Online File Backup Services
Each of the services will allow you to backup the important files on your computer's hard drive, such as financial documents, emails, digital photos and music, and restore them if you experience any hard drive failure or lose your computer.

CARBONITE REVIEW:Go to Site | Back to Top

[Editor's Note: Carbonite has set up a 15% discount for NextAdvisor.com visitors. The discount doesn't require any special coupon or promo code. Simply click through to the Carbonite website, select your plan and click on the Buy Now button. Your 15% Carbonite discount will be reflected on the next page.]

Carbonite is an excellent service that should really apeal to the home user that is looking for an online backup service that they can configure once and forget about. It is the best pure online backup service we have reviewed for PC users because it requires very little, if any, ongoing maintenance. Subscribers simply need to install the software on their PC and walk through the basic configuration wizard. From that point on, Carbonite will run quietly in the background backing up all your important files. If any backed up files are lost, such as in the case of hard drive failure, then Carbonite subscribers can quickly and easily recover them using from any computer in a few simple steps. The down side is that Carbonite has no free storage option, limited remote file access options and no Mac support (note: Carbonite has been promising Mac support for some time and we anticipate that it should be available sometime in 2008). That being said, PC users that only need access to backed-up files when an actual loss has occurred will be extremely happy with this service. Additionally, at less than $4.00 per month with their two year plan and even deeper discounts if you choose the year plan, Carbonite is cheapest way to back up your important computer files. We strongly recommend the Carbonite online backup service.

MOZY REVIEW:Go to Site | Back to Top

Mozy is an excellent online backup service. With free use of 2GB of storage (unlimited storage space available when you upgrade to their monthly plan) and the ability to access those files from any computer at one low monthly price. At one point, Mozy was the only online backup service we had reviewed that provided support for Mac users. Now that ElephantDrive has launched their own service for Mac users that is no longer the case. However, Mozy did recently take its Mac service out of Beta which means that it is just as stable and effective as their PC service. Mozy was recently acquired by EMC, a large Fortune 500 corporation that provides industrial size storage services to other large corporations. From our perspective, if the storage services offered by Mozy and EMC are good enough to store large amounts of sensitive business data then they are definitely good enough to store the important files and documents of home users. The EMC acquisition also helps ensure that Mozy will be around for a very long time since they now have the backing of a multi-billion dollar corporation. Overall, we would highly recommend Mozy to most consumers looking for a file backup solution.

ELEPHANTDRIVE REVIEW:Go to Site | Back to Top

ElephantDrive uses Amazon web services to store their customers' data. While it may seem strange for an online storage company to outsource their online storage services, we actually see this as a big plus because ElephantDrive is a relatively new company. Given that they leverage Amazon's world class infrastructure, ElephantDrive customers should have no worries about the stability and security of their personal data. At $4.95 per month or $49.95 per month, ElephantDrive's basic Home plan is comparable in cost and features with Carbonite and Mozy. There is also a $9.95 per month or $99.95 Home Plus option that will cover up to 4 computers. The Home Plus option is actually a great value if you have 2 or more computers to backup since it is slightly cheaper then buying two subscriptions from other services and significantly cheaper than buying 3 or 4 subscriptions. ElephantDrive does place both maximum file size limits of 1GB (Home Plus users get a 2GB maximum file size upgrade) and maximum monthly file transfer of 100 GB on their service. This means that ElephantDrive users are limited in the size and number of files they can upload or recover from the service each month. That being said, these limits are pretty high and most users would not reach them even if they had lots of music, video or other files. Like Mozy, ElephantDrive offers a free trial that allows consumers to try out 1GB of free storage on the service (Mozy offers 2GB). We would encourage consumers to try out both services for free to determine which user interface and file backup process works best for their needs. ElephantDrive also offers an attractively priced business plan that, at $34.95 for 1TB of storage, should meet the needs of most small businesses. Overall, ElephantDrive is a very good service with a variety of options that should meet most consumer's needs.

BEINSYNC REVIEW:Go to Site | Back to Top

BeInSync is a solid, PC only download service which is similar in many ways to Mozy. However, BeInSync has much less storage available in their base plan and storage upgrades are pretty expensive (especially when you consider that Mozy and Carbonite offer unlimited storage). Like ElephantDrive, BeInSync outsources its storage to Amazon. We believe that most consumers would be better off with Carbonite or Mozy, but BeInSync does offer a 14 day free tria, so you can try the service risk free if you would like to experience it firsthand.

BOX.NET REVIEW:Go to Site | Back to Top

Box.net is not a true online backup service in that it doesn't provide automated backups the way Mozy, ElephantDrive, Carbonite and BeInSync do. Plus, Box.net has fairly meager storage limits compared to others. That being said, Box.net has excellent file access capabilities and the best collaboration tools we have seen. This is the best service for consumers that have a need to store and share some important files with others.