Comparison

BackupKit vs Carbonite

Set-and-forget vendor cloud vs. storage you control

BackupKit — Your storage, your keys, no lock-in vs Carbonite — Hands-off subscription cloud backup

Carbonite built its name on simplicity: install it, and it quietly backs up your PC to Carbonite's cloud for a flat yearly subscription. For someone who wants “backup” to be a thing they buy once and never think about, that's a legitimate and comfortable choice.

BackupKit asks one question Carbonite doesn't: whose cloud? Instead of bundling storage, BackupKit sends encrypted backups to storage you already own — a NAS, an FTP/SFTP server, your existing cloud drives. You give up “I never think about storage” to gain control over where your data sits and who can read it.

BackupKit vs Carbonite at a glance

Carbonite bundles the storage and asks you to trust its cloud. BackupKit asks whose cloud, and hands you the key.

Feature comparison between BackupKit and Carbonite
Capability BackupKit Carbonite
Storage included in the price No Yes
You choose the destination Yes No
Encrypted with your key by default Carbonite's private-key option exists but shifts all recovery responsibility to you and disables some conveniences Yes Partial
Backups survive a lapsed subscription Stop paying Carbonite and the data in their cloud goes away; BackupKit archives stay where you put them Yes No
Restore with any zip tool Yes No
Multiple jobs, each with its own schedule and retention Carbonite's consumer plans are per-computer and focused on one simple flow Yes Partial
Set-and-forget with nothing to configure This is Carbonite's real strength and the reason to pick it Partial Yes

Every row here is argued in full below. If a row looks like it is missing context, it is — the prose is where the trade-off lives.

The subscription and the lock-in

Carbonite's price includes storage, which is convenient — but it also means your backups are only as available as your subscription. Stop paying and the data in their cloud goes away. Renewal prices are theirs to set.

BackupKit's backups live on storage you control, in a standard encrypted-archive format. A lapsed BackupKit license doesn't delete anything — your archives are still sitting on your NAS or in your cloud drive, restorable with any zip tool. The lifetime option removes the subscription question entirely.

Carbonite backs up to Carbonite's own cloud, and access depends on the subscription staying active. BackupKit writes to storage you already own, and the archives remain there.
When the subscription ends, so does access to their cloud.

Encryption you control

Carbonite encrypts your data, but in its standard mode the keys are managed for you (the private-key option exists but shifts all recovery responsibility onto you and disables some conveniences). BackupKit always encrypts client-side with your key before upload, so the destination only ever holds ciphertext.

Scope and flexibility

Carbonite's consumer plans are per-computer and focused on a simple “back up this PC” flow. BackupKit lets you define multiple jobs with different sources, destinations, schedules, and retention — back up your documents to the cloud nightly and your photo library to a NAS weekly, each on its own policy. That flexibility is the point, and it's more than a single hands-off service usually offers.

Bottom line

Pick Carbonite if you want the simplest possible “set it and forget it” cloud backup for one PC, with storage included, and you're happy keeping your data in their cloud.

Pick BackupKit if you want to choose where your backups live, hold your own encryption keys, run multiple jobs with their own policies, and avoid being tied to one vendor's cloud or subscription.

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