Arq 7 Backup review: Uniquely versatile local and online backup

Price When Reviewed

$49.99 for stand-alone shopper I $59.99/yr for software program subscription and on-line storage, 5 PCs

Best Prices Today: Arq 7 Backup

There are a lot of good choices for native and on-line backup, however Arq 7 Backup (each a web-based service and shopper) stands out due to its help for myriad third-party on-line backup providers.

Arq even sells the shopper individually to be used with stated third-party on-line repositories. Due to our flawless testing expertise with this system, that’s one thing we will really suggest.

Further studying: To study competing merchandise, see our roundups of the best cloud backup services and the best Windows backup software.

Arq 7 Backup plans and options

The Arq 7 backup program by itself (single-seat, perpetual license) is a tad expensive at $49.99. But, the choice Arq Premium subscription plan covers 5 seats, together with 1TB of storage, for $59.99 yearly.

That’s $10 lower than I’m at the moment paying for OneDrive by Microsoft’s Office 365 service. Of course, that has the Office apps, however I opted for it predominantly as a result of it was the most cost effective 1TB on-line storage choice on the time.

Note that the shopper software program supplied with the web storage plan turns into restore-only, not perpetual, if you happen to cancel the service. Additional on-line storage is accessible at $6 per TB monthly.

The prolonged record of storage locations and protocols that Arq 7 helps consists of: Amazon Drive AWS S3, S3-compatible providers, Glacier, Google Cloud Storage, Backblaze B2, Dropbox, Google Drive, Minio, OneDrive, SharePoint, Storj, Wasabi, SFTP, Network quantity (SMB or AFP), and direct-attached storage. Whew.

Arq 7 helps a number of jobs (or backup plans) which you can tailor to every specific service or system—e.g. you’ll be able to again up simply your very important paperwork to a free cloud service, and all of your recordsdata to a extra capacious account, a neighborhood laborious drive, NAS field, and so forth.

The record of choices supported by Arq 7 Backup is in depth: granular scheduling, community switch throttling and interface choice, in depth retention guidelines, e-mail reporting, encryption settings, immutable recordsdata (object locking), and a bunch of energy/alert/efficiency choices.

One minor nit I’ve with Arq 7 (and with many different backup packages) is which you can’t assign a number of storage places to a single backup job/plan. Most customers have a single information set that they need to again as much as a number of places. There is, nonetheless, a workable various supplied—exporting of your information choices as .json (Java Script Object Notation) information recordsdata which you can import into subsequently outlined jobs/plans.

Another minor quibble about Arq 7 Backup is that there’s no plain file backup choice, i.e. merely copying recordsdata to a different location. You want Arq 7 to revive your recordsdata from their proprietary containers (which do make many duties simpler and quicker); you’ll be able to’t merely browse the vacation spot utilizing your OS and pull them off as you please.

Arq 7 is a little bit of a one-trick pony (straight backup), although it does that trick extraordinarily effectively. But there are not any goodies comparable to partition or drive picture backups, cloning, catastrophe restoration through boot media, sync, and so forth. That’s not a dig, simply an FYI—although it’s why I take into account the worth to be a bit on the excessive aspect.

If you need one thing extra versatile for native backup, attempt the top-ranked R-Drive Image. But for leveraging a number of on-line providers for pure backup, Arq 7 is exclusive.

The Arq 7 Backup interface

One of Arq 7’s greatest attributes is its clear, concise interface. The backup chore might be intimidating to new customers, so a logical, intuitive interface is a crucial consideration.

Arq 7 steps you thru the vacation spot and information choice, then leaves you by yourself for superior settings, providing a sequence of tabs with the associated choices. Hint: You’re doubtless high-quality with out adjusting the superior settings. If not…

Just fake you’re the wizard, click on on every logically organized tab in flip, and also you’ll be okay. I promise. That stated, if you happen to’re a whole neophyte you would possibly need to bone up a bit on the ideas concerned.

Various data is displayed in a tree to the left of the principle window (proven under). This consists of outlined jobs (plans), dates of the backups, and so forth. There’s a separate restore part with entries for every storage vacation spot, although you’ll must drill right down to the precise backup and date for the restore choice to look.

While it could take you some time to rise up to hurry on Arq 7’s workflow, as soon as you might be, it’s extraordinarily environment friendly. I’ll take that over the sort of hand-holding that slows you down in the long term any day.

How does Arq 7 carry out?

Arq 7 carried out flawlessly in my checks. Specifically, I used Arq 7 to again up information units to OneDrive, Dropbox, and the corporate’s personal storage service. I additionally backed as much as a neighborhood SSD and my essential NAS field, and once more, OneDrive. All proceeded shortly, with out failure, and with out impacting my total system efficiency unduly.

Jon L. Jacobi

Backup is a process with no room for failure and there have been no glitches of any sort to shake my confidence in this system. It’s a matter of religion and Arq 7 impressed that.

Note that whereas I discovered Arq 7 significantly speedy, on-line backup durations at all times depend upon the velocity of your connection to the distant server.

Put succinctly, Arq 7 works, and it really works very effectively.

Is Arq 7 Backup value it?

I can’t emphasize sufficient how essential flawless efficiency is when selecting a backup resolution. Data security isn’t one thing to mess around with, as anybody who’s tried to revive a nasty backup can inform you.

I rank Arq Premium top-tier as a storage service, and the standalone backup shopper is a boon for customers of different on-line storage providers. That stated, I’d be extra emphatic in regards to the latter if it have been a bit cheaper.