Restore and planning
Object storage and managed backup are not priced on the same axis
Managed backup sells workload coverage and a backup-and-restore workflow, commonly per device, workload, or seat. Object storage sells capacity and data operations, commonly per GB, while backup software and operations remain separate. The two categories are not one honest price ranking.
Put your own numbers through the calculator to see what this meter does to a normal month and to the day you restore.
Per device or per seat does not belong in a $/GB ranking
A managed backup service can bill per computer, protected workload, or protected SaaS seat because the purchased unit includes workload-specific backup behavior. Backblaze Computer Backup is licensed per computer. Acronis documents per-workload billing and protected Microsoft 365 seat billing for relevant configurations. [1] [4] [5]
Object storage bills stored capacity and may also meter requests, retrieval, and egress. The buyer still needs compatible backup software, a schedule, credentials, retention rules, monitoring, and a tested restore procedure. Backblaze's B2 documentation separates the storage service from the integrations that write to it. [6] [7] [8]
Putting $/device or $/seat beside $/GB and sorting by the numeral would be dishonest. The managed price buys a service boundary, while the storage price buys capacity. Neither unit reveals the other category's full monthly cost. [1] [4] [6]
| Property | Managed backup | Object storage | Source ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| Common billing unit | Per device, per protected workload, or per protected seat; some services also offer per-GB models | Per GB-month or GiB-month, plus provider-specific activity meters | [1] [4] [5] [6] |
| Backup engine | Included for the documented workload | Not supplied by the storage rate; choose and operate a compatible integration | [2] [8] |
| Workload support | Defined by the service, agent, and license | Defined by the backup tool and its storage integration, not by S3 compatibility alone | [2] [8] |
| Restore workflow | Part of the service's documented recovery path | Designed and operated across the backup tool and storage provider | [3] [8] |
| Price-comparison state before normalization | not comparable | not comparable | [1] [4] [6] |
Route by workload and operating responsibility
Start with managed backup when the requirement is automatic protection for a documented endpoint or SaaS workload and the buyer does not already operate backup software. Verify that the service covers the exact operating system, application, network source, identity scope, retention, and recovery method. [2] [5]
Start with object storage when a compatible backup product already protects the workload and needs a destination, or when an operator is prepared to own the backup policy and recovery runbook. S3 compatibility describes an interface, not workload coverage or a successful restore. [8]
Leave this comparison if the workload is unsupported, the required recovery point and recovery time are unstated, or no compatible backup tool is named. A cheap storage rate does not fill those gaps, and this page has not tested managed products. [2] [8]
| Situation | Route | Required verification | Source ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| One or more eligible user computers need automatic file backup | Managed endpoint backup | Supported OS, local and external-drive scope, exclusions, version history, and restore path | [2] [9] |
| Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace accounts need backup | Managed SaaS backup licensed for the protected seats | Protected services, seat definition, retention, storage policy, and restore granularity | [5] |
| A NAS, server, VM platform, or application already has compatible backup software | Object storage may be the destination | Exact integration, authentication, immutability behavior, retention, monitoring, and restore test | [8] [10] |
| The buyer has no backup engine and expects object storage to discover and protect files automatically | Do not route to raw object storage alone | Select a managed service or backup tool that explicitly supports the workload | [8] |
| Bare-metal, database-consistent, application-consistent, or other specialized recovery is required | Evaluate products that explicitly document that recovery | Do not infer support from a low storage price or an S3 endpoint | [10] |
Normalize the recovery path before comparing cost
A managed-backup estimate starts with the number and type of protected devices, workloads, or seats, then adds any published storage allowance, overage, retention, or restore-media charges. An object-storage estimate starts with retained volume and then keeps backup-software cost, write and read requests, retrieval, public-internet egress, retention overhead, and operations separate. [4] [5] [6] [7]
Egress is the decision variable for a recovery comparison because recovery can move much more data than an ordinary month. A low storage rate cannot answer the restore question. The destination, restored volume, allowance already consumed, and provider-specific egress schedule must be explicit. [7]
A read-only restore may incur retrieval, restore or read requests, temporary readable-copy storage, and egress. It never incurs an early-deletion charge because the source object is not deleted, overwritten, moved, or transitioned. If a separate workflow mutates the source, that is a different operation and must be priced separately. [11] [12]
| Cost or recovery input | Managed backup | Object storage | Missing-value rule | Source ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Protected unit | Device, workload, or seat count | does not apply to the storage meter; backup-tool licensing remains separate | unknown is never zero | [1] [4] [5] |
| Retained capacity | Included, capped, or separately metered according to the service | GB-month or GiB-month by offer | not published remains visible | [4] [6] |
| Backup and read requests | Usually absorbed into the service boundary unless separately published | Provider-specific request meters and allowances | not published remains visible | [7] |
| Restore retrieval and temporary copy | Service-specific | Class-specific and sometimes does not apply for online storage | unknown is never zero | [11] [12] |
| Public-internet egress | Service-specific restore policy | Destination-specific allowance and overage schedule | not published prevents a complete total | [3] [7] |
| Early deletion on a read-only restore | does not apply | does not apply | A separate mutation is priced separately | [12] |
No best online backup ranking is produced
This page has not installed agents, run backups, measured recovery time, tested file selection, exercised support, or restored production workloads. It therefore does not award a managed-backup winner. [2] [5]
Object-storage offers may be compared only after the workload and backup tool are fixed and the complete storage-and-recovery receipt is available. If the required values remain not published, not comparable, conditional, stale, or unknown, the page keeps that state and declines a false winner. [6] [7] [8]
| Rejected shortcut | Why rejected | Correct result | Source ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank $99/device-year against $0.00695/GB-month | Different units and different included service | not comparable | [1] [6] |
| Call object storage a managed backup service | The backup application and workload support are separate | not comparable | [8] |
| Call the lowest storage rate the cheapest recovery | Requests, retrieval, temporary-copy storage, and egress may dominate a restore | unknown until the full receipt is specified | [11] [7] |
| Publish a best online backup winner | No managed products were tested | does not apply | [2] [5] |
Sources
Every figure above comes from one of these pages, on the date shown. Each numbered reference in the text links to its entry here. Vendors change prices; if a date looks old, check the source. Three vendors publish a machine-readable feed and the rest are re-checked by hand, which is why the dates are not uniform.
The source ledger12 sources
- 1Backblaze: Businesswww.backblaze.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 2Backblaze help centre: What does Backblaze Backuphelp.backblaze.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 3Backblaze: Create a restore web uiwww.backblaze.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 4Acronis: Cyber protect pricingwww.acronis.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 5Acronis: Backup quotaswww.acronis.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 6Backblaze: Cloud storage pricingwww.backblaze.com · checked 2026-07-25T15:34:44Z
- 7Backblaze: Transaction pricingwww.backblaze.com · checked 2026-07-25T15:34:44Z
- 8Backblazewww.backblaze.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 9Backblaze: What gets backed upwww.backblaze.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 10Backblaze: Cloud storage integration guideswww.backblaze.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 11AWS documentation: Restoring objectsdocs.aws.amazon.com · checked 2026-07-26
- 12AWS documentation: Archived objectsdocs.aws.amazon.com · checked 2026-07-26