When comparing Hazel vs Backblaze, the Slant community recommends Backblaze for most people. In the question“What are the best power user tools for macOS?” Backblaze is ranked 10th while Hazel is ranked 14th. The most important reason people chose Backblaze is:
The default configuration includes everything except for system files to be backed up. That also includes external USB drives. This will work for most people. It can, of course, be customized to each person's liking.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Automatically cleans up and maintains folders
Hazel watches whatever folders you tell it to, automatically organizing your files according to the rules you create. Have Hazel move files around based on name, date, type, what site/email address it came from (Safari and Mail only) and much more. Automatically put your music in your Music folder, movies in Movies. Keep your downloads off the desktop and put them where they are supposed to be.
Pro Very customizable
More so than alternatives.
Pro Cleans up after uninstalling an application
When you delete an application Hazel will pop up and show you a list of attached files belonging to the deleted app to clean your uninstall more correctly.
Pro iLife Support
Hazel features new actions to import your files into iPhoto or iTunes. And with Hazel 3, you can import into Aperture projects and folders as well.
Pro Process files depending on their content
Its in-file search criteria allows it to extract dates from files (e.g., to add to the filename) and to categorize recurrent files (e.g., receipts) into subfolders (or to treat them in some specific way).
Pro Beginner-friendly defaults
The default configuration includes everything except for system files to be backed up. That also includes external USB drives. This will work for most people. It can, of course, be customized to each person's liking.
Pro No file size or traffic restrictions
There are no limitations of file size or amount of data you can upload. The $5/mo plan gets you unlimited cloud storage.
Pro Excellent restoration performance
Backblaze creates a zip file of all your files for you to download, thus decreasing the amount of data you need to download and increasing the speed of the download since it's one connection instead of multiple that need to be opened and closed for a list of files.
Pro Secure
AES encrypted files are transferred over a secure SSL connection.
Pro Download any backed-up files from any web browser
Some backup services like Carbonite require a client to be installed to restore files. Backblaze allows you to login and download any or all files from a web browser, meaning it also serves as an ad-hoc cloud storage platform.
Pro Users can order a physical copy of their data
You can have a flash drive or an external hard drive delivered to you. They cost $99 and $189 respectively.
Cons
Con Expensive
Con Doesn't work well with subfolders
The rules don't work very well with subfolders and working with archive files (zip, rar, gz, 7z, etc) is also limited.
Con Rules creation is a time consuming process
To really enjoy the power of Hazel, you will need to progressively create more and more rules to manage each specific kind of file, but this process is slow, quite annoying when you have many similar rules, and can only be learned on the way, as you find new uses for it.
Con No Linux support
There's no Linux client for Backblaze.
Con Pay extra to keep deleted files permanently
Additional $2/Month plus $0.005/GB/Month for files updated, changed, or deleted more than one year ago.
Con Backblaze does not support network (NAS) drives
If you use a thing like Drobo, Backblaze will not back it up.