At a look

Expert’s Rating

Pros

• Easy, pleasant interface
• Backs up native recordsdata in addition to recordsdata on Dropbox and Google Drive
• Rock strong efficiency
• Supports versioning

Cons

• Some promoting nags
• Doesn’t help different on-line locations.
• Backs as much as, however not from community areas

Our Verdict

For free, the surprisingly succesful FBackup 9 will again up recordsdata to or from any native storage together with optical discs, to community areas, in addition to to and from Google Drive and Dropbox.

Price When Reviewed

Free

Best Prices Today: Softland FBackup 9

FBackup 9 is a surprisingly succesful backup shopper on condition that it doesn’t price you a dime. It backs as much as and from native storage together with old-school optical discs — an actual rarity as of late. It even backs as much as Google Drive and Dropbox and can again up to community areas, although not from them.

While FBackup 9 is free, it’s additionally meant as a calling card for its paid-for sibling Backup4All, which helps a bunch of different on-line storage providers and also will again up from community areas.

Not surprisingly, there are some adverts in FBackup 9, although they’re usually saved properly out of the way in which. Hey, all of us should eat, proper?

Further studying: See our roundup of the best free backup software and services to find out about competing merchandise.

What are FBackup’s options?

FBackup 9 will carry out full backups and file mirroring to zip recordsdata, however omits Backup4All’s Smart (culled incremental/differential), Incremental (all modifications since final backup), and Differential (all modifications because the preliminary backup) backups.

Note that FBackup 9 retains all variations of recordsdata in its full backups, which ameliorates to a fantastic diploma the absence of these different choices.

The program robotically selects the commonest file varieties, however you’re free to make your personal picks, or create your personal filters to pick different file varieties. Jobs may be scheduled from month-to-month to day by day, at any time of the day underneath outlined circumstances (at power-on, and so forth.), however there’s nothing extra granular than that, and no real-time (as recordsdata change) backup.

As famous, different salient variations between the free FBackup 9 and Backup4All are the latter’s potential to again up knowledge from distant community areas in addition to far broader help for on-line storage providers. Google Cloud, Amazon S3 and S3-compatible providers simply to call a pair. See under.

Encryption can also be supported if it’s good to safe your knowledge. Note that FBackup employs its personal scheduler and two providers — nevertheless, the system footprint is pretty small so far as backup packages go.

How is the FBackup interface?

While I wouldn’t nominate FBackup 9 and it’s Microsoft Office-style, ribboned interface up for “most modern” GUI expertise, it’s one of many higher I’ve examined. There aren’t any abstracted ideas or arcane language, and it’s very properly organized and laid out. I discover it comparatively straightforward on the eyes and had no problem getting up to the mark.

Wizards step you thru most duties, so that you don’t should be an old-hand at backup to get issues achieved. But in case you are an old-hand, there’s a sophisticated mode that may get you there faster.

How does FBackup carry out?

My testing of backup software program as of late is primarily centered on reliability and smoothness of operation. Given the velocity of recent computer systems, storage, and even on-line storage as of late, you’ll not often discover {that a} backup program has a unfavourable influence on system efficiency.

So it was no shock that FBackup 9 turned in on-par completion occasions when performing backups to/from inside and exterior SSDs, a NAS field, a CD-RW, in addition to Dropbox and Google Drive. Restores have been equally facile.

FBackup 9 was usually steady and I solely encountered a single, circumnavigable glitch with CD-RW. I needed to erase the disc manually to keep away from an “incompatible disc” warning regardless of deciding on the “Erase before writing” possibility for the job. Ultimately, the job succeeded, which is crucial level.

Jon L. Jacobi / Foundry

There’s greater than enough suggestions on the progress of the roles, and you may hearth off a number of jobs concurrently. The program additionally backs up locked recordsdata.

Overall, I used to be greater than glad with this system’s workflow and reliability, a trait that’s paramount within the backup world. Sweet stuff.

Should you obtain FBackup?

If you’re a Google Drive or Dropbox person, FBackup is a no brainer freebie — way more versatile than Windows File History. It’s additionally one of many few video games on the town in case you’re nonetheless rocking optical discs. That it’s equally efficient at backing as much as native and community locations is icing on the cake.

You do should put up with a dose of up-selling, however hey, it’s free! And to be trustworthy, Backup4All is a worthy up-sell. There are a few versions from the $30 Lite to the $50 Professional, however in case you’re going the improve path, I like to recommend the full-on Pro model. In for a penny, in for a pound.

Look for an upcoming evaluation of huge sibling later this yr.