1v1 Pricing Showdown
Carbonite Safe vs IDrive
Side-by-side pricing breakdown for Backup Tools decision-makers
Prices in USD, verified from the United States. Regional pricing may vary.
When choosing between Carbonite Safe and IDrive for your backup tools stack, the right answer depends on three things: your budget, the specific features you actually use day-to-day, and your tolerance for renewal-price increases. Below we lay out the prices each vendor advertises today (verified against their live pricing pages), the plan limits that decide whether they'll fit your team, and the features that differ between them.
Carbonite Safe starts at custom pricing; IDrive starts at $6.99/mo. The cheaper headline price isn't always the cheaper total cost — renewal pricing, per-user fees, and overage charges can shift the math. Use the plan-by-plan tables below to model your actual spend.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| unlimited data personal | Safe Basic/Plus/Prime | — |
| external drive backup | Plus and Prime only | — |
| video backup | Plus (manual) / Prime (automatic) | — |
| courier recovery | Prime only | — |
| hipaa ready | Safe Server | — |
| server backup | Safe Server tiers | Business tier |
| 30 day trial | Yes | — |
| private key encryption | Yes | — |
| multi device backup | — | Personal tier: 1 user, multiple computers |
| mobile backup | — | Yes |
| nas backup | — | Business tier |
| disk image backup | — | Yes |
| continuous backup | — | Yes |
| idrive express | — | Ship physical drive for initial upload/restore (1 free/yr) |
| versioning | — | Up to 30 versions |
| snapshots | — | Historical point-in-time recovery |
Affiliate links — you pay the same price
Dive Deeper
Carbonite Safe
About the backup tools category
Backup tools split into two philosophies in 2026. 'Unlimited per computer' (Backblaze Personal $99/year, Carbonite Basic $83.99/year): pay a flat rate per machine, back up every byte you own, simple mental model. 'Pay per TB' (IDrive $6.99-69.99/mo annual, Acronis with 500GB-10TB tiers): flexible sizing, multi-device support in one subscription, scales up for prosumers with NAS + external drives. CrashPlan exited consumer market in 2017, now targets 250+ employee organizations exclusively. Acronis is the hybrid play — backup + anti-ransomware + anti-malware + blockchain notarization in one subscription. Prices for comparable 2TB+ coverage range $84/year (Carbonite Basic) to $179/month (IDrive Business 5TB).
How to choose between backup tools options
First: one computer or many? One computer with unlimited data: Backblaze $99/year is the cheapest no-brainer. Many computers (family, small team): IDrive Personal 5TB at $83.88/year ($6.99/mo annual) covers multiple devices in one sub. Second: do you have external drives or NAS? Backblaze includes external drives. IDrive covers NAS + servers at Business tier. Carbonite Plus adds external drive support. CrashPlan originally differentiated here but now enterprise-only. Third: ransomware protection priority? Acronis bundles active anti-ransomware + anti-malware — useful for prosumers on Windows who don't want separate AV. Backblaze/IDrive have ransomware rollback but not active protection. Fourth: enterprise or SMB? CrashPlan Professional $10/device/month is the SMB/enterprise standard. Backblaze Business $99/computer/year undercuts it for smaller shops.
Building Your Business Stack?
Decision-makers comparing tools often need more than one category. Here are related comparisons:
Cloudinary)Frequently Asked Questions
- Does Carbonite Safe or IDrive offer a free plan?
- IDrive offers a free plan.
- Which is better, Carbonite Safe or IDrive?
- IDrive scores 8.9/10 compared to Carbonite Safe's 7.6/10 in our analysis. IDrive ranks higher on features and value, but Carbonite Safe may suit specific use cases — see the feature comparison above.
- Are there other backup tools alternatives besides Carbonite Safe and IDrive?
- Yes. Our [Backup Tools pricing comparison](/pricing/backup-tools/) page covers all major providers with daily-verified prices. You can also see the [cheapest backup tools](/pricing/backup-tools/cheapest/) for budget-focused options.