Backblaze Computer Backup Review: $9 a Month, One Computer, No Capacity Math

What $9 a month actually buys

The product is a subscription, not a storage allotment. Backblaze's page promises "Unlimited backup — every file, every size, no exceptions," and the license attaches to a computer, not to a quota: one subscription, one Mac or PC, and the external drives connected to it. The plan table on the same page puts it as "All user-generated data will be backed up from computers and connected external drives." There is no tier where a photo library or a video folder pushes you into a more expensive plan, because the pricing has no capacity axis at all.

The client is a native Mac or PC application — Backblaze makes a point of no Java and no middleware — and the company states that files are encrypted before they leave your computer. One condition applies to external drives: Backblaze's version-history documentation says a drive left disconnected for longer than 30 days is kept on its servers only when extended version history is on.

The flip side of per-computer licensing is arithmetic to do before signing up. Two computers cost $18 a month, three cost $27. Backblaze sells no family pool, so households with several machines pay per machine; the IDrive section below prices the pooled alternative.

Monthly, yearly, or two years: the billing math

Checked on 2026-09-26, the US pricing is $9 per month, $99 per year (shown on the page as $8.25 a month paid annually, "Save 8%"), or $189 for two years ($7.88 a month, flagged on the page as the best value). Backblaze's own FAQ does the comparison for you: paying annually saves $9 against monthly billing, and the two-year term saves $27.

Those savings are small, which is an argument for not overcommitting. The 15-day free trial requires no credit card, so the sensible sequence is to install it, let the first full backup finish, and only then decide between monthly and annual. The two-year term saves $9 over two annual renewals at $99 each.

One caution on price permanence: the current rates took effect on October 3, 2023, under a Backblaze announcement that described the change as a price increase. Treat $9 as a snapshot with a check date, not a constant, and note there is no retail channel — Backblaze sells this direct, so the price on Backblaze's own site is the only price.

Thirty days of versions, and what more costs

Version history is the setting that decides how far back a restore can reach. Backblaze's standard retention keeps changed and deleted versions for 30 days from the change, so a file deleted in September and missed in November is gone from the backup.

Extended Version History has two settings, and the first costs nothing: the One-Year option stretches retention to 365 days at no charge. It works only from the moment it is switched on — Backblaze's documentation says versions already cleared after 30 days do not come back — so it belongs in the first session after install. Forever, which keeps versions older than a year, is billed at $0.006 per GB per month on those older versions, so its cost scales with how much history you actually hold.

Put a number on Forever before switching it on. At $0.006 per GB, keeping 100 GB of year-old versions costs $0.60 a month, and 1 TB of them about $6 — two-thirds of the base subscription again.

Getting files back: the web cap and the mailed drive

Restores run three ways. The Backblaze app has had a built-in restore tool since version 9.0, for Macs on macOS 11 and later and PCs on Windows 7 and later, and the plan table lists its restores as unlimited. Through the web console, a ZIP download is capped at 500 GB per request, with up to 20 active at once. For a large recovery, Backblaze mails a USB hard drive of 1 to 8 TB, sized to the restore, and refunds the drive if you return it within 30 days of receiving it.

The mailed drive comes with conditions in Backblaze's documentation: preparation takes a business day or two per terabyte, return shipping is on you, and refunds are limited to five returned drives per account in any 12-month period. A restore larger than 8 TB is split across several drives. The documentation does not state the drive's price, which the order page shows at checkout.

How IDrive and Carbonite compare

IDrive Personal is the pooled alternative: its 5 TB plan covers one user across multiple computers. IDrive's pricing page, checked on 2026-09-26, lists it at $11.99 a month on monthly billing, or $9.99 a month billed annually, cut to $6.99 a month in the first year for new signups, with standard pricing from year two. A two-year term is $179.82 for new signups against a $239.76 list. The 10 TB tier is $14.99 a month billed annually ($10.49 in year one), and a free Basic tier holds 10 GB.

Carbonite Safe Basic is unlimited for one computer at $75.99 for the first year against a $95.99 list, and Carbonite states the offer is for new customers and not valid toward renewals. Basic covers the computer only. Plus, $78.99 for the first year against $131.99, adds one external hard drive, Webroot antivirus and automatic video backup; Prime, $96.99 against $161.99, adds courier delivery of recovered files, which the two lower tiers offer for an extra fee.

Set those against Backblaze's $99 a year for one computer and its attached drives. For a single machine, Carbonite Basic is $23 cheaper in the first year and $3 cheaper at list, but covers no external drive; the Carbonite tier that does, Plus, lists at $131.99. For two computers, Backblaze costs $198 a year, while IDrive's 5 TB plan covers both for $119.88 a year at its standard annual rate, as long as they fit in 5 TB. Month to month, Backblaze's $9 is $2.99 under IDrive's $11.99.

Skip it if your files live on more than one machine

The clearest case against it is device count. A desktop and a laptop cost $18 a month on Backblaze, where IDrive's single-user 5 TB plan covers both at $9.99 a month billed annually. Backblaze's plan table also describes its coverage as computers and connected external drives, so files that live only on a network drive or NAS box fall outside it.

The second reason is history. The default keeps 30 days of versions and the free setting extends that to a year; anything older is billed through Forever at $0.006 per GB per month.