28, 2017 at 10:55 am
I’ve been using Crashplan to back up a couple of my laptops to an old desktop type hard drive that I had laying around. It seems to work just dandy this way and as far as I understand I can keep doing this without any interruption even though Crashplan in the cloud is ending. So……I’m still happy.
Colin Sewell
August 28, 2017 at 11:04 pm
Once CrashPlan Home stops working, so do all the backups, including backup to a local hard drive since a CrashPlan Home account is need for that. Not only that, restores stop working too, including restores from local hard drives. So all your backups through CrashPlan Home are gone and irretrievable.
Kevin G
August 31, 2017 at 9:01 am
Thank you, Colin. The “cloud” is great…until it’s not. Give us your money, or your data is history! Another good reason to have a local backup in another format.
Colin Sewell
August 31, 2017 at 9:17 am
I was actually using the free version on several laptops as a replacement for Microsoft File History without storing anything in the cloud, just on my home server. It was faster, deduplication reduced the size of the backups considerably, the options on how long to keep versions highly configurable, finding a file was simple and fast (one of the more important features of a backup program to me), and the restore options were easy. I have not found another backup program with these features, cloud enabled or not. I just can’t afford to pay the $10 / month fee for all those laptops. I wish CP for SB only charged for cloud storage.
Kevin G
August 31, 2017 at 9:52 am
Agreed. Without those features, it’s no longer a crash plan, but just another online backup.
Chris Clark
August 29, 2017 at 2:16 am
Crashplan for Small Business seems to be the only one to go with for me. The only two times I’ve had to restore files they have been previous versions of files. I don’t belive any of the other products support unlimited multiple versions of files which has to be the best feature of the Crashplan product.
The only problem is they don’t seem to be able to complete the migration from Home to SB and support aren’t answering tickets, which is very disappointing.
Kevin G
August 29, 2017 at 12:49 pm
Any word on whether the Crashplan Plus software to backup to another computer will keep working?
The notification I received today suggests there are 2 options: pay twice as much to keep your data with Crashplan or suffer a move to Carbonite. That sounds like a shake down, even with a promise of reduced cost for a year. It’s especially painful to those of us on the Family plan, but possibly less so if we can backup from other systems to the one being backed up.
Colin Sewell
August 31, 2017 at 8:56 am
After many tries trying to get a straight answer out of them to just this question, since the description seems to indicate backup to a local folder is free. I signed up for a trial account of CP for SB under a different email address just to try this out. I had CP for H installed on a server that backed up locally and to the cloud. I also had the free version on several laptops that just backed up to a drive on the server, but not the cloud. The answer is no. There is no computer to computer backup, only backup to the cloud and a folder on a hard drive (although you can fool CP into thinking the folder is local when it is actually on a shared network drive, so that’s sort of like computer to computer).
The only way to use CP for SB on a PC is to register the PC. Once registered, you will eventually be paying $10 / month for it. It doesn’t matter if you back up to a local folder and not the cloud, you still pay the monthly fee for each registered PC.
If you have several PCs / laptops on the Family Plan and choose to migrate them all, you will be charged (eventually, once the discount expires) $10 / month each.
Kevin G
August 31, 2017 at 9:11 am
Thank you again for this detailed info and for testing it. For those of us on the family plan, the cost grows significantly and functionality is reduced. This doesn’t just hurt CP, but other online backup alternatives, too, since the same thing could happen there. Caveat emptor…
Dave
August 30, 2017 at 5:04 am
I’ve been using BackBlaze for a few years now, and had no trouble with them – it’s pretty much set-&-forget, and their support is very good. I like their transparency – they’ve open-sourced their hardware and software developments and give full details of their operation.
There’s a concern with security when restoring the encrypted data they store – as I understand it, they decrypt it to their restore servers using your key – so although you can enable 2-factor authentication to access your account, still means that your key is sent to them, and your unencrypted data comes back… If you’re really worried about your data security, you could use something like TrueCrypt to keep your data encrypted your local drives.
The other, minor, issue I’ve found is that on changing to a new PC or reinstalling Windows, you have to transfer to (or ‘inherit’) the BackBlaze configuration & data from the old system, which isn’t always as smooth as it could be.
Dave
August 30, 2017 at 5:08 am
I see TrueCrypt is now discontinued, so for Windows users, the included BitLocker encryption would be the solution for full local encryption, to give totally secure backup.
Peter
August 30, 2017 at 4:25 pm
Good article. I do not think this is great support from CrashpPan. I have just returned from a 3 week trip to Europe. Just 11 days into that trip I received the following email from CrashPlan:
“Connect this computer to the CrashPlan Central destination soon. If it remains inactive, its data will be removed according to our backup retention policy”
Huh? my computer is at home 6,000 miles away. I cannot imagine a backup service that would willfully delete backups
I got home to find CrashPlan are dropping home support altogether so no big surprise. We use SpiderOak at work and I’ve never had a problem with it and they have never threatened to delete my backups so I intend to use that at home going forward.