Local Backup vs. Online Backup

People have already realized the importance of data backup nowadays, because it’s the most secure method to prevent data loss and retrieve it after it’s lost.

There are two main ways of data backup, local backup and online backup. The significant difference between the two is in where the backup is stored. If you choose local backup, you store the backups on the computer whose data is backed up or to external or optical drives. On the other hand, you store backups on remote server provided by online backup service providers and use internet to reach it if you choose online backup.

Here let’s make a brief comparison between local backup and online backup and then you know which one is better for you.

First we must understand there is no absolutely better ways between local backup and online backup. There is only comparatively better way for different users.

Let’s check from the following points.

1. How much space does backup take?

A. For online backup, the space where you store your backup is provided by the service provider and there is nothing to do with your own hard disk. Just learn that the more money you pay, the more space you get.

B. For local backup, generally the sizes of backup files may be 50% to 100% as large as the size of original data you want to backup. So space issue is one of the biggest concerns when you choose local backup software. However, there is some new concept of backup software. Wondershare Time Shuttle, for example, takes little space when creating backup. It’s a revolutionary program making backup and restore easier than ever.

2. Price.

A. Online backup charges users monthly or yearly. The fee is about $5- 10 a month or $50- 100 a year and you get 30GB to 1TB space for the price. If you want more space, pay more. A few service providers may offer unlimited space for the same price.

B. You pay only once for local backup program, usually $40- 80, and then you can use it on the computer forever. The program Time Shuttle mentioned above is $49. And other ones like Norton Ghost, $69, Acronis, $74, etc.

3. Elapsing time for backup.

A. The first time online backup uses at least ONE DAY to backup your data to the remote server. The larger size of your data, the more days needed. Later you only need to backup the incremental data and this takes minutes.

B. Local backup programs usually take less than 10 minutes to finish backup, no matter the whole disk or the incremental. Wondershare Time Shuttle takes 5 seconds to create a snapshot.

4. Disaster prevention

A. Since online backup service stores your backup data on their servers, you can get your data backup even if your computer is lost or broken. Actually this is believed the nicest advantage of online backup—your backups are much safer. After fire, earthquake or device lost, whatever, you can get your data backup from remote server. They even backup your backup files in different places from where your backups are stored.

B. Usually local backup programs store backups on the same computer or external hard disk. So if the computer itself is lost or totally broken, or the external hard disk is lost, then your backups are gone.

There are many other differences between the two and they each have their own advantages. For reasons of space the author doesn’t list more comparisons. But from what are listed above we can see that online backup is more suitable for those who have large amount of data want to backup and want to make sure the backup is perfectly on the safe side, so businesses and enterprises may prefer this way to backup the company data. For individuals, on the other hand, local backup is more facile and cheap. Anyway, natural and man-made calamities are not all around.