Carbonite

The Cloud Backup Pioneer That Keeps Things Simple

Carbonite launched in 2005 when backing up to the cloud was still a novel concept. People were burning DVDs. Carbonite made it dead simple: install the agent, it backs up everything automatically, and you forget about it until you need a file back. That simplicity built a massive customer base—millions of personal users and over 100,000 businesses.

OpenText (formerly Micro Focus) acquired Carbonite in 2019 as part of a larger data management strategy. The acquisition brought enterprise capabilities but also corporate complexity. The consumer product remains straightforward. The business products now span Carbonite Safe (endpoints), Carbonite Server Backup, and Carbonite Recover (disaster recovery).

What Carbonite Does Well

Set-and-forget backup. The agent runs quietly in the background, continuously protecting new and changed files. No manual scheduling needed. The web portal lets users self-serve restores of individual files, which reduces IT ticket volume. Unlimited cloud storage on the Basic and Plus personal plans means you never worry about running out of space—just point it at your drive and let it run.

For servers, Carbonite Safe Server provides image-based backup with bare-metal recovery. It's not as feature-rich as Veeam or Datto, but it works reliably for simple Windows Server environments. The disaster recovery add-on (Carbonite Recover) offers cloud failover for critical servers.

Where Carbonite Struggles

The initial backup is painfully slow. Backing up 500GB can take a week or more over typical internet connections, and Carbonite throttles upload speeds. No seed drive shipping option like Backblaze offers. Restore speeds are similarly limited by bandwidth. The personal product doesn't back up external drives on the Basic plan—you need Plus for that.

The business products feel disjointed since the OpenText acquisition. Three different product lines with separate consoles is confusing. Enterprise customers report that support quality has declined. And Carbonite's disaster recovery capabilities are basic compared to Datto or Veeam—no instant virtualization, no screenshot verification.

Honest Assessment

Carbonite is a solid choice for businesses that need simple, affordable cloud backup for endpoints and basic servers. The unlimited storage personal plans are hard to beat for individual users. But if you need true disaster recovery, ransomware protection, or complex VM backup, Carbonite is not the right tool. It does one thing well—basic cloud backup—and that's enough for many organizations.