Carbonite Alternatives 2026: 5 Free Options
Carbonite alternatives: Backblaze, IDrive, restic, Duplicati and 2 more. Prices and licenses checked October 23, 2026.
•3 min read•Cloud Storage & Backup
Verdict:Leave Carbonite if the price of unlimited backup no longer fits, or if you want your data in storage you control. Basic costs $76.79 a year for one computer after a 20 percent discount, and the plans that add an external drive or video backup cost more. Backblaze is the nearest like-for-like product: one Personal plan at $99 a year for Mac and Windows with a free trial, so it costs more than Carbonite Basic but removes the tier choice. IDrive is the pick when you also back up Linux boxes or phones, and its free Basic plan holds 10 GB if you only need a small safety copy. The free route is Duplicati or restic with a storage account you pay for by usage. restic is faster and scriptable but has no graphical app; Duplicati has a browser interface, but you have to set up retention and test restores yourself. rclone and Syncthing solve different problems, copying and syncing rather than versioned backup, so use them for specific folders. The trade-off is effort against cost. A hosted plan restores with a few clicks, while self-run tools only protect you if you check that a restore actually works. Stay with Carbonite if you rely on its simple restore flow and it still costs less than your alternatives.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Backblaze | Paid from $99 per year (Personal Backup) | Windows, macOS | Flat-price Mac and Windows 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 | Mixed devices and a free trial tier | Docs only |
| restic | Free (free, open source) | Linux, macOS, Windows, FreeBSD, OpenBSD | Command-line users who own their storage | Docs only |
| Duplicati | Free (free client; proprietary folder under separate license) | Windows, macOS, Linux | A free graphical backup client | Docs only |
| rclone | Free (Free open source software) | Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD | Scripted copies to any cloud | Docs only |
| Syncthing | Free (Free; syncs directly between your own devices with no central server or hosted storage) | Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, OpenBSD | Free device-to-device copies | 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 one flat-price hosted backup for Mac and Windows (Backblaze is the pick)
- You back up Linux, phones and PCs from one account (IDrive is the pick)
- You want a free graphical backup client and your own cloud storage (Duplicati is the pick)
- You are comfortable with a command line and want encrypted, scriptable backups (restic is the pick)
Not ideal if
- You rely on Carbonite features or integrations that these tools do not replicate
Carbonite today: Paid from $6.4 per month, billed annually (Basic, 1 computer) (Carbonite pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Why people look for Carbonite alternatives
Carbonite's plans cover one computer each: Basic is $76.79 a year (list $95.99), while external drive backup and Webroot antivirus appear only on Plus ($85.79 a year) and Prime ($105.29). The advertised 20% to 35% discounts are for new customers and exclude renewals, and the page states no renewal price. Per-computer licensing means a household with several PCs pays for each one.
Backblaze
Compared with Carbonite: Backblaze lists one Personal plan at $99 a year for Mac and Windows, against Carbonite Basic at $76.79 a year after discount. You pay more but get a single flat plan instead of a tiered one.
Price: Paid from $99 per year (Personal Backup) (Backblaze pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Windows, macOS. Proprietary.
Best for: Flat-price Mac and Windows backup.
IDrive
Compared with Carbonite: IDrive has a free 10 GB Basic plan and also covers Linux and phones, which Carbonite's computer plans do not list. The 5 TB plan is $6.99 a month in year one, then standard pricing.
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: Mixed devices and a free trial tier.
Worth knowing: Discounted price applies to the first year; standard pricing applies from year two.
restic
Compared with Carbonite: restic is free open source backup with encryption, but you pick and pay for the storage and run it from the command line. You lose Carbonite's one-click app and gain control over where the data sits.
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: Command-line users who own their storage.
Worth knowing: Command-line, encrypted, deduplicated backups to local, SFTP, S3 and other storage.
Duplicati
Compared with Carbonite: Duplicati gives Carbonite-style scheduled backups through a free MIT-licensed client with a web interface, sending encrypted data to your own cloud account. No vendor storage is included, so you pay the storage provider.
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: A free graphical backup client.
Worth knowing: Encrypted incremental backups to cloud and file servers.
rclone
Compared with Carbonite: rclone copies and syncs files to over 70 cloud services at no cost. It is a transfer tool rather than a full backup product, so you lose Carbonite's automatic whole-computer backup and restore interface.
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: Scripted copies to any cloud.
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 Carbonite: Syncthing keeps folders in sync between your own devices with no hosted storage and no fee. Unlike Carbonite it is not a cloud backup, so nothing sits offsite unless one of your machines is elsewhere.
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: Free device-to-device copies.
Other popular options (paid)
pCloud
Compared with Carbonite: Sold as a lifetime purchase: $219 once for 500 GB Premium, $499 for 2 TB, against Carbonite's $76.79 a year for one computer. Apps for Windows, macOS, Linux and mobile; it is cloud storage, so check backup needs.
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 one flat-price hosted backup for Mac and Windows: Backblaze
- You back up Linux, phones and PCs from one account: IDrive
- You want a free graphical backup client and your own cloud storage: Duplicati
- You are comfortable with a command line and want encrypted, scriptable backups: restic
Limits of this review
Docs-only for Backblaze, 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 Carbonite. 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 2026-10-23: Carbonite, Backblaze, IDrive, restic, Duplicati, rclone, Syncthing, 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.