CrashPlan alternatives: What home users can do, from staying put to exploring other services

The easiest way out (if not the cheapest)? Just upgrade to Crashplan's business tier.

It's been a week since CrashPlan decided to call it quits on its personal backup service. But CrashPlan isn't going away—it's just ending a program that probably wasn't profitable. After the initial shock, home users should realize there’s absolutely no reason to panic—or even be hasty. The company will keep your data safe for an extra 60 days past the end of your current subscription, and it will keep its servers online until October 23, 2018. But it's still a good time to figure out your next move, so we'll walk you through the options.

CrashPlan option 1: Upgrade to a business plan

You needn't leave CrashPlan at all if you turn your home plan into a business plan. Just pony up the $10 a month for the small business plan and keep on keepin’ on. The company (Code42) is also offering a 75% discount to users for the first 12 months.

CrashPlan option 2: Free or cheap alternatives

If the business plan doesn't fit your budget, then what you need to do depends on how you used CrashPlan. If you simply maintained a backup of your current data with the service, you don't even need to download your backup from CrashPlan. Just start backing up elsewhere.

There are any number of free services for small data sets: 15GB Google Drive, 5GB iCloud, 5GB OneDrive, and 5GB Dropbox. You may also choose from low-cost tiers of pay services, including the one CrashPlan recommends—Carbonite. In fact, Carbonite is offering a 50% discount for CrashPlan users.

CrashPlan option 3: Download archives

If you used CrashPlan for archiving—that is, you stored data on the company’s servers without keeping a local copy—then you’ll need to download that to your local PC before your subscription ends (plus the 60-day extension). The CrashPlan servers might be a tad stressed right after the announcement, but wait a couple of weeks and you should be able to download without undue delay. If you procrastinate, you could always move to the $10-a-month business plan until you got your act together.

CrashPlan option 4: External backup

If CrashPlan was your only backup, now is a good time to consider backing up your backup—combining a cloud service with backup to an external drive. Check out our backup software reviews to find our recommendations.

Note: This article was edited to capitalize the "P" in CrashPlan at the request of the company, as well as to note the one-year 75% discount for exiting users when they change to the business plan.

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