Having your data files fully secured is certainly most important when considering an online backup service, but ease-of-use, customer support, and the ability to easily restore your backed up files are important too. After reading this full review of the Carbonite backup service, you’ll see why I gave it my “Editor’s Choice” award. This backup service isn’t perfect, but it met most of the criteria I looked for when choosing an online backup service to backup data on my own computers! Yes, I actually use Carbonite. I tried others but ultimately I stayed with Carbonite.

Carbonite makes no distinction for home and business use as they only offer one service. While many small businesses will find Carbonite invaluable, it won’t always work because it lacks support for network drives. Carbonite is compatible with PCs and Macs. You can get started with the Carbonite backup service for just $54.95 for one year, and you can get it even cheaper if you sign up for a 2 or 3 year subscription. The company also offers a free 15-day trial which is a snap to try out because no credit card is required.

What I like best about Carbonite is that it’s super easy to use and incredibly cheap. You download this small program that runs quietly in the background of your computer without bogging it down either. That was my biggest fear-that it would slow down my computer. I had no performance issues at all and to this day I never have.

I backed up my files weekly to an external hard drive but I wanted more insurance “just in case” so I tried out Carbonite’s 15-day free trial. I was so pleased that after my trial period expired I signed up for a 2-year subscription. I figured for less than $100 it was cheap insurance. I still continue to do my weekly backups but it’s a “peace of mind” thing to know my files are automatically being backed up remotely. Now if my external hard drive crashes, it won’t be a big deal because Carbonite will have a backup of my files at all times.