At Home with Tech

If you prefer the occasional peace of mind as the ‘IT Guy’ at home, well… guess what? Here’s another reason why you might not get that anytime soon. If you’re a CrashPlan customer, you’ve got some work to do…

I’m crushed.

CrashPlan for Home has been wonderful as a Cloud backup solution at home for disaster recovery. We’ve had a great relationship for the past five years. The cost was $60/year for my iMac for unlimited backup. It was pretty much… set it and forget it.

Done.

But recently, I received a little email from Code42’s CrashPlan service. In fact, we were done. CrashPlan is breaking up with me!

The email explained that over the next 18 months, Code42 will exit the consumer market for online backup. Instead, Code42 will focus on its “enterprise and small business segments.”

But I’m only getting three months, because my renewal is coming due.
(Customers get an additional two free months to help with their ‘transition.’)

I guess it was good while it lasted.
(sniff)

So, what are the options?
Whatever, I do, I’m still looking for a long-term relationship.
(I know, I’ve already been burned once. But, you can dream, right?)

CrashPlan for Small Business
As a current CrashPlan customer, I can migrate to the CrashPlan for Small Business plan.
That’s $10 per device each month for 5TB of storage.
So, $120/year for my iMac.
(Double what I was paying)

But, CrashPlan is offering me 75% off for the next 12 months.
That makes it only $30 for the first year.
(Half what I was paying)

Not bad… but remember, I’m looking at the long-term costs.
And I’m not longer getting ‘unlimited’ backup anymore.
Hmmm… That’s okay.
5TB is plenty.

Bottom line: CrashPlan will cost me twice as much moving forward.
(The first-year discount aside)

The Carbonite Choice
Code42 has struck a deal with Carbonite as CrashPlan’s ‘exclusive partner for home users’ with a 50% discount when switching over to Carbonite.
(How ironic that they were competitors once upon a time.)

When I clicked on the link in my Code42 email, I was sent to the following Carbonite offer:

Carbonite Core
It’s for unlimited computers. (Nice!)
With only 250GB of backup (What?!)
And costs 134.99/year (50% off the $269.00 price)
I don’t know if this discount holds after the first year.

You can purchase additional storage in chunks of 100GB
$79.99/100GB (20% off $99.99)

Whoa! This is way more expensive.
Plus, I’m only starting with 250GB? That’s a deal breaker right there!
The ‘unlimited computers’ piece is cool, but there’s not enough storage in the plan to make it worthwhile.

Why is Carbonite in the mix at all? I must be missing something…

Carbonite for Home
So, I went back to Carbonite’s website to look around as a ‘new customer.’

What I found was confusing…
Just showing up as a new customer and not attached to all of my CrashPlan baggage, I found an alternate Carbonite universe…

It’s called Carbonite for Home. And in this universe, you get unlimited backup for one computer in three flavors:

• Basic for $59.99/year
• Plus for $74.99/year (on sale from $99.99)
• Prime for $149.99/year

The differences have to do with the features.
Plus provides external hard drive backup and automatic video backup.
Prime includes a courier recovery service.

The Plus plan seems like it would be the best option for me with its flexibility on including external drives.

Something’s Not Right
If you’re shopping for price, just showing up as a new Carbonite customer gives you the best deal.

But I was still confused why Code42 was giving me such a bum ride with Carbonite.
The Core plan really stinks.

Then, I ran across this TidBITS! article, which mentioned that CrashPlan ‘family’ users were only being offered a discount off of Carbonite’s business plan (Core) as opposed to Carbonite’s ‘Home’ plans.

Did that mean I had a family plan?
No… I checked.

So, was I being offered the wrong discount?

If so, then Carbonite for Home would be an even better deal.
(Assuming the 50% discount held more than the first year)

Looks like I’d have to reach out to Carbonite to investigate.

Rebound Options
So, the way I see it, I’ve got three choices….

1. Stick with CrashPlan and pay double. ($120/year)
   But remember, “The devil you know…”
   (And only get 5TB vs unlimited… which is actually fine with me.)
2. Move to Carbonite Plus and pay $75/year.
   (Or try to convince Carbonite to give me the 50% discount off of this plan as a CrashPlan reject)
3. Start all over and look around for another choice.
   As it turns out, Joe Kissell from The Wirecutter doesn’t like Carbonite for Macs.
   He prefers Backblaze for an Apple ecosystem.
   And Backblaze only costs $50/year.
   (Here’s Backblaze’s invitation to CrashPlan customers.)

Back in the Game
Wow…I thought I was done with all of this.
Guess not.

I’ve got a little time before my CrashPlan breakup is official, and I need to pull the trigger on another choice.

Any relationship advice out there for Cloud backup at home?