Crashplan is stopping. What are the alternatives?

Thursday 13 January 2022, 10:38 by Elja Trum | 8,426 views | 23 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Crashplan announced yesterday that it is stopping its Crashplan Home service. Many photographers used Crashplan's cloud backup service, including me. We now need to look for an alternative. Here are a few options.

You do not have to switch immediately, but your backup will stop when your current subscription expires. Personally, I do not want to wait for that and plan to switch to a new service in the near future.

Crashplan was a good and affordable way to make sure you had an external backup. In my view, your photos should always be stored in three places: on your computer, in a local backup location, such as a NAS drive or an external USB drive, and at an external location, such as online in the cloud with a service like Crashplan.

» More information about a good backup strategy.

Crashplan for Small Business

Crashplan itself is continuing as a service, but it is dropping its 'home' accounts. That is a shame, as this was a very affordable option. I used the family plan, which allowed you to back up up to 10 computers with an unlimited amount of storage.

As a Crashplan Home user, you can switch directly to the business version. You will not pay anything extra until the end of your current subscription. After that, you get a 75% discount for one year. After that, Crashplan for Small Business costs 10 dollars per month per device.

I currently use Crashplan to back up my work computer, my home computer, my laptop and my wife's computer. That makes Crashplan for business quite an expensive option, although it would be manageable to have an online backup of just my work and home computers.

» Crashplan for Small Business (switching)

Carbonite

As a second alternative, Crashplan offers the option to switch to Carbonite. This company has also been around for years, and you can get 50 per cent off when you switch. I assume this only applies to the first year.

Without the discount, Carbonite costs 60 dollars per year per computer for the basic subscription. The disadvantage of this option is that you cannot automatically back up video files. The 'plus' subscription costs 75 dollars per year, without the discount.

Carbonite also offers business options, but you pay extra for every 100 gigabytes of storage above the 250-gigabyte threshold. That makes this option unaffordable for photographers.

Backblaze

Backblaze is also a popular backup provider among photographers. Unlimited backup for 5 dollars per month per computer.

Backblaze welcome crashplan

One disadvantage of Backblaze, and also of Carbonite, is that a file deleted from your computer is also deleted from your backup after 30 days. That can be a problem if you accidentally deleted a file that you later find you still need.

» Backblaze

Cloud drive services

It is actually something different from a backup, but you could use it as one: cloud services such as Dropbox, iCloud, Google Drive, pCloud and Onedrive. Sometimes you get up to terabytes for free.

You need to pay attention to how deleted files are handled. The useful thing about a backup is that you can still find a file that was accidentally deleted. With cloud services, files are deleted from all your devices as soon as you delete them yourself.

Fortunately, most cloud services also offer the option of keeping a deleted file available. So check whether this is possible with a cloud service and for how long. This is also something to check with a backup provider!

If you want the convenience of Crashplan on your own cloud drive(s), you can use Arq Backup. This little programme, which costs 50 euros per computer as a one-off payment, uses your cloud drive accounts to store your backups, including different versions of your files. So you still need to have enough space on your cloud drive.

More information

Want to look into it in more depth?
Tweakers has an online backup topic where a huge number of services are compared.

What are you going to do?

For now, Backblaze appeals to me the most. I know it is a popular service among photographers, and with two computers it costs me 10 euros per month. I think that is a good price for a good online backup.

I am curious whether you have another good suggestion.
Let me know in the comments!

Dit artikel is voor het laatst bijgewerkt op 13 januari 2022.
De eerste publicatiedatum is woensdag 23 augustus 2017, 11:44.

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About the author

Elja Trum is the founder of Photofacts and online photography course website Photofacts Academy. He has been writing about photography since 2006. Elja is also the author of (Dutch) books on composition, black-and-white photography, flash photography and portrait photography.

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23 comments

ErikvanRosmalen wrote on Wednesday 23 August 2017 at 12:12 | reply
I recently started using Backblaze by chance. The initial upload takes a very long time, but otherwise it seems to work fine!
Translated from Dutch.

Patrick visser wrote on Wednesday 23 August 2017 at 12:48 | reply
Ceejay?

Uses the CrashPlan software, but has the servers in Amsterdam.
Translated from Dutch.

Elja Trum wrote on Wednesday 23 August 2017 at 13:06 | reply
Okay, I’ve made a provisional choice for myself. For the time being, I’m sticking with CrashPlan and switching to a business subscription.

My existing account gives me access at no extra cost until August 20, 2018. After that, I’ll pay 5 dollars per month for a year to back up 2 computers (home and office).

From August 21, 2019, I’ll pay 20 dollars per month. By then, I want to decide whether to continue with CrashPlan Business (which can be cancelled monthly) or switch to Backblaze (entirely or partially). And there will probably be other options by then as well.
Translated from Dutch.

Jan wrote on Wednesday 23 August 2017 at 13:50 | reply
I personally use iDrive for my backup. A personal subscription costs $70 per year (cheaper the first year) for 2TB and an unlimited number of devices. Besides PCs, you can also back up your smartphone and NAS with it.
Translated from Dutch.

bart wrote on Wednesday 23 August 2017 at 20:00 | reply
A few years ago I stopped using CrashPlan because from a certain volume onwards it kept getting slower and the software on the NAS kept crashing...
Translated from Dutch.

Jeroen wrote on Wednesday 23 August 2017 at 21:24 | reply
This might also be interesting : https://www.liveschijf.com
Translated from Dutch.

Christiaan wrote on Thursday 24 August 2017 at 10:25 | reply
My "strategy" is that I save everything in OneDrive. This is synchronized on both my PC and laptop. In addition, a daily data backup runs to an external drive. I use Acronis for this. This way my photos and videos are always on 2 systems, 1 external drive, and online in case "the house burns down".

OneDrive gives you 2TB of storage with an Office365 subscription and if you look around a bit you can get a license for around € 45,- per year. For the professional, 2TB will be far too little, but for most hobbyists I think it is more than enough.
Translated from Dutch.

Mark wrote on Monday 28 August 2017 at 13:57 | reply
I tried to switch my home to small business with the 75% discount for the first year. So this keeps getting stuck during the migration process and since then I've had a non-working account, so no backups and on top of that I keep getting emails saying I have to finish the process, because otherwise I lose all my data. Now a week ago and no response from the support department at code42... Very frustrating...

Crashplan remains the most interesting with unlimited version history...
Translated from Dutch.

Elja Trum wrote on Monday 28 August 2017 at 14:29 | reply
@Mark; I had the same problem with the transfer.
Contacted them via the chat function on their site (went fairly quickly) and it was resolved within five minutes.

In my case, the migration in the background had gone fine, but my payment (of 0 euros) hadn't come through properly. They gave me a direct link with which I could still do it. After that, he could convert it directly.
Translated from Dutch.

Mark wrote on Monday 28 August 2017 at 14:50 | reply
Hi Elja, thanks for the tip. Got it working again now, just need to get hold of that support for the discount. Thanks!
Translated from Dutch.

Herman E. Coster wrote on Monday 28 August 2017 at 21:29 | reply
As a Mac user, you can also turn to Mac-Up! That is a Dutch CrashPlan Business version where, as a consumer, you can still simply start a backup. http://www.mac-up.nl
Translated from Dutch.

guest wrote on Tuesday 29 August 2017 at 12:07 | reply
Dear people,

From experience I can recommend another backup solution to you. maybe not the cheapest but 100% Dutch and therefore also fully subject to Dutch legislation is KPN's backup solution. https://www.kpn.com/zakelijk/back-up.htm
This used to be an unlimited backup as well, but precisely because of all those users who made extremely large backups of films and such, it has also been limited. (otherwise there is no business model anymore)

Another is a cloud drive of 1Tb and free. and once again completely set up in the Netherlands and therefore Dutch legislation applies.
This one is called Stack. https://www.transip.nl/stack/
You can also link this to your own domain and share it.

I hope I have been able to give you a few more alternatives with this that might also offer a solution for some.

greetings and good luck.
Translated from Dutch.

Aart van Weelden wrote on Tuesday 29 August 2017 at 12:23 | reply
Read some tests about Backblaze:
https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2395755,00.asp
Especially Backblaze's transfer speed leaves much to be desired. The above article also refers to SOS Online Backup. Perhaps that is an alternative. In any case, more than 4 times as fast in terms of transfer.
Translated from Dutch.

Reijer van Galen wrote on Tuesday 29 August 2017 at 12:53 | reply
Just for the people who prefer to have their data stored in the Netherlands: via https://www.transip.nl/#wizard/menuwizard/stack/ you can request up to 1 TB of free storage capacity. It takes a while before you get a response, so be patient, but it works fine. You can synchronize folders there, and set it so that files can only be written and not deleted. There is also an option for more space (costs from € 10,- per month), but first ask yourself whether you shouldn't tidy things up.
Translated from Dutch.

Richard Wijnands wrote on Tuesday 29 August 2017 at 14:23 | reply
I use Google Drive.
Blazing fast when uploading!

I was able to upload 4 TB in 1 month. With CrashPlan, that would have taken about 8 months. And that's despite the fact that I can upload at a speed of 40 Mbit/s.

Files deleted on the PC are still kept in the cloud for 30 days.

Unlimited data usage and can be used on multiple PCs. It does cost € 40 per month.

I am super satisfied with Google Drive. And therefore also with Google Business.
Translated from Dutch.

Simon van der meer wrote on Tuesday 29 August 2017 at 15:16 | reply
Have a look at JottaCloud , I've been using it for 1 year now and it works very well, is fast and no problems.
Costs €75,- per year for unlimited storage and an unlimited number of computers ,tablets and phones and very user-friendly for photographers.
A breath of fresh air compared to previous Clouds I've used.
Translated from Dutch.

Mark wrote on Tuesday 29 August 2017 at 15:31 | reply
Hi Simon, how does JottaCloud handle keeping deleted versions of files?
Translated from Dutch.

Henk wrote on Tuesday 29 August 2017 at 19:44 | reply
The site says that 100 GB costs 12 dollars and 1 TB costs 60 dollars.
What am I not understanding about unlimited for 12 dollars? Am I missing something?
Henk
Translated from Dutch.

pele wrote on Wednesday 30 August 2017 at 12:25 | reply
Also strange, I haven't received any message from CrashPlan at all to date.
Been a member for 4 years already.
The difficult thing about CP is that they don't support headless backup (from a NAS to CP). It does work, however the QNAP community makes the client software for the NAS.
I would also prefer to switch to the SB option.
I will just have to find out whether headless backup is still possible or does someone already know that?
Translated from Dutch.

Elja Trum wrote on Wednesday 30 August 2017 at 16:06 | reply
@Pele; I back up my NAS drive to CrashPlan by mounting it as a drive on my PC. It's a bit of a workaround and the backup only runs when your PC is turned on too, but it works fine.
Translated from Dutch.

pele wrote on Wednesday 30 August 2017 at 21:51 | reply
That's right @Elja. That's another option as well, although it does put extra strain on your network.
I'll first switch my account to SB.
I still have a home subscription until July 2018 and then another year at 75% off is quite a nice option for now.
Thanks for the tip.
Translated from Dutch.

info@dekuijperfotografie. wrote on Saturday 9 September 2017 at 16:06 | reply
I use Stack from Trans IP. I have 1TB free here because my website is hosted here too. Storage is possible up to 10TB. And it is a Dutch cloud service with all servers also in the Netherlands. No American shenanigans or interference, no, safe in the Netherlands. 2TB costs €10 p/m and 10TB costs €50 p/m. RAID setup, WebDAV and Backup from 2TB as well.

Another possibility is to make a system at home yourself that you can access from outside. Actually, that is even better, because then you have everything under your own control.
Translated from Dutch.

liveschijf wrote on Tuesday 28 November 2017 at 13:49 | reply
A good alternative is LiveSchijf.com (https://www.liveschijf.com). Unlimited online backup offered by the Norwegian Jottacloud. Strict privacy, fast and secure. As a photographer, you'll be especially pleased with the online archive function and the handy photo app (timeline all your photos)
The fixed price is €75,- per year
Translated from Dutch.

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