Best & Cheapest Backup for Microsoft 365

We will look at the best and cheapest way to backup Microsoft 365 for your SME.

Are you wondering why you would need to backup Microsoft 365 or any other cloud file and email provider?

Many assume that data in the cloud is automatically safe, but that is a dangerous misconception. If an administrator account is compromised, attackers can bypass standard safety nets and permanently delete your data. Furthermore, sophisticated ransomware can now encrypt cloud files while simultaneously corrupting Microsoft’s native version history. Without an independent backup, these attacks render recovery impossible.

Lets look at two examples, a small company with 10 users and a medium company with 50 users.

The top companies for this solution are: Veeam, Acronis, CloudAlly, Datta and ProBackup.io.

For a team of 10 users with 1TB of SharePoint data, the “Per User” pricing model is your best friend.

Recommendation: Your best financial option is Acronis or Veeam.

Warning: Avoid ProBackup.io for this specific scenario. Their storage caps (50GB for the “Pro” plan) mean you would pay massive overage fees for 1TB of data.

Here is the cost breakdown for your specific scenario (10 Users, 1TB Total Data).

Cost Comparison Table (Estimated)

Provider	Est. Monthly Cost	Est. Annual Cost	Storage Model	Verdict
Acronis Cyber Protect	~$23 – $30	~$300	Unlimited (Per User)	🏆 Best Value
Veeam Data Cloud	~$35 – $40	~$420	Unlimited (Per User)	🥈 Best Enterprise
CloudAlly	~$30	~$360	Per User*	🥉 Good Option
Datto SaaS Protection	~$30	~$360	Pooled Limit (Risk!)	⚠️ Risk of Overage
ProBackup.io	$200+	$2,400+	Capped (Paid Overage)	🛑 Avoid

Detailed Analysis

1. The Winner: Acronis Cyber Protect

Why it wins: Acronis charges “per seat” (user) but includes unlimited cloud storage in that seat price.¹
The Math: You pay for 10 seats (approx. $2.30 – $3.00/user). The 1TB of SharePoint data is included for free as part of the service.
Total: ~$23–$30/month.

2. The “Safe” Enterprise Choice: Veeam Data Cloud

Why it’s good: Like Acronis, the SaaS version of Veeam (Veeam Data Cloud) typically offers a flat per-user fee that covers SharePoint storage. It is the industry leader for a reason—rock-solid reliability.
The Math: Approx. $3.50 – $4.00/user.
Total: ~$35–$40/month.

3. The Hidden Risk: Datto SaaS Protection

The Trap: Datto is excellent, but their “Unlimited” storage often comes with a “Fair Use Policy.”² Typically, this is pooled at 50GB or 100GB per user.
Your Scenario: 10 users x 100GB = 1TB Pool.
The Risk: You are exactly at the limit. If your SharePoint grows to 1.1TB, you may be forced to buy more user licenses (for non-existent users) just to increase your storage pool, or pay overage fees.

**4. Why to Avoid ProBackup.io (For your specific case)**

The Trap: ProBackup is great for small data sets, but their “Pro” plan (for 10 users) typically includes a storage cap (e.g., 50GB).
The Math: You have 1TB (1,000GB).
- Included: 50GB.
- Overage: 950GB.
- Even at a cheap rate of $0.20/GB, that is $190/month in extra storage fees.
Result: It goes from being a cheap option to the most expensive one very quickly.

For 50 users, the math shifts dramatically. The “Per User” models (Acronis, Veeam, Datto) become significantly cheaper than the flat-rate models (ProBackup) because you gain the benefit of bulk licensing and storage pooling.

Recommendation: Datto SaaS Protection or Acronis are your best financial choices here.

Warning: ProBackup.io remains a poor choice because its “Premium” plan has a storage cap (typically ~250GB) that you will immediately exceed, leading to high overage fees.

Cost Comparison Table (50 Users, ~1.5TB Total Data)

Assumptions: 1TB SharePoint + 25GB OneDrive (50×0.5GB) + 500GB Email (50x10GB) = ~1.525 TB Total.

Provider	Est. Monthly Cost	Est. Annual Cost	Storage Model	Verdict
Datto SaaS Protection	~$100 – $125	~$1,200	Pooled (Safe here!)	🏆 Best Value
Acronis Cyber Protect	~$115 – $130	~$1,400	Unlimited (Per User)	🥈 Safest Bet
Veeam Data Cloud	~$135 – $165	~$1,800	Unlimited (Per User)	🥉 Best Enterprise
CloudAlly	~$150	~$1,800	Unlimited (Per User)	Good Alternative
ProBackup.io	~$300+	~$3,600+	Capped (~250GB limit)	🛑 Avoid

Detailed Analysis

1. The Winner: Datto SaaS Protection

Why it wins now: Datto uses a “Pooled Storage” model. They typically grant ~50GB or 100GB of storage per license into a shared pool for the whole company.
The Math:
- 50 Users × 50GB (conservative estimate) = 2.5 TB Storage Pool.
- Your Needs: 1.5 TB.
- Result: You are safely under the limit. You pay the standard per-user rate (~$2.00–$2.50) with no overage fees.
Risk: If your SharePoint grows from 1TB to 2TB next year, you might hit the ceiling.

2. The “Sleep Well at Night” Choice: Acronis Cyber Protect

Why it’s solid: Acronis offers volume discounts. For 50+ seats, the price often drops to around $2.30/user.
The Benefit: Unlike Datto, Acronis is usually truly unlimited for 365 data. You don’t have to worry if your SharePoint grows to 5TB; the price stays the same.
Security: Includes basic malware scanning of your backups, adding an extra layer of defense.

3. The Premium Choice: Veeam Data Cloud

Why it costs more: Veeam is the “Rolls Royce” of backups. Their “Flex” plan is usually around $3.33/user (roughly $166/month).
When to choose it: If you have strict compliance needs (e.g., legal hold, granular restore of complex SharePoint permissions), Veeam’s restore tools are superior to Datto’s.

4. Why ProBackup.io Loses (Again)

The “Unlimited” Myth: ProBackup’s “Premium” plan (approx. $169/mo) supports unlimited users, but it typically caps storage at 250GB.
The Hidden Cost:
- Included: 250GB.
- Your Data: 1,525GB.
- Overage: ~1,275GB.
- At typical SaaS storage rates, this overage could cost you an extra $150–$250/month, making the total cost double or triple that of Datto/Acronis.

Final Recommendation

Go with Datto if you want the lowest price and don’t expect your data to double in the next 12 months.
Go with Acronis if you want a fixed price that will never go up, regardless of how much data you add.

What if you need 10TB+ of Storage as you have a lot of Media?

This is really tricky. Assuming everyone is in the same office, I would say – Get a good NAS, make sure your network is 2.5G or 5G or even 10G.
You will also need to backup your NAS – so make sure you get 2 of them and consider theft/fire risk. We recommend UniFi UNAS Pro.

Although it is possible to access the NAS remotely. File access can be slow with big files or maybe you simply want a cloud solution.
SharePoint is financially unsustainable for large media libraries. At roughly $0.20 per GB (or ~$200 per TB/month), storing an extra 10TB in SharePoint would cost you around $24,000 per year just in storage overage fees.

For media companies that need ~10TB of active or semi-active storage, the best approach is a Hybrid Storage Strategy. You keep your “office” documents (Word, Excel, PDFs) in SharePoint/Teams, but you move your media (videos, RAW images, huge assets) to a specialized storage tier.

Here are the three best ways to handle this, ranked by workflow type.

1. The “Video Editor’s Choice” (Best Performance)

Solution: LucidLink

If your team needs to edit 4K video or access huge media files directly without downloading them first, this is the gold standard.2 LucidLink streams the data on-demand (like Netflix for your files) so it looks like a local drive on your computer, but the data lives in the cloud.3

How it works: You install a small client app. A “Z:” drive appears on your desktop. You drop a 50GB video file into it; it uploads instantly. Your editor in another city sees it instantly and can scrub through it without waiting for a full sync/download.
The Cost:
- Basic Filespace (Wasabi backend): ~$20/TB/month.⁴ Total for 10TB: ~$200/month.
- Advanced Filespace (IBM backend): ~$80/TB/month.⁶ Total for 10TB: ~$800/month.
Pros: Incredible performance for Adobe Premiere/After Effects; zero hard drive space used on local machines.
Cons: More expensive than “cold” storage; requires a fast internet connection.

2. The “Mapped Drive” Alternative (Best for General Files)

Solution: Azure Files

If you don’t need to edit video directly from the cloud but just want a massive “S: Drive” for storing completed projects, assets, and B-roll, Azure Files is the native Microsoft answer.

How it works: You create an Azure Storage Account and set up a “File Share.” You can map this drive directly to Windows/Mac computers. It bypasses SharePoint entirely.
The Cost:
- Cool Tier: Approx. $0.015 – $0.025 per GB/month.
- Transaction costs: You pay a small fee every time you read/write files.
- Estimated Total for 10TB: ~$180 – $250 per month (depending on access frequency).
Pros: Native Microsoft billing; permissions can sync with your existing Microsoft 365 users (Entra ID).
Cons: Performance is slower than a local server; not good for direct video editing (too much latency); “Cool” tier charges you extra if you access the data too frequently.

3. The “Invisible Archive” (Best for Compliance/Hoarding)

Solution: AvePoint Cloud Archiving (or similar “Stubbing” tools)

If you want users to think the files are still in SharePoint but actually pay “cheap” storage rates, you use a third-party archiving tool.

How it works: You set a rule (e.g., “Any video file older than 6 months…”). The software automatically moves that file to cheap Azure Blob Storage (Cool or Archive tier) but leaves a tiny 1KB “stub” or link in SharePoint. When a user clicks the file in SharePoint, it seamlessly fetches it from the archive.
The Cost:
- Software License: ~$3–$5 per user/month.
- Storage (Azure Blob Cool/Archive): ~$0.01 per GB (Cool) or ~$0.002 per GB (Archive).
- Estimated Total for 10TB: ~$150 – $200 per month (combined software + storage).
Pros: Users don’t need to learn a new system; keeps SharePoint fast and clean.
Cons: There is a slight delay (seconds to minutes) when retrieving an archived file.

Summary Recommendation (As alternative to local NAS)

If your company…	Choose this…	Est. Monthly Cost (10TB)
actively edits video and needs speed	LucidLink (Basic)	~$200
needs a “File Server” for storing assets	Azure Files (Cool Tier)	~$200 – $250
wants to keep using SharePoint interface	AvePoint Cloud Archiving	~$200 (varies by user count)
Just wants the cheapest backup/dump	Azure Blob (Archive Tier)	~$20 – $50 (Note: Files take hours to retrieve)

TIP: No matter how many files you have, if the budget allows, always have a second backup on a local NAS for quick data recovery in situations where internet access could be cut off during storms, attacks against storage providers or electrical failures that are not your own. We recommend a UniFi UNAS PRO for the safest device to perform this task.