MozyHome
A fast backup service with a good set of features – but the storage allowance is too meagre for the price
SCORE ✪✪✪✪✪ PRICE From £55/yr per PC, 50GB from mozy.co.uk
The MozyHome front-end is tastefully compact, but click on Settings and a rich interface opens up. You can select which files to back up according to type rather than location, then easily add specific items and folders using the directory tree view – or by right-clicking in Windows Explorer and using the MozyHome contextual menu.
By default, backups run when your computer is idle, and you can specify what that means in terms of CPU usage and user input. If you prefer your backups to run at a set time, you can set a schedule from every day to once every seven weeks.
One nice feature is the “Mozy 2xProtect” option, which lets you mirror your cloud backups to a local volume for quick recovery. Using local media also extends your versioning options: MozyHome itself will store old file versions for 90 days, but you can make your local archive go back as far as you like. Of course, having to fall back on a local disk does somewhat undermine the point of paying for cloud storage in the first place.
This brings us to MozyHome’s greatest weakness. Although the package itself works well, the pricing is terribly uncompetitive. The default 50GB storage allowance is tight – you could easily fill it up if you have a lot of old projects and images you want to keep safe – and the price is tough to justify when numerous alternatives offer unlimited storage for the same price or less.
It also seems unnecessarily mean that your subscription is tied to a single PC; the 125GB plan covers three computers, but that pushes the price up from £5 to £8 per month.
It’s a shame, because we can’t fault MozyHome’s performance: as with Livedrive, the service offers a UK data centre that enabled us to back up our 5GB test folder in a swift 1hr 49mins, and download it again in 21 minutes. That’s incredibly speedy. Unlike Livedrive, however, MozyHome allow you to specify a custom encryption key when you first set up your backup options. This ensures that, even though your data resides in the UK, it’s impossible for the authorities to get their hands on it.
Unfortunately, whatever MozyHome’s strengths, the pricing issue is inescapable. There are modest discounts for annual and two-year subscriptions, but even so you’ll find much better value – and, in many cases, a comparable set of features – elsewhere.