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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage

    Score8.4 out of 10
    N/ABackblaze, headquartered in San Mateo, provides cloud storage and online backup, boasting trust with over an exabyte of data from customers in 175 countries. A backup service specialist, Backblaze describes their B2 cloud object storage service as S3 compatible and purpose built to provide simplicity, reliability, and affordability. B2 Cloud Storage is available at $0.005/GB/Month, with single-tier pricing.

    $6

    per month per TB

    Microsoft Azure

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft Azure is a cloud computing platform and infrastructure for building, deploying, and managing applications and services through a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters.

    $29

    per month

    Pricing
    Backblaze B2 Cloud StorageMicrosoft Azure
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Developer
    $29
    per month
    Standard
    $100
    per month
    Professional Direct
    $1000
    per month
    Basic
    Free
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Backblaze B2 Cloud StorageMicrosoft Azure
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsTwo pricing models are available: consumption-based pay-as-you-go, and capacity-based storage bundles. Pay-as-you-go consumption-based cloud storage costs $6/TB per month, with your first 10GB free. Egress is free up to 3x of average monthly data stored, and unlimited to many leading content delivery network (CDN) and compute partners. Capacity-based storage, called B2 Reserve, is designed for companies looking for all-inclusive pricing on a single invoice. Storage bundles start at 20TB and can be purchased for one, two, or three years. Egress is always free.The free tier lets users have access to a variety of services free for 12 months with limited usage after making an Azure account.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Backblaze B2 Cloud StorageMicrosoft Azure
    Considered Both Products
    Backblaze
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    92%
    Would buy again
    34 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    6 Answers
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    31 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    6 Answers
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    35 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    89%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    24 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    6 Answers
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    34 Answers
    Features
    Backblaze B2 Cloud StorageMicrosoft Azure
    File Sharing & Management
    Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage and Microsoft Azure
    Feature
    Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage
    7.7
    5 Ratings
    9% below category average
    Microsoft Azure
    -
    Ratings
    Versioning7.75 Ratings00 Ratings
    Video files8.24 Ratings00 Ratings
    Audio files8.24 Ratings00 Ratings
    Document collaboration7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Access control7.74 Ratings00 Ratings
    File search5.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Device sync10.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Cloud Storage Security & Administration
    Comparison of Cloud Storage Security & Administration features of Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage and Microsoft Azure
    Feature
    Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage
    7.9
    5 Ratings
    9% below category average
    Microsoft Azure
    -
    Ratings
    User and role management7.74 Ratings00 Ratings
    File organization6.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Device management10.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Cloud Storage Platform
    Comparison of Cloud Storage Platform features of Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage and Microsoft Azure
    Feature
    Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage
    9.2
    5 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Microsoft Azure
    -
    Ratings
    Performance8.65 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reliability9.15 Ratings00 Ratings
    Storage Reports10.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
    Comparison of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) features of Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage and Microsoft Azure
    Feature
    Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Azure
    8.4
    27 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Service-level Agreement (SLA) uptime00 Ratings8.126 Ratings
    Dynamic scaling00 Ratings8.725 Ratings
    Elastic load balancing00 Ratings8.624 Ratings
    Pre-configured templates00 Ratings8.225 Ratings
    Monitoring tools00 Ratings8.326 Ratings
    Pre-defined machine images00 Ratings8.424 Ratings
    Operating system support00 Ratings8.926 Ratings
    Security controls00 Ratings8.626 Ratings
    Automation00 Ratings8.224 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Backblaze B2 Cloud StorageMicrosoft Azure
    Small Businesses
    IDrive Online Backup and Object Storage e2
    Score9.1 out of 10
    IBM Cloud Object Storage
    Score9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Apple iCloud
    Score8.4 out of 10
    IBM Cloud Bare Metal Servers
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    ownCloud
    Score9.2 out of 10
    SAP on IBM Cloud
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Backblaze B2 Cloud StorageMicrosoft Azure
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.6
    (6 ratings)
    8.7
    (96 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (17 ratings)
    Usability
    8.6
    (3 ratings)
    8.3
    (36 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.8
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (27 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Backblaze B2 Cloud StorageMicrosoft Azure
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Backblaze
    Providing the option of purchasing a much longer archive if desired or limiting the length of time in maintaining what's been saved is brilliant. It makes all the sense in the world. At the very least, unless the retention period is clearly mandated somehow, it causes a decision maker (especially a small business owner) to think strategically about what the storage needs truly are.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Azure is particularly well suited for enterprise environments with existing Microsoft investments, those that require robust compliance features, and organizations that need hybrid cloud capabilities that bridge on-premises and cloud infrastructure. In my opinion, Azure is less appropriate for cost-sensitive startups or small businesses without dedicated cloud expertise and scenarios requiring edge computing use cases with limited connectivity. Azure offers comprehensive solutions for most business needs but can feel like there is a higher learning curve than other cloud-based providers, depending on the product and use case.
    Read full review
    Pros
    Backblaze
    • Tight integration with OEM backup application
    • Among the lowest price per TB cloud backup provider
    • AWS S3 service integration
    • Optional services for initial seeding of large backup data sets
    • Optional services for physical backup retrieval to speed up recovery
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Microsoft Azure is highly scalable and flexible. You can quickly scale up or down additional resources and computing power.
    • You have no longer upfront investments for hardware. You only pay for the use of your computing power, storage space, or services.
    • The uptime that can be achieved and guaranteed is very important for our company. This includes the rapid maintenance for security updates that are mostly carried out by Microsoft.
    • The wide range of capabilities of services that are possible in Microsoft Azure. You can practically put or create anything in Microsoft Azure.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Backblaze
    • Deleting the data is not simpler and requires manual intervention
    • Integration with third party tools needs much improvement as there are very less tools that can be integrated.
    • Fewer data centres presently that restrict options to meet specific geographic redundancy or data sovereignty requirements.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • The cost of resources is difficult to determine, technical documentation is frequently out of date, and documentation and mapping capabilities are lacking.
    • The documentation needs to be improved, and some advanced configuration options require research and experimentation.
    • Microsoft's licensing scheme is too complex for the average user, and Azure SQL syntax is too different from traditional SQL.
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Backblaze
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    Moving to Azure was and still is an organizational strategy and not simply changing vendors. Our product roadmap revolved around Azure as we are in the business of humanitarian relief and Azure and Microsoft play an important part in quickly and efficiently serving all of the world. Migration and investment in Azure should be considered as an overall strategy of an organization and communicated companywide.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Backblaze
    Since Backblaze added S3 compatibility a few years ago, it's become the most perfect online backup solution.
    I also like their transparency in describing their platform and the reports of hard drive reliability are very interesting.
    The free egress is priceless, too.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    As Microsoft Azure is [doing a] really good with PaaS. The need of a market is to have [a] combo of PaaS and IaaS. While AWS is making [an] exceptionally well blend of both of them, Azure needs to work more on DevOps and Automation stuff. Apart from that, I would recommend Azure as a great platform for cloud services as scale.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Backblaze
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    It has proven to be unreliable in our production environment and services become unavailable without proper notification to system administrators
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Backblaze
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    We were running Windows Server and Active Directory, so [Microsoft] Azure was a seamless transition. We ran into a few, if any support issues, however, the availability of Microsoft Azure's support team was more than willing and able to guide us through the process. They even proposed solutions to issues we had not even thought of!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Backblaze
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    As I have mentioned before the issue with my Oracle Mismatch Version issues that have put a delay on moving one of my platforms will justify my 7 rating.
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Backblaze
    Backblaze is definitely the cheapest and most cost effective out of the 6 other services I've used in the past. For personal use, they are by and away the best service available. For business use, I believe they are a very strong contender to be the #3 guys behind AWS and Linode.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    As I continue to evaluate the "big three" cloud providers for our clients, I make the following distinctions, though this gap continues to close. AWS is more granular, and inherently powerful in the configuration options compared to [Microsoft] Azure. It is a "developer" platform for cloud. However, Azure PowerShell is helping close this gap. Google Cloud is the leading containerization platform, largely thanks to it building kubernetes from the ground up. Azure containerization is getting better at having the same storage/deployment options.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Backblaze
    • Difficult to quantify the peace of mind Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage services provides.
    • Based on the reported experiences of other Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage clients, recovery has been smooth. We have not yet had the need to use that function.
    • Because Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage's service has been seamless, I feel much more confident in their ability to deliver what they promise when we have the need to expand or enhance what we are purchasing from them.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • For about 2 years we didn't have to do anything with our production VMs, the system ran without a hitch, which meant our engineers could focus on features rather than infrastructure.
    • DNS management was very easy in Azure, which made it easy to upgrade our cluster with zero downtime.
    • Azure Web UI was easy to work with and navigate, which meant our senior engineers and DevOps team could work with Azure without formal training.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage Screenshots

    Screenshot of Files are stored in BucketsScreenshot of B2 Cloud Storage Dashboard