Backblaze review

When looking at the best cloud-based storage services for your Mac, there’s an important distinction to make.

Offerings like OneDrive, Google Drive, and even Apple’s own iCloud Drive offer a cloud-based storage area that can also be used to share files between users, usually with a link to a specific spot.

Others, like Backblaze, are a storage service in the strictest term – it takes your data, ferries it off-site, and keeps it under lock and key. It’s not for quickly sharing a document or collaborating on a piece of work, it’s for recovering data you may lose if something happens to your local machine. While you could share a file with Backblaze, doing so requires using Backblaze’s separate B2 Cloud Storage service which, admittedly, comes with flexible, pay-as-you-go options.

It’s worth making that distinction because services like iDrive blur the lines a little, but Backblaze exists in a spot where it’s a tool you hope you never need to use, but you’ll be extremely glad to have in your corner.

Backblaze defines itself as “backup for peace of mind”, and it’s hard to argue with that. You pay your fee, download the app, and it goes about its business in the background.

At $99 per year, it’s pretty affordable, and there’s no storage limit – you can keep backing up and it’ll keep duplicating, and there’s no size limit on individual files. It’s worth noting that that’s $99 per computer, so you’ll be doubling that for two machines, but if you’re using just one machine it’s well worth looking into.

You can set your own 2FA options and encryption keys to ensure your data stays secure, too, and the app is so lightweight and undemanding that I’ve not noticed any slowdown as it’s backed up my entire drive.

So, while I can’t share my files as easily as I would with a cloud storage solution like Google Drive, my files are safer than they’ve ever been.

First Impressions

The magic of Backblaze is that it really doesn’t want you to have to open the app itself. Once it’s installed you can set options like backup schedules and a quick, glanceable look at how much you’ve uploaded (split up by file type, which is nifty), but for the most part I appreciate that it just kind of gets on with things.

A menu bar item lets you quickly pause your current backup or get a status update on how it’s going, while the app offers three months of version history by default. At the time of writing, you can extend this to 12 months at no extra cost, which is welcome.

Backblaze Features

Backblaze essentially comes in two apps which are both installed at the same time. The first part is the backup app, which will continually run files to a cloud server as part of its processes.

While you can set a schedule for these backups, Backblaze recommends the “Continuously” option which ensures if a meteor hits your Mac, everything you were currently working on will be held somewhere.

The other app is the restore side of things, and I’m impressed by the granularity with which you can drill down into its file system. The app offers your backup as a list of nested folders, and you can work your way to whatever you need, or restore the whole thing.

You can restore apps to the same place they were before, or dump the regenerated versions anywhere with custom file paths. I deleted a test file from deep within my Mac’s Library, then used the Restore app to drill down and have it restore it to my desktop, and it worked well.

Uploads are relatively snappy for the backup side of things, too, keeping pace with similar options, and the option to get your data posted to you as a hard drive if all else fails could be a lifesaver.

Backblaze Annoyances

Less an annoyance given it’s not necessarily what Backblaze is designed for, but there’s no Finder window integration here, so you’ll be relying on the aforementioned duo of apps.

That makes sense, since you can’t quickly ferry data and documents between users like you can with a more straightforward cloud storage app as we mentioned earlier.

Should you buy Backblaze?

Backblaze is a comprehensive cloud backup solution for anyone dealing with sensitive data that needs to be kept safe. While it operates on a different playing field to the likes of Google Drive, it might just be everything you need.

For more advice about Backing up your Mac read our top Mac Backup software recommendations.