PennyBackup Review
Canadian based PennyBackup have one simple mission: to make online backup as cheap as possible. They have certainly achieved this, as their least expensive package works out to roughly $0.17 per GB of backup space for a full year of use. PennyBackup are one of the only providers we have heard of to offer such incremental storage sizes. They run on Asigra’s technology so even though they are a budget option, you are not losing out on quality of service. Because of the cheap price and the storage space options, PennyBackup is recommended for home users and very small business owners.
Features
The standout feature of this service is the backup resume. If your back up process is interrupted for any reason – such as your internet going out or your computer switching off – PennyBackup’s service will just pick up where it left off. This is invaluable as it will save you the time and stress of starting over, which is currently the case with many of their competitors. Other standout features include:
- Automatic backups
- Incremental backups
- Unlimited PC’s on the same network
- Selective backup
- File Versioning
- PC, Mac compatible
Another fantastic feature is their data compression. Unlike many of their competitors, PennyBackup have designed their service to give you the maximum out of your storage space possible. They do this by storing all of your files in a compressed format, thereby freeing up the space for more files.
Ease of Use
PennyBackup give you ample opportunity to sign up across their website, and signing up is extremely straightforward. You don’t need to give a credit card, just your name, phone number and address, and you’re ready to go. They offer a free trial so you can feel comfortable trying out the service before making the commitment to pay. Installation takes less than two minutes, and then you are provided with an Asigra dashboard. Though it is not simply designed, it is pretty easy to navigate. You can back up your files with either automatic or incremental backups. They give you full control over the frequency of backups, but we would recommend setting up a daily schedule as you can never be too careful.
PennyBackup Dashboard (Powered by Asigra)
Pricing
We cannot fault PennyBackup when it comes to price. For only $29.99 per year, users get up to 180 GB of storage. The value proposition offered by PennyBackup is clearly one of the best in the industry.
Security
PennyBackup also puts you in the driving seat when it comes to the security of your files. You can choose either 128-bit, AES-192 or AES-256 storage encryption with the standard SSL file transfer. Just to give you a frame of reference, almost all financial institutions, such as your bank, offers 128-bit encryption. 256-bit encryption is of a military grade. So your files will be pretty secure regardless of the package you chose. Because they are a sister company of Asigra, PennyBackup also uses Geo-Redundant storage. This means that they store you data in several locations across datacenters that are housed in two or more locations. With this level of protection, the only thing that could keep you from your files would be nothing short of a global disaster.
Customer Support
PennyBackup offers live 9-5 support Monday to Friday, and email seven days a week. They do fall a little short however, with their lack of resources. Many providers offer a more comprehensive FAQ pages or other such pages that provide information and step by step instruction for various aspects of their services. We looked at several forums to see how PennyBackup users felt about this and the general consensus is that PennyBackup take a personal approach to cloud storage and wants to speak with their users directly. Some users even reported being emailed directly by PennyBackup executives. This is a major plus in our book as it shows the type of commitment you expect to see in a service provider.
Summary
PennyBackup’s service is quite simply online backup for a penny. Their software is extremely affordable and easy-to-use, and they offer a robust backup and recovery solution for consumers who don’t require servers or exceedingly large volumes of data to be backed up. For the cost of one or two cups of coffee per month, your data is safely backed up and available for quick restoration at the click of a button. Consequently and as noted previously, we recommend PennyBackup for all home and small business users.
