Afi.ai vs Carbonite

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.

Carbonite is a cloud backup service for individual computers, small business PCs and servers. It was founded in Boston in 2005, bought the security company Webroot in 2019 and was itself acquired by the Canadian software group OpenText in late 2019 for about $1.42 billion. Its core job: install an agent, let it continuously copy your files to encrypted cloud storage, and restore them after a crash, theft or ransomware attack.

Personal plans (Basic, Plus, Prime) cover one computer with unlimited cloud storage; Plus and Prime add one external hard drive and automatic video backup, and Prime adds courier recovery options. Business plans are priced per account rather than per device: Core covers up to 25 computers, external drives and NAS with 250 GB, while Power and Ultimate add server backup, 500 GB, bare metal image restore and application-aware backup. All plans are billed annually; extra business storage costs $99 per 100 GB.

Carbonite fits households and small offices that want backup to run without thinking about it. It is weaker for power users: storage caps on business plans are low for the price, there is no monthly billing, and restores of large data sets are slow over the internet. Backblaze offers simpler unlimited personal backup, IDrive covers many devices on one plan for less, and Acronis bundles backup with stronger endpoint security.

Buying tip: the prices on the plans page are first-year discounts (up to 35% off list), and renewals revert to the higher list price, so compare the renewal cost, not the promo, against Backblaze and IDrive.