When comparing CrashPlan vs Carbonite, the Slant community recommends CrashPlan for most people. In the question“What are the best cloud backup services?” CrashPlan is ranked 3rd while Carbonite is ranked 9th. The most important reason people chose CrashPlan is:
You set it up once and from then it runs in the background whenever you are not using your computers (or at specified times).
Specs
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Pros
Pro Unintrusive
You set it up once and from then it runs in the background whenever you are not using your computers (or at specified times).
Pro Supports multiple backup destinations
You can set up different files/folders to back up to specific places.
Pro Differential and incremental file backup
CrashPlan updates only that part of the file that has changed, saving bandwidth and time.
Pro Unlimited online storage
The $5/mo individual plan and the $12.50/mo family plan gets you unlimited cloud storage.
Pro Allows custom encryption keys
Custom 448 bit user-provided encryption key can be used to encrypt the backed up data in the cloud.
Pro Users can order a physical copy of their data
They will send you an external hard drive to your house.
Pro Unlimited revision history
CrashPlan saves all previous versions of a file.
Pro Users can order a physical copy of their data
For users in the US there is a option to receive their backup data on external media, meaning not only is there a backup in the cloud but you can order hard backups anytime.
Pro Intuitive software
Does not require deep system knowledge to operate Carbonite's software.
Pro Unlimited online storage
The $59.99/yr plan gets you unlimited cloud storage.
Pro Allows for personal encryption keys
Cons
Con Buggy
Con Home edition discontinued
CrashPlan's home edition will be shut down on October 23, 2018. They are no longer accepting new signups or subscription renewals.
Con Popular features (local backup and trusted offsite backup) no longer available
Con Heavy client
The BackupClient is based on Java and therefore a lot more memory-intensive than most other backup solutions
Con Buggy
Con They've lost data before
There have been occasions where a paid subscriber was not ever able to get back their data.
Con No external hard drive support in the $59.99/yr plan
You need to upgrade to the HomePlus $99.99/yr plan to back up external drives.
Con Personal encryption keys only work on Windows
Con Files above 4GB have to be uploaded manually
Carbonite won't upload files above 4GB unless you do it manually.