Backblaze Alternatives 2026: 5 Free Options
Backblaze alternatives: Carbonite, IDrive, restic, Duplicati and 2 more. Prices and licenses checked October 25, 2026.
•4 min read•Cloud Storage & Backup
Verdict:Backblaze is simple, but a flat $99 a year for one computer is not the cheapest route if you can manage a little setup. Carbonite Basic is $76.79 a year after discount for one computer, so it undercuts Backblaze, although higher tiers cost more. IDrive has a free 10 GB plan for a small start and covers Linux and phones, which makes it the choice for a household with many devices; its low price applies to the first year. If the goal is to stop paying a vendor for storage, restic or Duplicati will write to any bucket, including Backblaze B2 itself, so you can leave the desktop product and still use the same storage. restic suits people who live in a terminal and want encryption and deduplication by default. Duplicati has a browser interface and is easier to start, though restores need testing. rclone and Syncthing are not backups in the strict sense; use rclone to copy folders and Syncthing to mirror between your own machines. The main trade-off is convenience against control. Backblaze installs once and backs up the whole computer, while the free tools make you choose retention and check restores. Stay if the set-and-forget behaviour matters more than saving a few dollars a month.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carbonite | Paid from $6.4 per month, billed annually (Basic, 1 computer) | Windows, macOS | Cheaper single-computer cloud backup | Docs only |
| IDrive | Free (Basic plan: 10 GB, no credit card required); paid from $6.99 per month, 5 TB Personal plan billed yearly (first-year price; $11.99 billed monthly) | Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android | Free tier and mixed device support | Docs only |
| restic | Free (free, open source) | Linux, macOS, Windows, FreeBSD, OpenBSD | Self-managed encrypted backup | Docs only |
| Duplicati | Free (free client; proprietary folder under separate license) | Windows, macOS, Linux | Free graphical backup to your own bucket | Docs only |
| rclone | Free (Free open source software) | Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD | Copying folders between clouds | Docs only |
| Syncthing | Free (Free; syncs directly between your own devices with no central server or hosted storage) | Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, OpenBSD | Keeping two of your own machines in step | Docs only |
| CrashPlan | Paid from $7.33 per user/month (small business endpoints; $88 per year) | Windows, macOS, Linux | Backup | Docs only |
| pCloud | Free; paid from $219 per one-time, Premium 500 GB lifetime plan (Premium Plus 2 TB lifetime is $499) | Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android | Cloud storage | Docs only |
Independent comparison. Paid placements are labelled separately; editorial links earn no affiliate commissions. Learn more.
Good fit if
- You want the cheapest hosted single-computer plan (Carbonite is the pick)
- You need Linux or phone backups in one account (IDrive is the pick)
- You want a free graphical client that can still use Backblaze B2 (Duplicati is the pick)
- You prefer a terminal tool with deduplication (restic is the pick)
Not ideal if
- You rely on Backblaze features or integrations that these tools do not replicate
Backblaze today: Paid from $99 per year (Personal Backup) (Backblaze pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Why people look for Backblaze alternatives
Backblaze Personal Backup is $99 per year, with monthly and two-year billing also offered, and the pricing page names native clients for Mac and Windows only, with no Linux client listed. Keeping file versions forever is a paid extra with no price listed. For Business, restores by mailed hard drive are free only if you return the drive within 30 days, and web restores are zipped in parts of up to 500 GB per request.
Carbonite
Compared with Backblaze: Carbonite Basic is $76.79 a year for one computer versus Backblaze at $99, so it is cheaper on paper. It limits Basic to one computer, and extra features sit in higher plans.
Price: Paid from $6.4 per month, billed annually (Basic, 1 computer) (Carbonite pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Windows, macOS. Proprietary.
Best for: Cheaper single-computer cloud backup.
IDrive
Compared with Backblaze: IDrive has a free 10 GB Basic plan, which Backblaze does not, and backs up Linux and mobile devices as well. Its 5 TB plan starts at $6.99 a month for the first year only.
Price: Free (Basic plan: 10 GB, no credit card required); paid from $6.99 per month, 5 TB Personal plan billed yearly (first-year price; $11.99 billed monthly) (IDrive pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android. Proprietary.
Best for: Free tier and mixed device support.
Worth knowing: Discounted price applies to the first year; standard pricing applies from year two.
restic
Compared with Backblaze: restic is free BSD-licensed backup software that can write to Backblaze B2 or any other storage. You lose the Backblaze desktop app and restore website, and gain deduplication and your own choice of storage.
Price: Free (free, open source) (restic pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Linux, macOS, Windows, FreeBSD, OpenBSD. BSD-2-Clause (open source).
Project activity: 36.8k GitHub stars · latest release v0.19.1 (Jul 5, 2026) · last commit Oct 18, 2026
Best for: Self-managed encrypted backup.
Worth knowing: Command-line, encrypted, deduplicated backups to local, SFTP, S3 and other storage.
Duplicati
Compared with Backblaze: Duplicati is a free MIT-licensed client with a browser interface that can back up to Backblaze B2 and many other targets. It adds setup work compared with the Backblaze app, but costs only storage.
Price: Free (free client; proprietary folder under separate license) (Duplicati pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Windows, macOS, Linux. MIT (core) (open source).
Project activity: 15.2k GitHub stars · latest release v2.4.0.1_stable_2026-10-07 (Oct 7, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Free graphical backup to your own bucket.
Worth knowing: Encrypted incremental backups to cloud and file servers.
rclone
Compared with Backblaze: rclone moves files to over 70 cloud services for free and can mount remote storage as a disk. It does not schedule full-computer backups on its own, so it replaces only part of what Backblaze does.
Price: Free (Free open source software) (rclone pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD. MIT (open source).
Project activity: 60.6k GitHub stars · latest release v1.75.2 (Oct 9, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Copying folders between clouds.
Worth knowing: Command-line tool for over 70 cloud storage products; can mount storage as a disk and serve over SFTP, HTTP, WebDAV and FTP. Web GUI is experimental.
Syncthing
Compared with Backblaze: Syncthing syncs folders directly between your devices with no hosted storage, which is free but gives no offsite copy by itself. Backblaze keeps your data off your machines; Syncthing keeps it only on yours.
Price: Free (Free; syncs directly between your own devices with no central server or hosted storage) (Syncthing pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, OpenBSD. MPL-2.0 (open source).
Project activity: 89.8k GitHub stars · latest release v2.1.7 (Oct 21, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Keeping two of your own machines in step.
Other popular options (paid)
CrashPlan
Compared with Backblaze: Small-business endpoint backup is $7.33 per user per month or $88 a year, with 50 GB pooled storage and a 14-day trial. Backblaze Personal Backup is $99 a year; CrashPlan is sold per user to organizations under 250 employees.
Price: Paid from $7.33 per user/month (small business endpoints; $88 per year) (CrashPlan pricing, checked 2026-10-25).
pCloud
Compared with Backblaze: Lifetime Premium 500 GB is a one-time $219 and Premium Plus 2 TB is $499, where Backblaze Personal Backup is $99 every year. You pay once instead of renewing, and pCloud has a free tier.
Price: Free; paid from $219 per one-time, Premium 500 GB lifetime plan (Premium Plus 2 TB lifetime is $499) (pCloud pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Which one to pick
- You want the cheapest hosted single-computer plan: Carbonite
- You need Linux or phone backups in one account: IDrive
- You want a free graphical client that can still use Backblaze B2: Duplicati
- You prefer a terminal tool with deduplication: restic
Limits of this review
Docs-only for Carbonite, IDrive, restic, Duplicati, rclone, Syncthing: we did not install or run them, so feature claims come from vendor pages and we did not test import from Backblaze. Vendor prices and free limits change; confirm on the linked pricing page before you buy or migrate.
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Kevin Fan
Kevin Fan is a SaaS founder. He runs Free Instead Of, which tracks free and open-source alternatives to paid software and checks each price and free-plan limit against the vendor's own pages.
Methodology
Based on official pricing and product pages checked between 2026-10-22 and 2026-10-25: Backblaze, Carbonite, IDrive, restic, Duplicati, rclone, Syncthing, CrashPlan, pCloud. Prices, free limits and licenses are the figures shown on those pages on those dates. No tool on this page was installed or run. No accounts were created.