From the Wirecutter: The best home online backup service

This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a list of the best technology to buy. Read the full article here.

After carefully comparing 20 online backup services and thoroughly testing six, performing countless hours of backups and restores, we determined that CrashPlan ($60/year for individuals; $150/year for families) is the best option for most people, thanks to an outstanding combination of useful features at an attractive price. It makes the process of restoring files less painful than the competition; its 448-bit encryption is top-notch; and its desktop app offers the unique option of peer-to-peer backups (letting you forego paying for cloud storage if you like). It also gives you fine-grained control over its behavior and—assuming your Mac or PC has a reasonable amount of RAM—delivers solid performance.

Who this is for

An online backup service is a smart addition to your overall backup strategy: Pay a few bucks a month, install an app on your computer that runs in the background, and your data is safely backed up over the Internet to the service. No hardware to buy, no discs to swap, no fuss—and your backups remain safely offsite, so even if your house burns down or someone steals your computer, your data is secure.