I was recently looking at online backup solutions for a new laptop I purchased. I have Carbonite on my main desktop and have been quite happy with it. So why switch? We’ll I’m always on the lookout for something new and I’m been seeing a “slowdown” in backups with Carbonite so I wanted to compare and see if it’s their software or just my internet.
So I found spideroak doing some quick searches on bing and it looked reasonable to try as they offer 2Gb of backup for FREE. I currently have about 300 Gb backed up on Carbonite but, 2Gb would be a good start for my laptop. In looking at spideroak it’s actually a lot more than just an online backup solution. They also have a sync to keep data in sync across all your computers and online sharing of folders that you select. I didn’t try the sync but, it looks straightforward to setup. I’m currently using LiveMesh from Microsoft to sync my computers and didn’t want to mess that up. The online sharing actually works really well. You create a secure ShareId and then you can create “rooms” for collections of folders you want to share. The rooms also have a password so when you share the website with someone they will also need the password to access the files. Pretty slick and the website to download from is very clean and easy to use.
Another nice feature of spideroak is you can use the same account across all your computers and pay one price. Carbonite requires a separate license for each computer. Spideroak however does not offer unlimited backup storage but, increments of 100Gb. The pricing for 100Gb is on par with Carbonite but, it you have significantly greater storage requirements Carbonite may be cheaper for you. The interface to setup your backup is clean and easy to use. Where with Carbonite you can right click a folder in explorer to add to a backup with spideroak this is all done with their application. I can see the advantages of both but, my preference is they way Carbonite does it.
All in all if you need backup, syncing and sharing of your files spideroak is a solid contender. Is it better than Carbonite? That’s for you to decide.
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