Best Cloud Backup for Ireland in 2025: Backblaze, IDrive and Acronis Compared
We compare the top cloud backup services available to Irish homes and businesses-pricing in euro, GDPR compliance, EU data residency, and real-world value.
Losing your data is not a question of if-it’s when. Hard drives fail, laptops get stolen, ransomware encrypts everything in minutes, and accidental deletions happen to the best of us. Cloud backup is the safety net that means you can recover quickly and completely.
But the backup market is full of US-centric advice, US dollar pricing, and little regard for the GDPR obligations that Irish homes and businesses actually operate under. This guide cuts through that.
We’ve tested the three most popular cloud backup services available in Ireland and compared them on what actually matters here: price in euro, EU data storage, ease of use, and data protection compliance.
What to look for in a cloud backup service
Before we get into the picks, here’s the checklist we use:
- EU or Irish data residency-under GDPR, storing personal data with providers outside the EU/EEA requires additional safeguards. Choosing a provider with EU-based storage avoids that complexity.
- Versioning-the ability to recover older copies of files, not just the most recent version. Critical if ransomware encrypts your files before you notice.
- Continuous or scheduled backup-set-and-forget automation beats remembering to plug in a hard drive.
- Recovery options-can you restore individual files, or must you restore everything? Can you download from anywhere, or only from the original device?
- Pricing in euro-currency fluctuations on USD-priced services can make your annual renewal unpredictable.
For a deeper grounding in backup principles, read our 3-2-1 backup guide.
Backblaze Personal Backup
Best for: Home users and sole traders who want unlimited, set-and-forget cloud backup
Backblaze’s desktop app-install it and largely forget about it. Image: Backblaze
Backblaze is the simplest and most cost-effective personal cloud backup service available. You install a small background application on your Mac or Windows PC and it continuously backs up everything-documents, photos, videos, external drives-to Backblaze’s cloud.
Key features:
- Unlimited storage for one computer
- File versioning: recover any version of a file from the past 30 days (extendable to 1 year or forever for a small fee)
- Restore by download or by having a physical drive posted to you
- Mobile app to access your files from anywhere
- 128-bit AES encryption in transit and at rest
Pricing: Approximately €9–€10/month, or around €99/year (billed in USD; price may vary slightly with exchange rates).
GDPR note: Backblaze stores data in the US but is EU-US Data Privacy Framework certified. For personal home backup, this is generally acceptable. If you’re backing up client data as a business, consider a provider with EU-based storage (see Acronis below).
Verdict: For an Irish home user or sole trader backing up a single machine, Backblaze is hard to beat on value. The unlimited storage alone justifies the price.
IDrive
Best for: Households or small businesses needing to back up multiple devices under one plan
IDrive takes a different approach to Backblaze: instead of unlimited storage for one device, it gives you a fixed storage pool (5TB, 10TB, etc.) that you can spread across as many devices as you like-PCs, Macs, smartphones, and even servers.
Key features:
- Backs up multiple devices-computers, phones, tablets, NAS devices
- 30-day file versioning (older versions count against your storage quota)
- IDrive Express: they post you a physical drive to seed your initial backup or do a large restore
- End-to-end encryption with a private key option (zero-knowledge)
- Business plans with HIPAA compliance available
Pricing: IDrive 5TB Personal starts at approximately €4–€5/month (first-year introductory pricing; renews higher). IDrive Business from approximately €15/month.
GDPR note: IDrive offers EU data centre options. When signing up, select an EU region to ensure your data stays within the European Economic Area.
Verdict: If you want to cover your whole household-multiple laptops, a family NAS, smartphones-IDrive gives you the most flexibility. The multi-device approach is excellent value once you’re backing up three or more devices.
Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office
Best for: Home users and small businesses wanting backup plus active ransomware protection
Acronis does more than cloud backup-it combines full-disk image backup with active anti-ransomware technology. Rather than just saving copies of your files, Acronis takes snapshots of your entire system, meaning you can restore everything-operating system, applications, settings, files-to exactly the state it was in before an incident.
Key features:
- Full disk image backup as well as file-level backup
- Active ransomware protection-detects and blocks ransomware attacks in real time
- Cloud backup to Acronis Cloud with EU data centre options
- Bare-metal recovery: restore an entire PC from scratch
- Business plans: Acronis Cyber Protect supports server backup, centralised management, and endpoint detection
Pricing:
- Home Office Essentials (cloud backup only): from approximately €4.99/month
- Home Office Advanced (backup + security): from approximately €8.49/month
- Business plans: from approximately €85/year per workload
GDPR note: Acronis offers EU data residency-specifically Frankfurt and other European data centres. Select the EU region during setup. Acronis is also ISO 27001 certified, which is often a useful reference point for Irish businesses documenting their data protection measures.
Verdict: The go-to choice if ransomware protection is a concern-which, frankly, it should be for any Irish business. The combination of full-image backup and active threat detection makes it uniquely resilient.
Head-to-head comparison
| Backblaze | IDrive | Acronis | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage | Unlimited (1 PC) | 5TB–100TB pooled | 50GB–1TB+ |
| Approx. price/month | ~€9 | ~€4–5 | ~€5–8 |
| Devices covered | 1 | Unlimited | 1–5 |
| EU data residency | No (US only) | Yes (optional) | Yes |
| Ransomware protection | No | No | Yes |
| Full disk image | No | No | Yes |
| Versioning | 30 days (extendable) | 30 days | 30 days |
| Mobile backup | No | Yes | Yes |
| Best for | Home users | Multi-device households | Businesses |
Our recommendations
- Home user with one Mac or PC → Backblaze Personal-unlimited, cheap, and reliable.
- Family or multi-device household → IDrive 5TB-cover everyone under one plan.
- Irish small business → Acronis Cyber Protect-the only option here with ransomware defence, EU storage, and business-grade recovery.
GDPR and your backup obligations
If you run a business in Ireland that processes personal data (which covers almost every business), Article 32 of the GDPR requires you to have technical measures in place to ensure you can restore data after an incident. The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) expects this to be documented, tested, and maintained.
Choosing a backup provider with EU data residency simplifies your compliance story considerably-it removes the need to establish an adequacy decision or Standard Contractual Clauses for the data transfer. Acronis and IDrive (with EU region selected) both qualify on this front.
For more on protecting your business data, see our Irish small business backup guide.
Frequently asked questions
Is cloud backup safe for personal photos and documents? Yes-all three services encrypt your data in transit and at rest. Acronis and IDrive also offer private encryption keys (zero-knowledge), meaning even the provider cannot access your files.
Does cloud backup replace an external hard drive? No-and it shouldn’t. The 3-2-1 rule recommends three copies of your data: two on different local media, one off-site (your cloud backup). Use both.
What happens if the backup company goes out of business? This is a real consideration. Backblaze and Acronis are well-established businesses with long operating histories. Always keep at least one local backup so you’re not entirely dependent on a third party.