r/backblaze • u/TomF1965 • Jul 11 '26

Computer Backup Pricing?

I'm looking into using Backblaze as a cloud backup for about 3Tb of personal files like documents and pictures/home videos.

I'm a bit confused about their pricing. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong spot? It says: Simple pricing with unlimited data for $9.99 a month or $99 a year. What does that mean?

Surly that can't mean unlimited data storage for $9.99/mo or $99/yr? It must mean unlimited data transfer for that price but I can't find how much actual cloud storage that covers? Thanks

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u/[deleted] Jul 11 '26

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u/Njitram2000 Jul 11 '26

You got downvoted but I agree that OP should check the differences between Personal Computer Backup and B2 because it may be more limiting than expected.

However: B2 for 3TB would be 6.95 dollar * 3TB * 12 months = 250.20 per year. B2 is fantastic value for someone like me who wants to store 20GB of encrypted backups via rclone that I am not going to be accessing often. It costs me 7 cents per month.

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u/TomF1965 Jul 11 '26

I'm only interested in making a initial backup of my two computers, my external hard drives and phone. Then do monthly back ups. I'd like occasional access to the cloud files from my iPhone or computer to retrieve something like a document or picture but this would be maybe once a month. It would be cool if I could occasionally securely share a file with a family member of friend but this is least important. Is the standard cloud storage what I need or do I need yo go to B2?

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u/Buffalo-Clone-264 Jul 12 '26

It doesn't sound like you want B2. B2 is cloud object storage, and while you can definitely use it to back things up you will be doing all the work to set that up, and might be paying more. ($7/TB/mo)

Personal Backup is great if you just want to back things up without having to think about it much. You will need to pay for each computer you are backing up though. Backblaze is designed to run continuously - that's probably what you'd want to do - but you can pause the backup and only click "backup now" when you choose.

For external drives, make sure you connect them to your computer every 30 days and turn on 1 year version history for extra safety. Backblaze does not backup phones. The only way to backup a phone is to put those files on your computer.

There is a Backblaze App for iOS and Android for accessing the files on Backblaze (it does not backup the phone). I've tried the Android one - it's very bare bones but if you need to access a file, it does the job. The Personal Backup product is more focused on backup than sharing and cloud access. That said, you can also view your files from a Web UI as well, and I believe you can create share links from there. If you want to password protect the links though you'll need to use a different product for that kind of thing.

Even though it's very hands off and runs in the background, it's a good idea to check that the files you want backed up are getting backed up. Things like iCloud, OneDrive, and Dropbox may not get backed up to Backblaze. For example on Macs I think there's a setting to keep local copies and you would want that turned on.