I signed up for Carbonite when Leo Laporte first started mentioning them on TWiT and initially I was fairly happy. I was a bit miffed that there were a number of features that only existed on the Windows version but Carbonite support assured me those features we coming soon. As time went on though, Carbonite became slower and more of a performance hog.
Carbonite not being available on Lion was kind of the last straw for me but I thought I would document all the reasons why I'm leaving Carbonite for BackBlaze.
1. Mac is the Red-Headed Step-child at Carbonite
It essentially comes down to this, Mac support is very clearly an "also ran" feature. As they have rolled out their new features to their Windows offering, the Mac version has idled in obscurity. As a company, Carbonite has prioritized Mac support very low indeed.
So low, that they could not be bothered to install Carbonite on the Lion Pre-Release and check if it still worked. Instead they sent an email two days after the release saying, "If you upgrade Carbonite will stop working, if you have upgrade it says it is working but it isn't really". Clearly they do not have a real Mac Development team on staff.
2. Missing Features
The Mac version of Carbonite is missing some key features, such as being able to configure when your update runs, file extension filtering, encryption, and versioning. These "power features" have been coming soon to the Mac for a long while now. These features mostly existed in Windows when I signed up almost two years ago. Still not on the Mac. Don't hold your breath.
The Mac version doesn't even have auto update, so every time you have an issue the first thing support needs you do to is reinstall Carbonite to see if your problem is fixed in the latest version.
3. Terrible Mac Integration
I had massive performance problems caused by things like the default Carbonite install being incompatible with Time Machine, a long list of folders on the Mac that are backed up by default and cause Carbonite problems, *another* different list of folders that cause problems.
Essentially I had to go through the support process 3 times to get to where I am now, Carbonite working, but poorly.
I have a hard time picturing any serious Mac developer eating their own dog food and NOT realizing this thing has issues.
4. Performance
Every hour Carbonite starts scanning for new files. This runs at 100% cpu for 5-15 minutes on my fairly new MacBook Pro, causing the fan to switch to high and everything else I'm doing to grind to a halt. Every hour. I basically had to pause the backup every morning and unpause every night in order to get any work done.
I tried to work with Carbonite on this issue but it was an exercise in futility and frustration. I'm not sure I talked to anybody with a Mac understanding at all; none of the people I talked to understood what 'top' was for instance.
5. No Mac Aware Support People
Every time I talk to the Carbonite support team I'm struck by how Mac clueless they are. Advice like "Maybe your firewall or anti-virus software is interfering with the backup" and them being surprised when I say I have no AV because I'm running a Mac. It is particularily galling to be chided by some idiotic support person for not having AV software and to be told how dangerous it is to not have a firewall.
Eventually you'll get escalated to somebody who is somewhat Mac aware, but it's a painful process. And you have to go through this Every Damn Time.
6. Terrible Escalation Process
Like I've said, I've had performance problems. Every time I seek support I get the same answer, "Put carbonite into low priority mode". It doesn't matter if I say that is my configuration already. It's like they automatically send out a standard form letter and then ignore you until you respond saying that you've already done that.
Worse, EVERY support person I've been escalated to reminds me that I can turn off my backup to restore performance as if that's a perfectly viable option. What? I should disable your product, a service that I paid two years in advance for, so my machine can run properly?
BackBlaze
I'll followup in a couple of weeks with a full report on BackBlaze, so far I'm impressed. It installed easily, had great default settings and has features such as throttling, scheduled backups and personal encryption keys that are "coming soon" to Carbonite. Performance is the same as TimeMachine, ie. pretty much unnoticeable, clearly a good Mac team is on this project.
Update:
I have now switched entirely over to BackBlaze for offsite backup of our two Mac Laptops and my only regret is not doing it sooner.
BackBlaze performance is amazing, it's on par with TimeMachine (which I also run for local backups).
The product is full featured, including supporting daily backups rather than continous. I use TimeMachine for local backups and BackBlaze for offsite backups, setting BackBlaze to do nightly backups instead was simple. Though the performance is so good I probably could have kept it running on continous backup.
I found the exclude from backup feature much easier to use than Carbonite's, so it was a simple matter to exclude things I don't need backed up (like my Audible books). Performing the same process on Carbonite was headache inducing.
Also, Carbonite by default did NOT backup some critical files, including home movies. I was pleasantly surprised to see everything important backed up by BackBlaze.
Restore is simple and has the option to send a hard drive as well. I test downloaded some largish files and was impressed at how quickly the compressed download was made available.
During the initial backup, BackBlaze's throttle feature was a god send. I was able to reduce upload speed during the day so it didn't hamper my network usage and then crank it back up overnight. Carbonite needed to be disabled during the day as its low priority mode was useless for preventing performance issues.
I would, without hesitation, recommend BackBlaze for a offsite backup solution for Mac OS X.
