Search for "business backup" and you'll find two worlds that aren't easy to compare: per-device backup licences at €9–30 a month per computer or server, and managed services with a fixed subscription. The first looks obviously cheaper. Sometimes it is. But most of the time the comparison is skewed, because the price of the licence and the cost of a backup that works are two different things.
What you actually buy with a per-device licence
Licence-based products — Acronis, Veeam and their equivalents, sold by resellers and hosting companies — are good tools. You pay per computer or per server, you usually get 250 GB of cloud space, and from then on everything is your job: installing and configuring it correctly, checking failed jobs every day, updates, extra space when you exceed the quota and — the part everyone skips — restore testing. The software emails you that the backup failed; someone also has to read it, on a Tuesday, at 7 a.m.
The calculation for a real company
Let's take a company typical of our clients: 8 workstations and a small server — a practice, a design office, a distribution company. With per-device licences at market prices, you end up somewhere around €70–100 a month on licences alone, before extra space. At first glance, comparable to our €89 Business package. Except here's what isn't included in that €70–100:
| What you get | Per-device licence | Managed 3-2-1 service |
|---|---|---|
| Backup software per workstation/server | ✓ included | ✓ included |
| A local copy on a NAS with immutable snapshots | ✗ separate (€600–1,200 NAS + setup) | ✓ included |
| A person who monitors the jobs and steps in on failure | ✗ you, or nobody | ✓ included |
| Documented restore tests, with a report | ✗ "we'll do it some time" | ✓ included |
| GDPR documentation for audits | ✗ doesn't exist | ✓ included |
| Local support, someone who physically comes on site | ✗ tickets and phone | ✓ Suceava and the surrounding area |
Add a proper NAS (€600–1,200 one-off) and 2–3 hours a month of someone competent's time, and the "cheap option" has caught up with the other one — without offering the same guarantees. And restoring a whole server from the cloud alone, without the local copy, takes days, not hours.
When a per-device licence really is the right choice
To be fair — because our reputation depends on it: if you have 1–2 computers, little data and someone in the company who enjoys managing things themselves, a good per-device licence, configured correctly and checked with discipline, is a perfectly reasonable solution. The same goes if you already have an in-house IT department that just wants the tool, not the service. The problem isn't the product — it's the assumption that "installed" means "working", which usually only gets tested on the day you need a restore.
The questions that decide for you
Don't choose by price; choose by your answers to three questions:
- Who finds out first that last night's backup failed — a person paid to do it, or nobody?
- If the server dies on Friday at lunchtime, how soon are you working again — and who does the restore?
- Can you show an auditor a restore test report from the last year?
If you're happy with your answers using a per-device licence, keep it. If not, the price difference between the two options is smaller than it looks — and the difference in peace of mind is bigger.
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