Best NAS Cloud Backup in 2023 [Storage For Your Home Cloud]

Best NAS Cloud Backup in 2023: Secure Your Network-Attached Storage

Creating a NAS is easier than ever before, thanks to companies like Synology and QNAP. However, things can go wrong for even the most experienced and advanced users. To ensure your data is kept safe, read on to learn about the top five best NAS cloud backup providers.

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What Makes the Best NAS Cloud Backup Providers?

Many of the best online backup providers don’t offer any way to back up a NAS device. Others, such as Carbonite (read our Carbonite review), can back up these devices, but it’s incredibly expensive to do so.

Because of this, our main two criteria are the backup features for backing up a NAS and the price per gigabyte. However, we will also consider things like security and privacy, customer support, ease of use and transfer speeds.

IDrive — A backup service that’s cheap, easy to use and works well with any NAS
CloudBerry Backup — Versatile management tool for power users
Backblaze B2 — Cheap IaaS storage with a long compatibility list
MEGA — Solid cloud storage that works well with the right NAS box
Google Drive — Great if you want to use a large, well-known company

IDrive is our top provider. As a relatively cheap provider with cloud storage and online backup features, it’s no surprise to see it at the top of this list. However, it’s closely followed by CloudBerry Backup — a provider that focuses on giving users as much control as possible, and Backblaze B2 — a provider that’s incredibly easy to use without being too expensive.

In fourth and fifth places are MEGA and Google Drive. MEGA is a relatively simple solution for QNAP and Synology NAS devices that has great security, while Google Drive has some excellent features like integration with Google Workspace that works well if you also need a solid cloud storage service.

3. Backblaze B2

Cloudwards.net

More information about Backblaze B2:

Pricing: 10GB free; $0.005 per GB per month
Website: backblaze.com/b2

Pros:

Low per-GB cost
Fast courier backup system
Decent compatibility list

Cons:

Poor zero-knowledge integration
A little hard to use

If you’re using a pre-built NAS or an operating system made for NAS, there’s usually a backup manager included. For example, you can back up a Synology NAS with its HyperBackup software. These are great, but you’ll need a service to actually store your data. That’s where Backblaze B2 comes in.

Backblaze B2 isn’t as easy to use as the standard Backblaze client (read our Backblaze review), but it’s compatible with a wide selection of backup managers and often one of the easiest and cheapest options available. This means that it’s a good choice for most NAS setups, especially if you’re using a common OS like TrueNAS or a pre-built from a supported vendor.

Backblaze B2 also comes with some nice security options, like two-factor authentication and zero-knowledge encryption — just be sure to enable them. The private encryption is somewhat annoying to use, as you have to choose it and enter the key manually every time you upload files. Standard server-side encryption is easier to enable, as it’s done per bucket.

The Backblaze Fireball

One advantage of using Backblaze B2 storage is that you can order the Backblaze Fireball. This is a 96TB external drive that you can connect to your NAS and import all of your data. Since it can transfer at up to 10 Gbps through an ethernet cable, your initial backup can be done in just hours. You can even back up multiple NAS devices without spending too much time.

This much backup space comes at a cost. The $75 shipping fee, $550 30-day rent and $3,000 refundable deposit aren’t cheap. However, if you’re looking to back up your NAS after years of use and want to protect your data without uploads lasting weeks, this is a great option. It would take over 100 days to back up 96TB on a 80 Mbps connection, after all.

You can also order 8TB hard drives with your data on it, if you want a fast download. This costs $189 per hard drive, but that money is refunded when you return the device.

At just $0.005 per GB per month, Backblaze B2 is one of the cheapest hot storage providers available. There is a $0.004 charge for 10,000 “class B” and 1,000 “class C” API calls once you’re past the free 2,500 daily limit, but these are pretty reasonable compared to other IaaS providers.

If you’ve already got some kind of backup manager and aren’t a power user looking for every feature and option possible, Backblaze B2 is cheap, easy to use and is compatible with a wide range of devices and operating systems. Read more in our Backblaze B2 review.

ReviewVisit

Backblaze B2

Final Thoughts

Whether you prefer the option of cloud storage features or you want a dedicated backup service, there are plenty of ways to back up NAS to cloud storage. You can use a larger provider for long-term reliability, a smaller service for a unique feature or dedicated management software to mix and match other services.

Regardless of what you choose, it’s important to keep backups of your data, or you risk losing it all. If you want to find out more about how to backup your NAS or which home NAS device is the best, then be sure to read our other articles.

Do you have a NAS at home? Have you backed it up to the cloud? Did you use any of these services? Let us know in the comments below. Thank you for reading.

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Great article, I was wondering for a long time how to backup safely and efficiently. This saved me a lot of time.
Might need to update article here about Carbonite. Directly from Carbonite after asking them about backing up NAS drives/network drives:

“Carbonite can certainly back up a NAS drive with an Office plan! Unfortunately at this time, NAS drives cannot be backed up with a personal plan. I do apologize if this is an inconvenience.”

These plans are 2.5x more expensive. Otherwise, thanks for the information! I’m stuck in the CrashPlan Home shut-down move.
1. I’m also stuck in the Crashplan home shutdown and am looking for a solution. I use a NAS on a Mac so it looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me, as it says here that Carbonite doesn’t support macs either. Good luck!
  1. I’m in the same boat. NAS drive on a Mac with just under 2TB of photo files. CrashPlan was working well for me, but they’re no longer an option. I glanced briefly at iDrive, but their 2TB limit is an automatic deal breaker. I need something reliable that will handle a Mac NAS with unlimited storage (and not completely bankrupt me).
    1. Cloudwards.net – Formatting Editor
      
      Consider Backblaze in that case.
      1. Backblaze personal will not allow you to backup a NAS, only there B2 service will at a per GB per month price structure.
        
        It uses the hybrid backup service, the same service you would use for other online archive services like Amazon.
        
        However, there B2 service does not encrypt your data. I repeat it does not encrypt your data, that is so wrong I can’t even comment on it.
  2. They support mac now but not cloud services
2. Ditto. CrashPlan recommends Carbonite but its plans aren’t a good fit with the NAS setup. Plus they only go to 250gb before charging more for each additional 100gb. If you have a NAS you’d expect 250gb to be the absolute minimum.
  
  Went with BackBlaze B2 .. very happy.
I’m also pondering what to do with the Crashplan move. I’m considering moving over to their business plan for a single user. Anyone tried that yet? Does it still allow you to back up NAS and it’s unlimited? I too have over 5 TB to be backing up. Downside is Crashplan takes a VERY long time to back that up, even though I’m on a fast network.
1. Cloudwards.net – Writer, Former Chief Editor
  
  Well, this should help you get started https://www.cloudwards.net/review/crashplan/
Be cautious with iDrive, they will scam you! There is no option to cap usage and then when you go over they rake you for usage at 10x the cost (I got a $135 bill for an overuse of 100gb!). Will dispute with credit card company, but they are trying to bait and switch you if you aren’t watching every last MB of data (other companies just cap you and tell you upgrade or no more data uploads).
1. Can’t say what it was like in 2019, but in 2021 I get an email warning from iDrive when I’m at 60% of my paid limit, then another at 80% of my paid limit.
2. Same thing happened to me. I received no notification from Idrive, that I had exceeded the usage. All I got was an extreme high bill for a few GB. They were very unfriendly in regards to discuss a cheaper price, which I requested, as they did not warn me. Was told that it was my respinsbility to check usage online.
  Never Idrive again
These are some expensive services. Why not slap the preencrypted files into Amazon or Google, save half price, enjoy fast transfers worldwide, and be sure that the company will exist next year?
Photos backup download again restored
You clearly didn’t try these products. I tried iDrive for a month or so and it was impossibly unreliable — access disappeared for days at a time, backups never actually got completed.
Backblaze won’t let you back up mounted network drives (I understand their business reasons for why not, but I don’t want to run a separate backup program on every computer and NAS device)
1. He is talking about Backblaze B2, the cloud storage service a la Amazon S3, not the desktop backup tool.