What Backblaze does well

I use and recommend off-site backup, so let me give Backblaze its due:

Truly unlimited storage. Back up two terabytes or twenty. It's one flat price, no storage math, ever.

It's effortless and continuous. Install it, and it quietly mirrors your files off-site. Nothing to schedule, nothing to think about.

It's off-site by default. Your data physically leaves the building, so fire, theft, and flood can't take it, automatically. VaultGuard's second copy can go off-site too, but you have to choose where it goes.

It's cheaper than VaultGuard Backup, and it covers Macs too.

The mail-a-drive restore is great for recovering huge amounts of data without waiting on your internet connection.

If your goal is simply "all my files, safe in the cloud, no effort," Backblaze is a fine answer and I'll say so.

Where VaultGuard Backup is different

I didn't build VaultGuard Backup to be a cheaper Backblaze. I built it to do a different job:

It restores your whole machine, not just your files. This is the big one. After a dead drive, Backblaze hands your files back but leaves you to rebuild the computer from scratch first. VaultGuard Backup brings the entire machine back, operating system, programs, settings, and files, as a single image. Hours of downtime instead of a weekend of rebuilding.

It proves the backup works, every week. Backblaze trusts that what it uploaded will come back down, and most of the time it does. VaultGuard doesn't take it on trust. Every week it picks about fifty of your real files, pulls them back out of the backup, and compares them to the originals. The restored copies stay on your drive so you can open one yourself. Then it gives you a Safety Score from 0 to 100 for how much of your recovery has actually been proven, and the next step to raise it.

It restores fast, from a drive in your hand. Backblaze restores by downloading everything over your internet, which for a full machine can take days (that's why they'll mail you a drive). VaultGuard Backup restores from the drive on your desk, at drive speed.

It can start the computer when Windows won't. The recovery drive builder turns a USB stick into a drive that boots the machine into Windows' own recovery, so a dead drive doesn't mean a trip to a shop first.

Your backups stay on drives you own. Backblaze keeps everything in Backblaze's cloud, and if you stop paying, it's deleted after a grace period. VaultGuard writes a full image to a drive you own and keeps a second copy on another drive, or in a folder your own cloud service already syncs. If your subscription lapses, nothing is deleted and your backups stay restorable.

There's a real person behind it. Me, in Hardin County, Kentucky. Not a support queue.

One thing worth knowing about how long Backblaze keeps things

Backblaze's standard plan keeps deleted and changed files for 30 days. For a lot of people that's fine, but it catches some off guard, and it's worth understanding before you rely on it. If you delete a file and don't notice for a couple of months, it's gone. And here's the one that surprises people most: if you unplug an external drive and leave it disconnected for 30 days, Backblaze treats those files as deleted and removes them from your backup. A recurring theme in Backblaze's own customer reviews is someone discovering, too late, that the thing they went looking for had already aged out.

You can extend the history by paying more, and that's a fair option. But it's the kind of fine print I'd rather just tell you about up front. VaultGuard Backup keeps several restorable versions on a drive you control, and nothing gets swept away on a timer you forgot about.

They're not really enemies

Here's the thing a salesman wouldn't tell you: a lot of careful people run both. Backblaze gives you unlimited, continuous, off-site file history with zero effort. A local image tool like VaultGuard Backup gives you a fast, whole-machine recovery that's been tested. That's exactly the layered "don't keep all your eggs in one basket" approach the pros recommend. If you've got the budget, they complement each other rather than compete.

So which one is right for you?

You want all your files safe off-site, unlimited, with zero thought: Backblaze is a great pick.

You want your whole Windows machine recoverable fast, from a drive you own, tested every week, with a human to call: that's what I built VaultGuard Backup for.

Not sure where your current backup stands? Take the two-minute backup safety test.

Try it free. No credit card, no catch.

Take VaultGuard Backup for a 14-day free trial. No credit card required. Point it at a drive you own, let it image your machine, and see how it feels to know you could be back up and running in hours, not days.

And if you'd rather I just set it up for you, reach out. That's what I'm here for.

Start your free trial

David Martin
Information Security Kentucky LLC
Protect. Prevent. Prepare.
Hardin County, Kentucky

VaultGuard Backup vs Backblaze: an honest comparison

Backblaze is one of the best-liked backup services out there, and for good reason: one flat price, truly unlimited cloud storage, and it just runs in the background and protects your files. If that's what you want, I'll tell you straight. Backblaze is excellent at it.

But here's the difference that matters, and most people don't realize it until the worst possible day: Backblaze backs up your files. VaultGuard Backup backs up your whole machine, and then proves, every week, that the backup actually restores. That sounds like a small distinction. It isn't.

If your hard drive dies, Backblaze will get your documents and photos back, but you'll first have to reinstall Windows, then reinstall every program, reconfigure everything, and then pull your files back down from the cloud. VaultGuard Backup restores the entire machine, Windows, your programs, your settings, and your files, as one image, from a drive sitting on your desk.

The short version

Choose Backblaze if you want unlimited, effortless, off-site backup of all your files for one low price, you're on Mac or Windows, and "my files are safe in the cloud" is the goal.

Choose VaultGuard Backup if you're on Windows and you want a full image of your whole machine you can restore fast from a drive you own, tested every week so you know it works, with a real person behind it.

Side by side