Every small business runs on data - customer records, invoices, stock lists, product photos. A dead hard drive, a ransomware lock screen or one careless delete can wipe out years of work in minutes. The cheapest insurance against that is backup software - but the 2026 market splits into three groups (free tools, one-time licences, cloud subscriptions) and the pricing models are deliberately hard to compare. Here is the comparison, priced honestly, starting from the goal.
The goal: the 3-2-1 rule
Keep 3 copies of your data, on 2 different types of media, with 1 copy offsite. For a small business that usually means:
- Copy 1 - your working files (that is not a backup)
- Copy 2 - a scheduled image or file backup on an external drive, USB stick or NAS
- Copy 3 - a cloud backup, or a second drive stored somewhere else entirely
Local backups restore fastest after hardware failure. Cloud backups survive theft, fire, flooding - and ransomware that encrypts every drive currently connected. You usually want both.
The 5 options that actually make sense
| Software | Licence model | 2026 price (from) | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| AOMEI Backupper Pro | One-time | US$49.95 (free edition available) | best all-round value - image backup, clone, sync |
| Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office | Subscription | ~US$89.99/yr (Advanced) | backup + anti-ransomware + antivirus in one |
| EaseUS Todo Backup | One-time or yearly | from ~US$39.95/yr | cheapest simple paid backup |
| Veeam Agent for Windows FREE | Free forever | US$0 | zero-budget image + file backup |
| Backblaze Computer Backup | Subscription (cloud) | US$99/yr per computer, unlimited | no-hardware offsite copy |
(Prices verified against official vendor pricing pages, September 2026 - always re-check before buying.)
The short version of each
AOMEI Backupper Pro is the most straightforward pick if you want one permanent, owned licence. The free edition already covers scheduled system/disk/file backup on a single PC; the ~US$49.95 one-time Pro adds cloning to different hardware, sync, NAS destinations and flexible retention. Full disk images restore bare-metal to a brand-new drive. The classic choice for a 1-5 PC business.
Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office bundles backup with real-time anti-ransomware and antivirus: Advanced is about US$89.99/yr for one computer with 500 GB of cloud storage, Premium around US$124.99/yr with 1 TB scaling to 5 TB. No permanent free tier - trial only. Worth it when ransomware, not hardware, is your main fear; if you already run good antivirus, the one-time tools below give more value.
EaseUS Todo Backup is the "easy mode": clear interface for system/disk/file backup and cloning, scheduled tasks, 30-day money-back guarantee. From about US$39.95/yr, with perpetual one-time licences commonly around US$59-79 in promotions. The trade-off is upsell screens and mixed yearly/perpetual pricing by region.
Veeam Agent for Windows FREE is genuinely free forever and does what US$50/yr tools do: full image-level and file-level backups to external drives, NAS or a repository, with scheduling. The honest limit: one backup job per computer (confirmed by Veeam support). For up to 10 workloads, Veeam's Community Edition is also free and adds central management.
Backblaze is the simplest way to get the "1 copy offsite" half of 3-2-1: US$99/yr per computer for unlimited backup of that computer (~US$9 monthly, US$189 for two years). Continuous background operation, connected external drives included, 30-day version history, USB restore drive shipped when you need data back fast, 15-day trial with no credit card. Limits: computers only (no NAS/servers), one licence per machine - a 10-PC office pays US$990/yr. For object storage, Backblaze B2 is around US$6 per TB per month.
A decision shortcut
- Budget is zero -> Veeam Agent FREE, paired with File History or OneDrive for daily documents.
- One permanent, owned tool -> AOMEI Backupper Pro, the best value in 2026.
- Ransomware keeps you up at night -> Acronis Cyber Protect (backup + security in one).
- Cheapest simple paid tool -> EaseUS Todo Backup (watch for perpetual promos).
- No interest in managing drives -> Backblaze for unlimited offsite.
- Best of both worlds -> local image backup (AOMEI / Veeam) + a cloud copy for the irreplaceable files. That combination satisfies 3-2-1 for almost any small business.
If you are in Vietnam or Southeast Asia
Four extra points matter here. Offsite hardware is cheap and cloud uploads can be slow - lean on local image backups and schedule cloud sync off-peak. Ransomware and phishing now target small Vietnamese businesses directly (fake invoices, compromised supplier emails) - keep at least one backup physically disconnected between runs. Payment is a non-issue: AOMEI, EaseUS and Veeam have no region lock and accept international cards or PayPal. And if you store customer personal data, Vietnam's personal data protection rules under Law 91/2025 require appropriate technical safeguards - backups included - so a documented backup policy is part of compliance.
One more option for the offsite copy: cloud storage (not backup software) like pCloud can auto-sync a chosen folder - documents, invoice PDFs, small database dumps. Pricing checked 24 September 2026: 500 GB US$49.99/year, 2 TB US$99.99/year, 10 TB US$299.99/year, 256-bit AES encryption, 30-day file version recovery, 14-day money-back guarantee.
Whatever you pick: the backup you have never tested restoring is not a backup. Schedule a restore drill once, this month.
This article was originally published on tanit365.com with the full feature breakdown, the built-in-tools section and the FAQ.
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