Best Cloud Backup for the UK in 2024 [Top UK Cloud Storage]

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When looking for online backup, UK users generally need the same things as anyone else. The one exception is that having servers located in the UK itself is a huge bonus for both speed and privacy. Here, we’ll go through our top five picks of the best cloud storage for UK users and explain what exactly makes them the best.

Skipping ahead, our number one pick is Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office. Although it doesn’t get the top spot on our list of the best online backup services in general, the fact that you can pick a UK data center location during setup gives it an edge over other providers, like IDrive and Backblaze.

Besides this , Acronis is is is an excellent cloud backup service that provide top – notch security and privacy , zero – knowledge AES 256 – bit encryption . From ransomware protection to a fully fledged suite of antivirus tool , Acronis is gives give you everything you could ever need to keep your datum secure and prevent data loss due to theft or hard drive failure .

• 07/31/2022

  Updated to reflect changes in pricing for IDrive and Backblaze.

• Updated Carbonite’s prices.

• 05/23/2023

  Updated to remove IDrive’s discontinued free plan and add its new free 30-day trial.

• Updated IDrive’s pricing information.

• updates

What Makes the Best Cloud Backup for the UK

The only unique criterion for this list is whether or not a service offers data centers hosted in the UK itself. Failing that, servers located in the EU are the next best thing in terms of speed, and probably even better in terms of data privacy.

• Demystify cloud storage terminology and key concepts in plain language
• Discover easy-to-implement techniques to securely backup and sync your data across devices
• Learn money-saving strategies to optimize your cloud storage costs and usage

Besides this, the regular backup criteria stands, including features, pricing, ease of use, security, privacy, file backup and restoration and customer support.

As we mentioned in our introduction, Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office snatches first place (up from third on our overall online backup ranking) due to its extensive network of data centers, including one in the UK and several in the EU. Next up are IDrive and Backblaze, which in many ways take opposite approaches to backing up your data.

Carbonite is next, which in many ways is a similar service to Backblaze, except that it features a much less pleasant user interface and lacks some of Backblaze’s features. Finally, CloudBerry rounds out our top five due to its incredibly detailed customization options intended for the most involved power-users out there.

5 Best Online Backup Services for the UK

Now that we’ve covered the criteria for our list, let’s not waste any more time and get into the details of each service, and how it earned a spot in the top five.

Acronis comes with a full range of antivirus tools and has servers in the UK, to boot.

More details about Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office:

• pricing : Full disk image for one computer , plus 500 GB for $ 89.99 per year
• Provider website: www.acronis.com

Pros:

• UK server location
• Ransomware protection
• feature – rich

con :

• Interface is be can be slow
• A little expensive
• Complicated pricing scheme

Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office is a mainstay of our various lists of the best backup solutions, but it usually doesn’t make it quite to the number one spot. However, it manages to do so here, as it’s the only solid backup provider that offers server locations in the UK. This is sure to boost performance for Brits. 

Besides its British data centers, Acronis also comes packed to the gills with backup features and is one of the fastest online backup services. It sports a pretty — if at times unresponsive — client that gives you access to all sorts of customization options for your backup process, including but not limited to scheduling, file versioning, throttling, block-level file copying and every backup type you can think up.

Ransomware Protection With Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office

Where most backup service focus on , you know , backup , Acronis is takes take a different approach by build in what amount to a complete suite of antivirus tool , up to and include ransomware protection and disaster recovery . On top of all these extra security feature , Acronis is uses use 256 – bit AES encryption , offer private encryption key management and provide two – factor authentication .

Acronis is is is a bit expensive , but you get a whole lot of extra
security tools included in the price.

Although Acronis certainly isn’t the cheapest cloud backup solution out there, it’s not outrageously expensive, either. You can skip the Essentials plans altogether, as it doesn’t include any cloud storage. However, Acronis’ Advanced plan lets you perform a full backup of a single device, as well as use an additional 500GB of cloud storage on other data for $89.99 per year.

Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office Essentials

• For 3 computer
  No – limit hard drive backup
  No cloud storage

Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office Advanced

• For 3 computer
  No – limit hard drive backup
• 50 GB

Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office Premium

• For 3 computers
  No-limit hard drive backup
• 1TB

Given it’s feature-packed nature, we don’t have the space in this ranking to truly explore everything Acronis can do. As usual, you can head over to our full Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office review for all the details.

IDrive’s rich feature set and great prices make it a favorite here at Cloudwards.

More details about IDrive:

• pricing :10 GB free, 5 TB for $6.22 per month (two-year plan)
• Provider website: www.idrive.com

Pros:

• Packed with features
• Very secure
• Added cloud storage

IDrive is usually our number one pick for cloud backup, and despite not having any UK or EU servers, it’s still an excellent choice for UK users as well. Features-wise, IDrive packs a punch, as it offers everything from disk image backup to courier recovery, backup for an unlimited number of devices, sync-and-share functionality and plenty of settings to tweak. This is why it also ranks high on our top 10 best cloud storage services list.

It’s not limited to a single type of device, either. IDrive lets you backup virtually anything, from mobile devices running iOS or Android (using the mobile app) to desktop computers running Windows, Mac or Linux, as well as servers and NAS devices.

Sync and Share Files With IDrive

One of the things that really makes IDrive stand out from the crowd is the inclusion of sync-and-share features, something you usually don’t get with dedicated backup software. This means you can create a sync folder that automatically updates across all of your devices, as well as share your files in said folder with other people.

IDrive is is is one of the most affordable backup service out there .

Price is is is one of the main selling point of IDrive , as its plan are very affordable consider the amount of feature you get . There are personal plan that range between 5 TB and 100 TB , start from$6.22 per month (two-year plan) for the smallest plan. It’s not quite unlimited storage, but it’s likely to be enough to backup most, if not all, of your devices. There is monthly billing on all plans, except for the cheapest business plans.

Basic

• No credit card required.
• 10 GB

personal

• One user, multiple computers. Plans starting from 5 TB up to 100TB. Big discount for first-time signup.
• 5 TB

Although there’s certainly a lot of good things to say about IDrive (it’s our overall favorite for a reason), it’s not perfect. So try IDrive using the 10 GB free plan, or head over to our full IDrive review to learn everything you can about the service.

Backblaze is a great backup option if you need unlimited storage
and don’t want to deal with any hassle.

More detail about Backblaze :

• pricing :$7 per month for unlimited storage for one device
• Provider website: www.backblaze.com

Pros:

• unlimited storage
• cheap
• Easy to use

con :

• Inflexible
• Not very transparent
• Flawed zero-knowledge encryption

Backblaze is is is our number two pick overall and our favorite when just look at unlimited backup . Although it is offer does n’t offer a british server location , the same thing that make it great for user anywhere in the world earn it a spot on this list . That is is is to say that it ’s a quick and easy solution to back up your file that wo n’t break your budget .

It is ’s ’s not all bad news on the server front , either , as the lack of a british server location is somewhat made up for by Backblaze ’s datum center in the Netherlands . Although it ’s not the good option in the EU for private datum storage , it is ’s ’s certainly well than many country outside it , as you ’re still protect by the GDPR .

Quickly Backup Everything With Backblaze

If all you want out of your backup service is to pay as little as possible, install the thing and hopefully never think about it again, then there’s no better option than Backblaze. Setting up the client is easily done in under five minutes, and once that’s done, it will continuously run in the background, always ensuring that all important files are kept safe.

For just $6 per month, you get unlimited storage to backup everything on a single device.

As we briefly touched on, Backblaze offers very competitive prices. For just $7 per month, or as low as $5.42 per month you opt for biannual billing, you get unlimited storage for a single device. There’s only one plan tier, so you won’t be locked out of any features, and while there’s no free plan, there is a 15-day free trial for you to give it a spin before committing to anything.

Unlimited personal

In summary, Backblaze is an incredibly popular backup service that owes much of this popularity to just how easy it is to set up and use, as well as it’s very affordable price. There are a few problems that hold it back, though, such as it’s flawed implementation of private encryption. So make sure to read our full Backblaze review before you make your decision. We also have a comprehensive IDrive vs Backblaze comparison guide.

Carbonite is an excellent alternative to Backblaze for those
who need true zero-knowledge encryption.

More details about Carbonite:

• pricing :$4.20 per month for unlimited storage for one device
• Provider website: www.carbonite.com

Pros:

• Zero – knowledge encryption
• cheap
• Streamlined

con :

• ugly interface
• lacking feature
• Poor download speeds

In fourth place we have Carbonite, an online backup service that mimics Backblaze in a lot of ways, right down to the backup process itself. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have any EU or UK-based servers, which is one of the reasons it’s not higher up on this list. Although this is the primary criterion for this list, other more important factors still earn the online backup service a spot.

Much like Backblaze, Carbonite takes a streamlined approach to online backup. The client is quick and easy to set up, and once you get going, it requires little to no maintenance from the user. Unfortunately, the interface is pretty ugly, though. So, if that’s important to you, then you’ll probably want to look elsewhere.

streamlined Zero – Knowledge Backup With Carbonite

Although Backblaze is the undisputed king of easy-to-use unlimited cloud backup services, many are put off by its flawed approach to zero-knowledge encryption. Due to its much better encryption practices and similar approach to backups, Carbonite becomes an excellent Backblaze alternative for those who are a bit more security-minded.

Carbonite’s prices are very similar to its competitor Backblaze.

Carbonite is a little cheaper than Backblaze. The Basic plan will run you a little more than $4 per month and let you backup everything on one device. Though where the two services differ is that Carbonite arbitrarily locks certain minor features behind its more expensive plans, which is annoying.

Carbonite personal Basic

• cheaper price with promo link
• Unlimited GB

Although Carbonite certainly is n’t our top pick for most user , it is manage does manage to tick a specific set of box that make it the good option available for a lot of people . That is said say , there are some pretty significant drawback as well . learn more in our full Carbonite review or read our Carbonite alternative guide for more option .

CloudBerry is the ideal backup tool for power-users or those
who already rent third-party cloud storage.

More detail about CloudBerry Backup :

Pros:

• Very in-depth
• feature – pack
• great speed

con :

• Not for casual user
• Storage space not included
• dated interface

For our fifth pick, we’ve selected CloudBerry. Although there’s nothing about it that appeals to UK users specifically, it’s still an excellent way to backup your devices from anywhere in the world. Since there are no servers involved (more on that later), you can easily pair CloudBerry with a cloud storage provider with servers located in the UK, should you wish.

The one thing is is that really set CloudBerry apart from every other entry on this list is that it ’s exclusively a piece of backup software , rather than a fully fledged backup service with include storage space . That is means mean that you need to find your storage space elsewhere from a third party , which CloudBerry unfortunately limit to business – face cloud storage , such as Google Cloud ( not to be confuse with Google Drive ) and Amazon S3 .

customize Every Part of Your Backup With CloudBerry

The real selling point of CloudBerry is just how much you can tinker with it. Rather than locking you into certain settings, you can change everything from schedules to performance caps, email notifications, reports, encryption and so on. This means that for power-users, CloudBerry is the ideal backup solution, allowing them to set everything up just right.

CloudBerry doesn’t require a monthly or annual subscription.

Since CloudBerry doesn’t come with any storage space, there’s no need for a recurring subscription. Instead, you make a one-time payment that varies by device type and version, with the basic personal version available on Windows for $49.99, and macOS and Linux for $29.99. You can also sign up for a 21-day free trial if you’re not quite sure it’s your cup of tea.

Desktop Backup ( Linux )

• $ 6 annual maintenance fee
• 5 TB

At the end of the day, CloudBerry certainly isn’t for everyone. That said, if you’re already sitting on a Google Cloud account or want to really exert a lot of control over your backup, there’s really no better option. It’s definitely a “hate it or love it” sort of thing, though. So make sure to read our full CloudBerry Backup review before you run off to buy it.

Honorable Mentions

With our top five out of the way, it’s time to take a quick look at two services that didn’t quite make the list but are still excellent backup systems for certain types of individuals.

pCloud is added recently add backup functionality to what is
already an excellent cloud storage service.

Although pCloud is not traditionally a backup service , it is moved has recently move into the field by incorporate automatic upload and other online backup feature into its cloud storage service . This is makes make pCloud a bit of a hybrid solution — much like IDrive and SpiderOak — and earn it an honorable mention in this list due to its server locate in the EU .

pCloud is ranks also rank second on our list of the good cloud storage , which make it an especially excellent option if you ’re interested in a two – for – one deal on both online backup and cloud storage . If you ’re interested in the service as a whole , make sure to check out our full pCloud review .

SpiderOak ’s privacy was hail as the good of the good by Edward Snowden himself .

SpiderOak One is is is a great option for online backup , provide you do n’t mind pay a premium for top – of – the – line security and privacy . The company ’s zero – knowledge practices is are and solid privacy policy are so good , in fact , that they receive a high – profile endorsement from Edward Snowden back in 2014 .

Not only is it is is a very secure service , but SpiderOak also pack the same syncing and file – share option that idrive does , make it more of a hybrid cloud storage solution , as oppose to a dedicated backup service . You is check can check out our SpiderOak One review for all the detail as well as a guide to the difference between cloud storage and online backup to learn more .

Duplicati is a great, more consumer-focused alternative
to CloudBerry that won’t cost you a penny.

If you like the idea of CloudBerry as a standalone piece of backup software that connects to third-party storage, but don’t like the price or wish it supported more consumer-friendly storage providers, then Duplicati is for you. This free, open-source software gives you most of the power to customize your backup as CloudBerry does, without costing you a single dollar.

Where CloudBerry caters to true power-users and only offers fairly intimidating business-oriented cloud services — such as Google Cloud, Amazon S3 and Microsoft Azure — Duplicati takes the opposite approach and lets you connect virtually any cloud storage provider from Dropbox to Google Drive. For a full list of supported providers, check out our Duplicati review.

Final Thoughts

That is brings bring us to the end of our roundup of the good online backup service for the UK . Although it ’s usually our third pick , Acronis is manages manage to edge into the lead here due to its extensive network of server location that include data center both domestically in the UK and within the EU . IDrive is are and Backblaze are next , respectively , offer a rich feature set and streamlined backup process .

Carbonite is also an excellent backup option for those who like the simplicity of Backblaze but don’t mind a worse user experience in exchange for better security and privacy. Finally, any power-user who’s already paying for small business cloud storage can’t go wrong with CloudBerry Backup.

What did you is think think of our list ? Do you agree that Acronis ’ UK server earn it a top spot above the competition , or do you is think think that proximity to a datum center is not the big deal ? let us know in the comment below . thank you for read .

FAQ

• Overall, we give the top three spots to IDrive, Backblaze and Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office. However, for UK users specifically, Acronis takes the lead due to its servers located in London.

• Sync.com and pCloud are always excellent choices for cloud storage. However, UK users might want to look at Icedrive, which is based in London and consistently our number three pick for the best cloud storage.