Acronis Online Backup Review

Full review

Acronis True Image Online Backup is an online backup service integrated into Acronis True Image Home 2012. How does it compete with the top online backup programs?

Setup

The setup is simple enough. After you purchase the program for $49.99/year or $4.95/month, you will receive an email with the download. After downloading, the installation isn't too long, but it does take longer than other similar programs.

Backup

Acronis Online Backup gives you 250 GB of storage with your subscription. To backup your computer or certain files, all you have to do is click “Online Backup” and select what drives, folders, and files you want to be backed up.

The backup takes a while, but luckily it can run in the background and not slow down your computer. After your first backup, the program will remember all of the files you backed up last and you will not have to add those to your backup list anymore. You can have your files be backed up automatically with scheduling.

Since Acronis Online Backup is integrated with Acronis True Image Home, it also let's you backup files to other places like external hard drives, USB, and CD's. The subscription plan allows backup for up to five PC's.

Restore

Restoring files is made easy with Acronis Online Backup. Just click restore and you'll get a list of your backed up files. Just check the ones you want and the program will get to work quickly.

Acronis restores everything to their original place on your computer, even if you're doing a complete restore. This is a great feature to have in any backup service. Too many backup services nowadays just throw all of your recovered files into a folder and let you do all the work. Older versions of files can also be restored if a file is corrupted or changed.

Security

Acronis uses AES-256 Government-Grade encryption to safely transfer and store all of your files. Don't worry, your files will be safe.

Features

Acronis Online Backup has plenty of features to go around. You can access your files from any computer that's connected to the internet and restored files all go back to their original places on your PC.

Acronis let's you decide how much CPU and network bandwidth you want to devote towards backups. So if you want to get it done quickly, you can slide the bar all the way up. If you'd rather have the program run in the background without impacting your PC performance, just keep it on low.

Where the real features lie is within the rest of True Image package. One example is the ability to sync multiple files or folders between computers. So if a change is made to a file on one computer, the other one will get the updated version.

Another neat feature is called “Try&Decide”. When you turn this feature on, you can make any changes you want to your computer with almost no consequences. Not sure if a program you want to download is safe? Just turn this feature on without worry because you can choose apply or revert the change to your computer after testing it out.

Most of the best features are built into the whole Acronis True Image Home package. The fact that you get these integrated with the online backup is what makes this service so unique.

Ease of use

Acronis Online Backup is not for novice computer users. There are tons of features that a casual user just wouldn't be able to use without help or instruction. The basic backing up and recover should be easy enough for anyone, but straying away from the basics is where beginners will run into trouble.

Once you learn how to use it, however, it's an extremely simple program to navigate and it's just as easy to use as any other program out there.

Help & support

There are many help topics provided that will likely help you with whatever problems that arise. There is also the option of heading over to their website and getting live chat help, email help, or even phone help.

Overall

With 250 GB storage for up to 5 PC's, and a competitive price of $49.99/year, that alone makes Acronis Online Backup a competitive service. But when you throw in the extra features integrated with the service, it brings something extra to the table that you just won't find with other backup services. If you don't need unlimited storage, Acronis might be right for you.