Acronis vs Afi.ai

Acronis is a Swiss-headquartered cyber protection company founded in 2003, known for its True Image disk imaging software and, today, mainly for a multitenant platform that managed service providers use to back up, secure and manage their clients' systems. EQT agreed in 2024 to take a majority stake, and Acronis says more than 20,000 service providers and 750,000 businesses use its platform.

The business offering, marketed as the Acronis Cyber Platform and sold to service providers as Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud, combines backup of servers, PCs, VMs and Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace with disaster recovery, EDR and MDR, email security, data loss prevention, patching, RMM and PSA-style billing and service desk tools. MSPs pay per workload for actual usage; IT departments buy one to three year terms. The consumer line, Acronis True Image, is sold per year: Essentials for local backup and cloning, Advanced with cloud storage and anti-malware, and Premium with 1 TB or more of cloud storage.

Acronis fits MSPs that want one console for backup, security and RMM, and home or small-office users who need full-disk images and cloning. Backblaze is simpler and cheaper for plain cloud backup, Afi.ai focuses on SaaS backup for Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, and Veeam is the usual choice for large virtualized data centers.

Buying tip: True Image prices rise with each extra computer and terabyte, so a 3 or 5 computer pack is better value for households. MSPs should check which security modules they already license elsewhere.

Afi.ai is a cloud-native backup and recovery service for Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 and Kubernetes. It protects mailboxes, drives, shared drives, calendars and contacts as well as Teams and SharePoint data, and it was built from scratch as a SaaS product rather than adapted from on-premises backup software, which shows in its quick setup and modern interface.

Backups run automatically on a schedule, with unlimited storage and unlimited retention included in a per-user price. Restores can be granular (a single email, file or folder) or cover a full account at a chosen point in time. AI-driven monitoring flags unusual activity such as mass deletions or encryption patterns that suggest ransomware, and a multi-tenant console lets managed service providers run backups for many client organizations from one place. Kubernetes cluster backup is priced separately on a custom basis.

Afi fits IT teams and MSPs that want SaaS backup without managing storage or legacy agents, especially organizations on Google Workspace, where fewer strong options exist. It is a younger and less known vendor than Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365, Backupify or Spanning, and it does not cover Salesforce or other SaaS apps, so companies that want one vendor for every cloud application may prefer broader suites such as Druva or Own. For pure Workspace and 365 protection, transparent pricing and fast restores are its strongest arguments.