Acronis True Image cloud backup review

Our Verdict

Acronis Truthful Image has a scenic assortment of powerful features and functions that justify its loftier price, simply most people will never use them.

For

Modern, intuitive user interface
Extremely small organisation impact
Very all-encompassing, powerful, unique feature set up

Confronting

Incredibly expensive
Extras unnecessary for most users
Poor spider web and mobile feel

Tom'southward Guide Verdict

Acronis True Image has a breathtaking array of powerful features and functions that justify its high cost, just about people volition never use them.

Pros

+
Modern, intuitive user interface
+
Extremely small organisation impact
+
Very all-encompassing, powerful, unique feature set

Cons

-
Incredibly expensive
-
Extras unnecessary for almost users
-
Poor spider web and mobile experience

Acronis True Image: Specs

Number of devices backed up per subscription: Upward to five computers; unlimited mobile devices
Storage limit: 5TB
Backups of tethered external drives: Yes
Backups of network storage drives: Yes
Backups of mobile devices: Yep
Operating arrangement/application backups: Yes
Backups to local drives: Yes
Ii-factor authentication: No
Drive shipping: No

Acronis True Image, rebranded as Acronis Cyber Protect Dwelling Office equally of September 2021, is a frustrating service. Information technology has the best-looking and near intuitive desktop awarding amidst the all-time cloud backup services that I recently tested, only the loftier cost of storage along with the poor spider web-portal and mobile experiences brand Acronis hard to recommend for the boilerplate home user.

The basic Acronis cloud-storage service tier starts at 500GB, which might not be enough storage for the kind of power user who would actually take advantage of the robust functionality that Acronis offers.

Virtually consumer users would be improve served past IDrive, which delivers many of the same features every bit Acronis Cyber Protect Home Function at a fraction of the toll. If your needs are less complex, effort a solution like Backblaze, which offers unlimited storage for merely $70 a year for a single machine.

Still, there are those users who will capeesh the huge number of unique features that Acronis brings to the table. If you are willing to pay Acronis' high storage prices, and y'all program to make apply of all its tools and functions, the service itself is mostly excellent.

Read on for the rest of our Acronis True Prototype review.

Acronis True Epitome: Deject backup services defined

Online-backup services, or cloud backup services, make an online re-create of every personal file on your computer. Some of these services also dorsum upwards arrangement files, applications, smartphones, tablets and external difficult drives to the cloud. Near offer unlimited (or at least a lot of) storage for a apartment subscription fee, and many, including Acronis, tin can also make local file backups to an external hard bulldoze.

Online-syncing services like Dropbox or OneDrive serve a different purpose. They create online copies of specific files and circulate them to all your devices so you lot always have access to the latest files. Acronis builds a limited syncing function into Acronis True Image/Cyber Protect Dwelling Office. Only it would cost besides much to employ an online-syncing service to support all your files.

If yous accept thousands of photos, videos, or music files yous want backed up to a safe location, a deject-fill-in service is what y'all need.

Acronis True Image: Costs and what'due south covered

Acronis began in 2003 as a maker of local-backup and disc-imaging software and quickly earned a practiced reputation. The company still offers this offline solution, called Acronis True Image Standard, for a one-fourth dimension fee of $59.99 for one machine, $89.99 for three or $119.99 for five. The catch is that you'll get free upgrades for only 30 days after purchase.

Acronis True Image cloud backup review — (Image credit: Tom'south Guide)

If you'd rather not pay for upgrades, and then you lot tin can subscribe to the local-backup software in the form of Acronis True Epitome Essentials. That costs $49.99 per year for one PC, $79.99 for three or $99.99 for five. As with all Acronis subscription plans, there are frequently hefty discounts offered for the offset year.

Neither Standard nor Essentials comes with an online-fill-in component. For that, you demand to upgrade to i of Acronis' two other subscription plans, which cost more and which Acronis classifies every bit "hybrid backup," with both local and online aspects.

The cheaper tier is called Acronis Cyber Protect Habitation Office Advanced and includes 500GB of deject storage. It's $89.99 per year for one estimator, $129.99 for iii or $189.99 for five, but keep in heed that the 500GB cloud-storage cap stays the same. (The sometime $49.99/year, 250GB cloud selection has been dropped.)

Even the half-terabyte cloud-backup plan is going to be a tight squeeze for a lot of users. For people with more significant backup needs, the Premium plan (starting at $124.99 per year) offers 1TB of online backup for a unmarried reckoner. Each additional terabyte is $twoscore, all the way upwardly to 5TB for $284.99 per twelvemonth.

Moving to three computers on the Premium program costs an extra $65, but after that it's just $20 to crash-land upwardly to five machines. Actress terabytes are still $40 apiece, then the about y'all'll pay for Acronis True Image is $369.99 per year for 5TB of backup space for five machines. (It'due south sometimes half off for the first twelvemonth.)

Mobile devices aren't counted past Acronis as computers, so you can back up an unlimited number of them nether whatsoever Acronis cloud plan. Different some other online backup services, Acronis can support both external drives attached to a computer and NAS drives on a home network to the deject. It can even duplicate your local backup files to the cloud, a feature Acronis calls "Dual Protection."

Acronis local-backup software has a very good reputation, and power users can employ information technology to both clone and "image" their drives in case of a bulldoze failure or other disaster. (Cloning creates an exact copy of the same size, while imaging creates a compressed copy.)

Acronis True Paradigm, ahem, Cyber Protect Home Office Essentials bundles in ransomware and cryptomining blockers, as well equally absurd extras similar Active Deejay Cloning, which allows you to replicate your Windows or Mac organisation while your computer is running and to create a virtual PC using your local cloned drive.

With the Advanced plan, you lot likewise become backups of your Microsoft 365 files stored on Microsoft's servers, plus Acronis' own antivirus software, discussed in further detail beneath. The Premium plan gives you blockchain certification of files and electronic signatures. In that location's a mind-boggling number of other Acronis features that nosotros'll become into.

At that place are clearly some users for whom all these complex and powerful features are important and useful. But for the average user who will seldom or ever use them, it simply doesn't make sense to pay $90 per year for 500GB of deject storage, permit alone $125 for 1TB.

Compare this to Backblaze, which gives you unlimited backup storage on one machine (including external drives) for $seventy per yr or $130 for two years. Yous could accept ii years of Backblaze unlimited fill-in for $five more than the cost of a single yr of the Acronis 1TB plan.

Meanwhile, IDrive lets y'all dorsum upward every bit much equally 5TB from an unlimited number of machines for $80 per yr. The comparable plan on Acronis would cost $370 per year.

Acronis Cyber Protect Habitation Role runs on Windows seven SP1, macOS High Sierra x.13, iOS 11.0, Android half-dozen.0 Marshmallow and later versions of all iv operating systems. There's no Linux version for abode users, but some Acronis forum users say True Prototype's Linux-based rescue deejay will do the job for Linux machines and has actually improved with more contempo versions of Acronis. (Utilize this at your ain risk.)

Acronis True Epitome: Performance

We tested v deject-backup services (Acronis Truthful Image, Backblaze, Carbonite Safe, CrashPlan for Small-scale Business and IDrive Personal) using a Lenovo Yoga C940 14-inch laptop with a tenth Gen Intel Core i7 running 64-bit Windows 10 Home. Mobile apps were tested on a Google Pixel iii with Android x. Each service'south software was uninstalled from both devices earlier another service's software was installed.

Our examination set of files to support consisted of 15.6GB of documents, photos, videos and music. We uploaded this data to each cloud-backup service and and then restored a 1.4GB subset of these files to the Lenovo Yoga C940. We used the GlassWire application to monitor upload and download speeds, and the congenital-in Windows Resource Monitor to track CPU usage.

We conducted our tests in Middleton, Wisconsin, using TDS Telecom Extreme300 Fiber abode internet service, which theoretically provided up to 300 megabits per second (Mbps) down and 300 Mbps up. Real-globe speeds were typically closer to 50 Mbps downwardly and 60 Mbps up, co-ordinate to Speedtest.net.

	Acronis True Paradigm	Backblaze	Carbonite Safe	CrashPlan for Small Business organisation	IDrive Personal
Initial upload speed	26.four Mbps	36.4 Mbps	17 Mbps	27 Mbps	25.one Mbps
File-restore speed	thirteen.1 Mbps	27.5 Mbps	21.1 Mbps	34.iv Mbps	12.4 Mbps
CPU usage during backup	>i%	two.five%	3.3%	7.3%	one.2%
CPU usage otherwise	>i%	>1%	>i%	>1%	>1%

Our initial upload of the 15.6GB of files to Acronis' servers took approximately one 60 minutes and 31 minutes for an average transfer speed of 26.4 Mbps. This was a substantial improvement over our previous result with Acronis, which took just under three hours with a comparably sized file set.

Restoring our 1.4GB set of video files from the Acronis servers took approximately 15 minutes and 20 seconds, virtually l% longer than the previous yr's test. Co-ordinate to speedtest.net, our connection provided a download speed of 64 Mbps at this time, while Acronis downloaded our data at approximately thirteen.one Mbps.

This result put Acronis in 2d-to-concluding identify for file restoration speed, ahead of only IDrive and virtually 10 minutes backside the fastest performer, CrashPlan. It'due south a dramatic reversal from our previous Acronis test, and we promise that they will correct information technology.

Acronis Truthful Epitome used an average of less than one percent of CPU resource during the fill-in procedure. Naturally, resource usage remained below ane percent following the initial backup as well.

While near of the deject-fill-in services accept improved on this metric since our last circular of tests, Acronis was both the worst performer in the previous round, using as much as 15% of CPU cycles during backups, and the about improved in the electric current one.

Acronis Truthful Paradigm: User interface

Acronis True Image has unquestionably the best-looking desktop interface that I tested, and despite the wealth of features, the interface makes most of the features that yous would regularly employ intuitive and accessible.

The left column displays the seven sections of the awarding and the content for the current section is displayed on the right.

The showtime section is backup. I like the way that Acronis organizes this department, with a unmarried column listing any of your backups and the status of that backup along with the pick to recover data from it displayed in a third column. You can set backup options individually for each backup (including a custom default) with scheduling, notifications, file or folder exclusions and network prioritization.

Side by side is the Archive, for files that y'all no longer have space for on your PC simply would still like to keep either on an external bulldoze or in your Acronis cloud. This is a overnice feature to have.

Sync is very similar to IDrive's and allows you to create a folder that volition then sync between your PC and other devices on which you have Acronis True Paradigm installed. Depending on your needs, this could save y'all from paying for extra space with a deject-syncing service like Google Bulldoze or Dropbox.

Tools is where Acronis keeps the features that most users won't frequently use. I'll encompass some of them in Extra Features below.

However, this is also where you lot find the Clone Disk function, which tin can create a perfect copy of your C drive in Windows, the including operating system, applications and data. Acronis is 1 of the few services that let you dorsum upwards a disk clone or disk epitome to the deject. Others only let y'all exercise this to a local drive, restricting cloud backups to "personal" files and excluding Os's and applications.

At that place's also Rescue Media Builder, which creates a bootable wink drive or external hard disk for your PC. The only other service that I tested that offers a clone-disk characteristic is IDrive.

As most settings are handled inside the appropriate sections, Acronis has ane of the less crowded settings menus I've seen. In information technology, you tin set a battery to cease backups if a laptop battery gets also low and designate preferred or disallowed Wi-Fi networks for backup.

Acronis has e'er been alee of the pack of deject-backup solutions. It'southward the best-looking and most intuitive option on the marketplace. It keeps adding new features. IDrive has gained some basis on Acronis, but at that place is still no question every bit to who the innovation leader is, and the other cloud-fill-in services are far behind.

This sentiment does not carry over to the web interface for Acronis. While it looks consequent with the desktop software, it'due south incredibly slow to utilise. Unfortunately, it's the only fashion to admission the sharing features in Acronis Truthful Image. Both the usability of the spider web interface and the sharing options are superior on IDrive.

Acronis True Image: Mobile apps

I like the basic look of the Acronis True Image 2020 mobile app, and like IDrive, it does back up smartphone and tablet files. But the bodily functionality of the Acronis app is mostly disappointing.

The interface to back up your mobile files looks nice, but the app lacks even a basic search characteristic, something every other service I tested offers.

Acronis also places the file extension in a blueish circle to the left of the file rather than cogent the file blazon with an icon. IDrive is the just service that offers paradigm and video previews of all media files in the file viewer, so Acronis is inappreciably lonely in not having them.

What makes it specially odd is that Acronis does offer thumbnails for photograph and video files that are backed up from your smartphone or tablet. It'southward inexplicable to me why this wouldn't exist something that would carry over to your primary backup, as it makes finding and downloading the correct image or video so much easier.

Unless you lot are particularly swayed by the ability to back up your smartphone, something which Android and iOS offering natively and which IDrive does better, in that location's little that is compelling virtually the Acronis Truthful Image mobile app.

As I mentioned previously, at that place are a number of interesting features in the Tools department of the desktop application, and I'll cover a few of them here.

Organisation Make clean-up will wipe all of the personal information from your PC, including passwords and usage history. Acronis Bulldoze Cleanser permanently destroys all data on your PC, and Acronis Secure Zone creates a protected partition for storing backups on your hard drive. Once more, it's unlikely that most home users are going to utilise these features, but I'yard sure they are valuable if you practice demand them.

Try & Decide is 1 characteristic that I notice peculiarly interesting. Information technology saves the current country of your PC before you do something that is potentially risky, such every bit installing a new piece of software, a beta OS update or a questionable attachment and allows you to roll dorsum your PC that previous land if the risky activeness does indeed bear witness to exist a bad decision.

Agile Protection is some other unique offering from Acronis, It protects your PC from ransomware and cryptomining malware by monitoring your system and backups for unexpected patterns of behavior in changes to your files. You tin set up exclusions if at that place are files or folders that you don't wish to be included in this monitoring.

At that place'southward also a vulnerability cess tool that scans computers and applications for security holes, such equally outdates software, and recommends steps to have.

Finally, Acronis recently added its own antivirus software with its subscription plans. Confusingly, Acronis refers to it as "antimalware" software, which would normally imply that it just cleans up files afterwards infection, but it appears to be full-fledged antivirus software that prevents infections also.

The Acronis antivirus software works on Macs as well every bit Windows. Withal, only Windows users get the feature that protects videoconferencing streams with Zoom, Cisco WebEx or Microsoft Teams, or the web filtering that blocks known malicious sites.

Acronis' antivirus software does fairly well on third-political party lab tests of antivirus software, though most of our picks for all-time antivirus software — including Microsoft'southward built-in solution — do amend.

Acronis Truthful Image review: Lesser line

Acronis Truthful Image, aka Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office, would admittedly be a contender for the acme spot on our listing of best cloud fill-in services if it had remotely competitive pricing. Technically, it's head and shoulders above the residuum.

But the value proposition for the average user is just terrible, and that knocks it out of consideration. Acronis is best for deep-pocketed power users who volition need and tin can afford the actress features that Acronis charges a premium price for.

Virtually users should look to IDrive for its fairly advanced features at considerably better pricing, or a simple unlimited and inexpensive solution similar Backblaze.

Still, if price is not a gene for you, and you tin live with a poor mobile and spider web experience, then the core Acronis True Image desktop application is a pleasure to use and volition perform solidly while having near no bear upon on your system.

Updated throughout to reflect proper noun change to Acronis Cyber Protect Home Function. This review was originally published March 31, 2021.

A self-professed "wearer of wearables," Sean Riley is a Senior Author for Laptop Magazine who has been covering tech for more a decade. He specializes in covering phones and, of grade, wearable tech, simply has also written about tablets, VR, laptops, and smart dwelling devices, to name but a few. His articles have also appeared in Tom'southward Guide, TechTarget, Phandroid, and more than.