When comparing Carbonite vs iCloud, the Slant community recommends Carbonite for most people. In the question“What are the best cloud backup services?” Carbonite is ranked 9th while iCloud is ranked 16th. The most important reason people chose Carbonite is:
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.
Specs
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Pros
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
Pro Synchronisation and backup services
iCloud syncs a users settings and files across a range of Apple hardware making for a simple solution to backup and sync data across ones Apple devices.
Pro Documents in the Cloud
Integrates different office tools such as Keynote or Pages for writing and presentations, etc with iCloud.
Cons
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.
Con Apple devices only
Con Certain file restrictions
Does not allow uploading certain file types.