Backblaze vs IDrive vs Acronis: 2026 Backup Compared

Choosing a cloud backup service in 2026 is less about finding “enough storage” and more about figuring out which trade-off you can live with. Backblaze, IDrive, and Acronis True Image 2026 all protect your files from drive failure, theft, and ransomware, but they solve the problem in three very different ways, and the price gap between them can run into hundreds of dollars a year once you account for Australian billing conversions. This comparison breaks down the pricing, the restore options, the security features, and the real-world scenarios where each one wins, using current 2026 product data so you’re not basing a decision on specs that changed two years ago.

The short version: Backblaze is the cheapest way to get unlimited backup for a single computer, IDrive is the best value if you have a household full of devices, and Acronis is the only one of the three that bundles antivirus and ransomware defence into the backup client itself. Everything below explains why, with pricing tables, feature breakdowns, and migration steps for anyone switching providers in late 2026.

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How We Compared These Three Services

Rather than inventing a single “winner” score, this comparison weighs five factors that actually change the buying decision: published 2026 pricing on each provider’s own site, storage and device limits as stated in current plan documentation, security features confirmed on official product pages, restore options and their published costs, and qualitative speed and ease-of-use findings from named, currently-live reviews at TechRadar, Tom’s Guide, and Cloudwards. Where a review didn’t publish a specific measured number, that’s noted rather than filled in with an estimate, because a backup service is exactly the kind of purchase where a fabricated benchmark can lead someone to trust the wrong tool with their only copy of irreplaceable files.

Australian dollar figures throughout this article are approximate conversions from the providers’ US dollar list prices, since all three companies bill primarily in USD. Actual checkout prices will vary slightly with the exchange rate on the day you subscribe, and may also be affected by GST depending on how the provider structures its invoicing for Australian customers. Where a provider offers a lower introductory rate that increases at renewal, both figures are shown separately rather than only quoting the cheaper headline number.

Why Cloud Backup Still Matters in 2026

Ransomware attacks that target backup repositories specifically have become routine, and that has pushed the three major consumer vendors to compete less on raw storage price and more on how quickly you can recover after an attack. The Australian cloud backup market was valued at roughly US$251 million in 2025 and is projected to reach US$333 million by 2032, a compound annual growth rate of about 6.5%, according to IMARC Group’s Australia cloud backup market research. That growth is being driven by small businesses and households that got burned once and decided a NAS drive in the garage wasn’t going to cut it anymore.

Separately, general cloud storage and file hosting (Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, iCloud-style sync tools) still make up the bulk of consumer spending, but dedicated backup services like Backblaze, IDrive, and Acronis occupy a different lane: continuous, automatic, whole-computer protection rather than a synced folder you have to remember to update. That distinction matters more than most buying guides admit, and it’s the first thing to get straight before comparing prices.

Backblaze vs IDrive vs Acronis: Quick Verdict

Cheapest unlimited backup: Backblaze, at roughly US$99/year (about A$150) for one computer with unlimited storage.
Best for multiple devices: IDrive, which backs up several computers and phones under a single 5TB plan for around US$70-100/year.
Best security bundle: Acronis True Image 2026, the only one with built-in antivirus, ransomware blocking, and a vulnerability scanner.
Best for families with mixed hardware: IDrive, because its device cap is the most generous of the three.
Best for someone who just wants “set and forget”: Backblaze, reviewers consistently note it has the simplest setup of the three.

Full Specs Comparison Table

Feature	Backblaze Personal Backup	IDrive Personal	Acronis True Image 2026
Starting annual price	US$99/year (~A$150)	~US$69.65-99.95/year for 5TB (~A$107-150)	US$49.99-124.99/year depending on tier
Storage model	Unlimited per computer	Fixed, 5TB on entry plan (higher tiers available)	Fixed tiers up to 10TB
Devices per plan	1 computer (external drives included)	Multiple computers and mobile devices on one account	Up to 5 computers plus unlimited mobile devices
OS support	Windows, macOS (no native Linux client)	Windows, macOS, Linux	Windows, macOS (no native Linux client)
Mobile apps	iOS/Android for viewing backed-up files	iOS/Android with mobile device backup	iOS/Android companion apps
Ransomware/antivirus protection	File version history only, no antivirus	File versioning and deleted-file retention, no integrated antivirus	Integrated antivirus, ransomware blocking, malicious-URL protection, vulnerability scanner
Physical restore service	USB drive mail restore, up to 8TB	IDrive Express physical drive shipping	Local backup to external drive, no mail-in service
Free trial	15 days	Limited free account/promo (varies)	Around 30 days on eligible plans
Encryption	AES-256, optional private key	AES-256, optional private key	AES-256
Support channels	Web/ticket support, no standard phone line	Phone, chat, and email support	Web cases, chat, and phone depending on plan
Best suited for	Single-PC households wanting unlimited storage	Multi-device households and small offices	Users wanting backup plus security in one app

Note on Acronis naming: the product was called Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office between 2021 and 2024, then reverted to its original Acronis True Image branding, with the current release marketed as Acronis True Image 2026. If you see older reviews referencing “Cyber Protect Home Office,” they’re describing the same product under its previous name.

Pricing Breakdown for Australian Buyers

Pricing for all three services is set in US dollars and converted at checkout, which means the Australian price you pay shifts slightly with the exchange rate and can also be affected by GST. The figures below are current as of October 2026 and should be treated as a guide rather than a locked-in quote, since promotional first-year pricing often differs from standard renewal pricing.

Plan	US Price	Approx. AUD	Storage	Notes
Backblaze Personal (monthly)	US$9/month	~A$14/month	Unlimited, 1 computer	No long-term commitment
Backblaze Personal (annual)	US$99/year	~A$150/year	Unlimited, 1 computer	Most common plan
Backblaze Personal (2-year)	US$189	~A$285	Unlimited, 1 computer	Lowest effective monthly cost
IDrive Personal (5TB, promo)	~US$69.65-69.99/year	~A$107/year	5TB, multiple devices	First-year introductory rate
IDrive Personal (5TB, standard renewal)	~US$99.95/year	~A$150/year	5TB, multiple devices	Check renewal price before committing
Acronis True Image Essentials	from US$49.99/year	~A$76/year	No cloud storage, local backup only	Security features, no cloud space
Acronis True Image Advanced	~US$89.99/year	~A$137/year	250GB-500GB cloud	Adds cloud backup to security suite
Acronis True Image Premium	up to US$124.99/year	~A$190/year	Up to 1TB-10TB depending on tier	Full feature set with patch management

For context on what households spend on general-purpose cloud storage instead of dedicated backup, Google One runs about US$9.99/month (roughly A$12.49/month) for 2TB shared across Drive, Gmail, and Photos, while Apple iCloud+ is priced at approximately A$14.99/month for 2TB in Australia, climbing to A$89.99/month for 12TB. Microsoft 365 Personal bundles 1TB of OneDrive storage with its Office apps for around A$159/year. None of these are true whole-computer backup replacements, but they’re the plans people often compare against Backblaze, IDrive, and Acronis when they’re deciding whether to pay for a dedicated backup tool at all.

Total Cost of Ownership: Three-Year Price Comparison

Headline annual prices don’t tell the whole story once you factor in renewal pricing, device growth, and the possibility that you’ll eventually need a physical restore. The table below estimates a realistic three-year spend for a typical single-user setup on each service, using standard renewal pricing rather than one-off introductory offers, since most people end up paying the renewal rate for at least two of those three years.

Service	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	3-Year Total (approx.)
Backblaze Personal (annual plan)	~A$150	~A$150	~A$150	~A$450
Backblaze Personal (2-year plan, renewed once)	~A$285 (covers 2 yrs)	included	~A$150	~A$435
IDrive Personal 5TB (promo year 1, standard after)	~A$107	~A$150	~A$150	~A$407
Acronis True Image Advanced (250-500GB cloud)	~A$137	~A$137	~A$137	~A$411
Acronis True Image Premium (up to 1TB-plus)	~A$190	~A$190	~A$190	~A$570

The gap narrows considerably once you look past year one. Backblaze’s two-year plan is actually the cheapest option over a three-year window because it locks in a lower effective rate, while IDrive’s promotional pricing structure means its true cost only becomes clear from year two onward. Acronis’s Advanced tier lands in roughly the same three-year bracket as Backblaze and IDrive, but you’re paying for integrated security features rather than more storage, which is a reasonable trade for some buyers and a wasted expense for others, depending on whether you already run separate antivirus software.

Speed and Restore Performance: What Reviewers Actually Found

Independent, apples-to-apples speed benchmarks across all three services from a single test rig don’t exist in the public record, and any article claiming an exact “Backblaze uploads 23% faster than IDrive” number without a controlled test is making it up. What does exist is a consistent pattern of qualitative findings from reviewers who have tested each service separately.

TechRadar’s cloud backup testing found Backblaze’s desktop client uploads and downloads unthrottled, limited only by the user’s own connection. In one test run, TechRadar uploaded just over 6GB in under 10 minutes on an average 70Mbps connection, and a separate TechRadar comparison clocked more than 5GB uploaded in under nine minutes, describing the result as faster than most of the providers it reviewed. Backblaze’s restore process happens through the website rather than the desktop app, with three options: free file download, moving files into Backblaze B2 storage, or a mailed USB hard drive restore of up to 8TB. Backblaze’s current restore page prices that USB hard-drive service at US$279, though a company help article updated in late 2025 listed US$189 for the same service, so it’s worth confirming the exact fee in your account before ordering.

Tom’s Guide’s IDrive review highlights fast uploads and a useful restore-by-mail option called IDrive Express, which ships a physical drive to transfer large amounts of data without relying entirely on your internet connection. Cloudwards’ IDrive testing similarly flags the service’s broad device support as its strongest differentiator against single-computer tools like Backblaze. Acronis, meanwhile, gets praised less for raw speed and more for flexibility: reviewers covering Acronis True Image note it supports both local and cloud backup destinations, with full-disk imaging that lets you restore an entire system rather than just individual files.

The practical takeaway is that none of the three is dramatically slower than the others for typical home broadband speeds. Where they actually differ is in restore flexibility: Backblaze and IDrive both offer physical drive shipping for large restores, while Acronis leans on local backup destinations and disk imaging instead of a mail-in service.

Setup and Onboarding: What the First Backup Actually Looks Like

The first few hours with any of these three services look almost identical: download a desktop client, sign in, pick which folders or drives to protect, and let the initial backup run in the background. Where they diverge is in how much you’re asked to configure before that first backup starts, and reviewers consistently flag Backblaze as the simplest of the three. Its installer defaults to backing up the entire user profile and any attached external drives with minimal prompts, which is exactly what a non-technical user wants but can frustrate anyone who wanted granular control over exactly which folders get included from the start.

IDrive’s onboarding asks more questions upfront, mainly because it’s managing a broader scope: you choose which computers and mobile devices to attach to the account, whether to enable continuous backup or run on a schedule, and how to organise folders across multiple machines sharing one storage pool. That’s more setup friction, but it’s friction in service of a feature Backblaze doesn’t offer at all, so it’s a reasonable trade rather than a design flaw.

Acronis has the most involved setup of the three, because the installer is also configuring antivirus scanning, ransomware monitoring, and in the 2026 release, patch management, alongside the backup schedule itself. Reviewers covering Acronis note that the extra configuration screens make sense once you understand you’re setting up a security suite as well as a backup tool, but it does mean the time-to-first-backup is longer than either Backblaze or IDrive, particularly on an older machine with a large number of installed applications that need to be scanned.

Ransomware and Security Features Compared

This is where the three products stop looking like variations on the same idea and start looking like genuinely different categories of software. Encryption and ransomware protection are not the same thing, and mixing them up is one of the most common mistakes in backup buying guides. Encryption protects the confidentiality of your data in transit and at rest. Ransomware protection is about detecting and blocking an attack before it can encrypt or delete your files in the first place, and about having clean, versioned copies to restore from if an attack succeeds anyway.

Backblaze’s security model is built around versioned backups. If ransomware encrypts your files, Backblaze’s version history lets you roll back to a clean copy from before the infection, which is genuinely useful, but the service doesn’t scan for malware, block malicious processes, or flag a vulnerability before it’s exploited. It’s a recovery tool, not a prevention tool. Backblaze B2, the company’s object storage product aimed at developers and businesses rather than consumers, added automatic AES-256 encryption at rest for every new upload and destination copy starting mid-September 2026, which strengthens the backend but doesn’t change what the consumer Personal Backup product does day to day.

IDrive sits in a similar spot to Backblaze on this front. It offers file versioning and deleted-file retention, which gives you a recovery path after an attack, but it doesn’t bundle antivirus or active threat detection into the consumer Personal plan. Where IDrive pulls ahead of Backblaze is breadth of device coverage, not depth of security tooling.

Acronis True Image 2026 is the outlier, and it’s the reason the product exists in a different price bracket for some tiers. It bundles antivirus scanning, active ransomware blocking, malicious-URL protection, and a vulnerability scanner directly into the backup client, and the 2026 release adds integrated patch management on top of that, so the software can flag outdated, exploitable applications before they become an entry point for an attack. For anyone who has been burned by ransomware before, or who is backing up a small business’s only laptop, that bundled protection is the main reason to pay Acronis’s higher per-tier price instead of going with a cheaper storage-only plan.

Where Is Your Data Actually Stored? Data Centres and Compliance

For most home users, data residency is an afterthought until it isn’t, usually when a workplace policy or a client contract suddenly requires knowing exactly where backup copies physically sit. Backblaze runs its own data centres in the United States and publishes general information about its storage infrastructure, but the consumer Personal Backup plan does not offer Australian-region storage as a selectable option, meaning your data transits overseas by design. The same is true of IDrive’s core consumer plans, which store data in IDrive’s own US-based data centres, and Acronis, which operates cloud infrastructure across multiple global regions but doesn’t market region selection as a headline feature of the consumer True Image product the way its business-tier Cyber Cloud offerings do.

Practically, this matters most for small businesses handling client data subject to the Australian Privacy Principles, since storing backups offshore isn’t automatically a compliance problem but does add a layer of due diligence around where data physically lives and which jurisdiction’s laws apply to it. None of these three consumer products is marketed as a dedicated compliance tool, so a business with specific data residency obligations should treat all three as general-purpose backup options rather than purpose-built compliance solutions, and should check each provider’s current terms of service for the specific claims that apply to their account type before relying on any of them for regulated data.

Device and Platform Support

Platform support is one of the clearest dividing lines between these three products, and it’s often the deciding factor for households that don’t fit the “one Windows PC” mould the backup industry was originally built around.

Backblaze supports Windows and macOS desktops, with external USB drives connected to the backed-up computer included under the same unlimited plan. There’s no native Linux client for Personal Backup, which rules it out immediately for anyone running a Linux workstation as their primary machine. The iOS and Android apps are built for viewing and retrieving already-backed-up files rather than backing up the phone itself.

IDrive is the most platform-flexible of the three. It covers Windows, macOS, and Linux on the desktop side, and its mobile apps go further than the other two by actually backing up phone content, including photos, contacts, and calendars, not just displaying files that were backed up from a computer. For a household running a mix of a Linux home server, a couple of laptops, and several phones, IDrive is usually the only one of the three that covers everything under one plan.

Acronis covers Windows and macOS, with iOS and Android companion apps, but like Backblaze, it has no standard Linux desktop client. Its differentiator isn’t platform breadth, it’s device count: the 2026 release supports up to five computers and unlimited mobile devices under a single subscription, which makes it a reasonable fit for a family with several Windows and Mac machines, provided none of them run Linux.

Customer Support Comparison

Support quality rarely shows up in spec sheets, but it matters enormously the one time you actually need to restore a failed hard drive under pressure. Backblaze’s support is primarily web-based: a help centre and ticket or email-style support, with no standard phone line included on the consumer Personal Backup plan. That’s consistent with Backblaze’s pitch as a lean, low-overhead service, but it means a weekend data-loss emergency may have to wait for a ticket response.

IDrive offers phone, live chat, and email/ticket support, though exact hours and availability can vary by region and plan tier. That’s a meaningful advantage for less technical users who want to talk to a person while troubleshooting a failed restore rather than working through a help article alone.

Acronis provides online support cases as standard, with chat and phone support available depending on the specific subscription and region. Because Acronis sells both consumer and business products from the same support infrastructure, response quality can vary more by plan tier than it does with the other two services, so it’s worth checking what’s included before you buy if phone support specifically matters to you.

Common Mistakes When Choosing a Cloud Backup Service

A handful of buying mistakes show up repeatedly across backup forums and support communities, and most of them trace back to misreading exactly what “unlimited” or “included” means on a pricing page. The first is assuming Backblaze’s unlimited plan covers a whole household, when it’s actually scoped to one computer; anyone who signs up expecting to back up three family laptops under a single unlimited subscription will be disappointed the moment they try to add a second machine.

The second common mistake is comparing IDrive’s promotional first-year price directly against Backblaze’s or Acronis’s standard ongoing price, which makes IDrive look cheaper than it will actually be from year two onward. Always compare renewal-to-renewal pricing, not promo-to-standard, when deciding between providers.

The third mistake is buying Acronis for its cloud storage without checking which tier actually includes cloud backup. The Essentials tier is local-backup-and-security only, with no cloud storage destination at all, so a buyer who wants both off-site backup and antivirus protection needs to specifically select the Advanced or Premium tier, not the entry-level plan.

The fourth mistake, and arguably the most consequential, is never testing a restore until an actual emergency forces it. All three services make it easy to set up ongoing backups and then forget about them entirely. A short test restore of a handful of files, done once a quarter, is the only way to know for certain that a backup is actually recoverable rather than silently failing in the background.

Real-World Use Cases: Which Service Fits Which Situation

Specs tables only tell part of the story. Here’s how the trade-offs actually play out across five common scenarios.

A freelance photographer with one editing PC and multiple terabytes of RAW files: Backblaze is the obvious fit. Unlimited storage for a flat annual fee means the backup bill doesn’t grow every time a shoot adds another 200GB, and the 8TB USB restore option means a full recovery doesn’t require re-downloading everything over home broadband.
A family with two laptops, three phones, and a Linux-based home server: IDrive is the only one of the three that backs up all of that under one account without needing a separate tool for the Linux machine or the phones.
A sole trader who has already had one ransomware scare: Acronis True Image makes sense even at a higher price point, because the integrated antivirus and ransomware blocking reduce the chance of needing to restore from backup in the first place, rather than just making the restore easier after the fact.
A university student backing up a single laptop on a tight budget: Backblaze’s US$9/month plan with no long-term contract is the cheapest entry point, and the unlimited storage model means a growing thesis folder or a stack of lecture recordings won’t trigger a plan upgrade.
A small business with five office computers and a compliance requirement for endpoint protection: Acronis’s five-computer allowance plus built-in vulnerability scanning and patch management covers both the backup requirement and part of the security compliance requirement in one subscription, which can simplify an audit.
Someone who travels constantly and needs backups to survive airport wifi: IDrive’s multi-device mobile backup combined with IDrive Express physical drive shipping means a full restore doesn’t depend on a fast hotel internet connection.

Migration Guide: Switching Between Backblaze, IDrive, and Acronis

Switching backup providers is riskier than switching most other subscription software, because you’re briefly without a safety net while the new service completes its first full backup. Follow this sequence rather than cancelling your old plan the moment you sign up for a new one.

Keep your existing plan active. Do not cancel Backblaze, IDrive, or Acronis until the new service has completed and verified its first full backup.
Audit what you’re actually backing up. Check whether you’re relying on unlimited single-computer coverage (Backblaze), multi-device coverage (IDrive), or security features bundled with backup (Acronis), since that determines which plan tier you need on the new service.
Sign up for the new service’s trial first. Backblaze offers 15 days, Acronis around 30 days on eligible plans, and IDrive runs limited free promotions that vary, so confirm the current offer before committing.
Install the new client alongside the old one. All three services can run simultaneously during a transition without conflicting, though the initial upload will compete for bandwidth with your existing backup.
Run the first full backup overnight or over a weekend. Initial backups of several hundred gigabytes or more can take days over typical Australian home broadband, so start this before cancelling anything.
Verify with a test restore. Restore a handful of files, not your entire backup, to confirm the new service’s recovery process works the way you expect before trusting it completely.
Export or note your version history before cancelling the old plan. If you need file versions from before the switch, download them while the old account is still active, since most providers delete backup data shortly after cancellation.
Cancel the old service only after the new one has run at least one additional incremental backup. This confirms the new service’s ongoing backup schedule works, not just the initial upload.

If you’re moving specifically from Backblaze to Acronis for the security features, keep in mind that Acronis’s lower-priced Essentials tier doesn’t include cloud storage at all. You’ll need the Advanced or Premium tier to get a cloud backup destination comparable to what Backblaze or IDrive provide by default.

Pros and Cons

Backblaze Personal Backup

Pros: Unlimited storage for a flat annual fee, unthrottled upload speeds, simple set-and-forget setup, flexible restore options including an 8TB USB drive mail service.
Cons: Covers only one computer per subscription, no native Linux client, no integrated antivirus or ransomware blocking, support is web-based with no standard phone line.

IDrive Personal

Pros: Backs up multiple computers and mobile devices under one account, supports Windows, macOS, and Linux, phone and chat support included, IDrive Express physical drive restore service.
Cons: Fixed storage allowance rather than unlimited, promotional first-year pricing can be notably cheaper than standard renewal pricing, no integrated antivirus.

Acronis True Image 2026

Pros: Integrated antivirus, ransomware blocking, malicious-URL protection, vulnerability scanning, and patch management, supports up to five computers plus unlimited mobile devices, full-disk imaging for complete system restores.
Cons: Entry-level Essentials tier has no cloud storage at all, no native Linux client, pricing climbs quickly on higher storage tiers, no mail-in physical restore service.

The Verdict: Which Should You Actually Buy

There’s no single winner here, because the three products are solving slightly different problems. If your main goal is the cheapest possible unlimited backup for one computer and you don’t care about built-in security scanning, Backblaze’s roughly A$150-per-year unlimited plan is hard to beat, and TechRadar’s testing backs up its reputation for fast, unthrottled uploads. If you need to cover a household’s worth of laptops, phones, and a Linux box under one account, IDrive’s multi-device support makes it the only realistic single-plan option of the three, even though its storage is capped rather than unlimited. And if you’ve already dealt with a ransomware incident, or you’re backing up a small business where a security breach would be existential, Acronis True Image 2026’s bundled antivirus, ransomware blocking, and patch management justify its higher price, because it’s trying to prevent the data-loss event rather than just making recovery easier afterward.

For most individual users without specialised needs, Backblaze remains the default recommendation on cost alone. For multi-device households, IDrive’s broader coverage wins on value per device. For anyone who weighs security as heavily as storage, Acronis is worth the premium.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Backblaze really unlimited, or is there a hidden cap?

Backblaze’s Personal Backup plan is genuinely unlimited in storage volume, but the allowance applies to one computer and its directly connected external drives. It is not a household-wide unlimited plan covering multiple separate computers under a single subscription.

Is Acronis True Image the same as Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office?

Yes. Acronis rebranded its consumer backup product to Cyber Protect Home Office in 2021, then reverted to the original True Image name in 2024. The current 2026 edition is marketed as Acronis True Image 2026 and is the direct successor to both earlier names.

Does IDrive back up phones as well as computers?

Yes. IDrive’s mobile apps support backing up phone content including photos, contacts, and calendars, in addition to desktop computer backup, under the same account and storage allowance.

Which of these three includes antivirus protection?

Only Acronis True Image 2026 includes integrated antivirus, along with ransomware blocking, malicious-URL protection, and a vulnerability scanner. Backblaze and IDrive both rely on file version history for ransomware recovery rather than active threat prevention.

Can I use any of these services on Linux?

IDrive is the only one of the three with a native Linux desktop client. Neither Backblaze Personal Backup nor Acronis True Image offers a standard Linux client for consumer plans.

How much does it cost to get a physical drive restore if my internet is too slow?

Backblaze’s current restore page lists an 8TB USB hard-drive restore at US$279, including shipping, though a company help article from late 2025 listed US$189 for the same service, so check your account before ordering. IDrive offers a comparable physical drive restore through IDrive Express, with current pricing varying by data volume and destination. Acronis does not offer a mail-in physical restore service; it relies on local and cloud backup destinations instead.

Do these services count as a replacement for Google One, iCloud+, or OneDrive?

Not exactly. Google One, iCloud+, and OneDrive are primarily sync-and-storage ecosystems tied to a specific platform’s apps, email, and photo libraries. Backblaze, IDrive, and Acronis are dedicated backup tools designed to continuously protect an entire computer’s file system, independent of any single ecosystem. Many users run one of each: a sync tool for day-to-day file access, and a dedicated backup service for disaster recovery.

Which service is cheapest if I only need to back up one laptop?

Backblaze is the cheapest option for a single computer at roughly US$99/year (about A$150) for unlimited storage. IDrive’s 5TB promotional plan can be slightly cheaper in the first year but renews at a higher standard rate and caps storage, while Acronis’s lowest Essentials tier skips cloud storage entirely and is priced for the security bundle rather than backup capacity.

Can I run two of these services at the same time for extra redundancy?

Yes, and some users deliberately do. Running Backblaze for unlimited single-computer coverage alongside Acronis for its security scanning, or pairing IDrive’s multi-device backup with a separate antivirus tool, is a legitimate way to cover gaps in any one provider’s feature set. The main cost is paying two subscriptions instead of one, plus the extra bandwidth both clients will consume during initial backups if installed at the same time.

Do any of these three offer a free plan with no storage limit at all?

No. All three are paid subscription services at the plan levels discussed in this comparison. Acronis and IDrive have offered limited free tiers or trial promotions with capped storage in the past, and Backblaze’s trial is time-limited rather than storage-limited, but none of the three currently markets a permanently free plan with meaningful storage for ongoing whole-computer backup.

Backblaze vs IDrive vs Acronis: Backup Compared [2026]