When comparing Backblaze vs aText, 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 aText is ranked 49th. 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 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.
Pro No Update
Pro A snippet can be expanded to plain or styled text and include pictures
Pro Has built-in snippets for common typos
Pro Cheaper than competition
$4.99, cheaper than textExpander ($35)
Pro Compatible with TextExpander snippets
TextExpander snippets can be imported into aText
Pro Works with VMs
Pro Imports from most alternative text expansion apps
aText can import data from TextExpander, TypeIt4Me, SpellCatcherX, Automaton and CSV file.
Pro Has common HTML & JS snippets built-in
Pro Snippets can include editable fields
Pro Data can be synced through cloud storage services
Pro Snippets can include a wide variety of variables
Possible variables include date, time, other snippets, clipboard content, etc.
Cons
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.
Con Buggy
Con Doesn't work in Mojave
The current version, with no issues. In fact, I've never had any issue with it with Mojave, so I assume when Mojave was released, aText was already up to date for it.
Con Frequent crashes in MacOS Sierra
aText crashes frequently, and the developer is unresponsive. Not clear if app is supported or under current development: last update was in 11/15; last post to aText Facebook page 10/15.
Con Long time no update
Seems to be abandoned.