MyPCBackup Review – Expert Analysis and Feature Breakdown
Quick Look
MyPCBackup is the sister cloud backup service of ZipCloud and JustCloud. Not so surprisingly, it has similar features including file syncing, file versioning and backup scheduling. The easy to use web app and mobile apps are an extra plus.
Plans start at $8.69 per month for 75 GB of storage space.
About MyPCBackup
MyPCBackup has been launched by Just Develop It, the company behind ZipCloud and JustCloud. It provides almost the same features as the other two cloud backup services but the only difference is that it's visually a bit different because it is meant to attract a different category of users.
The cloud service was launched in 2010, and it claims to give 99.99% of uptime.
Who Should MyPCBackup?
MyPCBackup has affordable pricing plans with backup, syncing and sharing options, which make it a great service for both personal and business users.
If you have a lot of critical data which needs to be backed up to protect you from any system failure, or you want files to be synced with your personal and work computer, then MyPCBackup can help you with that.
Though, business users would find MyPCBackup’s security features a bit restricting since there is no private encryption. But, it’s still a good cloud backup service to upload your non-critical documents.
Features:
- Backup scheduling
- Incremental backups
- File syncing
- Folder collaboration
- File versioning
- Automatic photo uploads
- Network drive backup
- & more...
Uploads and Downloads
While signing up for MyPCBackup, we realized that we cannot sign up with the same email address that we used for JustCloud or ZipCloud. If you do, it will direct to that respective website. This can be annoying when you want to switch services. You would have to use a new email address just to try out this service.
Anyways, we were finally able to sign in and download the desktop app. All the mains settings and features are available through MyPCBackup’s desktop app only. Its web app is a bit limited.
Right after installing it on the system, MyPCBackup scanned the hard drive, pre-selected all the important folders and started uploading them. Users can change these folders, but they have to do it quickly since MyPCBackup starts backing up data as soon as it scans the hard drive.
The interface is intuitive and very easy to handle as well. When you select folders, you can see your entire hard drive in a tree like structure. In fact, files are backed up according to their original tree structure only. This can be very useful when you want to backup and restore the entire system data.
It does not have any trial period to try out the service, but you can claim 1 GB free storage space by downloading the desktop app. Though we don’t know if its forever free storage or for a limited time, MyPCBackup hasn’t mentioned this anywhere.
The first shortcoming we noted is common among JustCloud, ZipCloud and MyPCBackup – there is a file size limit. For free plans, there is a file size limit of 5 MB and for premium plans, it’s 1 GB. This is obviously very restricting. This file size limit means you cannot upload big videos on it.
Backup scheduling is available, and you can decide the time of the day you would want the backups to begin. In fact, this is one of the few services that lets you decide both days of the week and days of the month for backup.
In the settings, you can also exclude certain file types from being uploaded. That way, even when you select all the folders, only those files that follow the filter criteria will be uploaded. While testing, we found both the upload and download speeds impressive.
There is also a separate sync folder where you can drag and drop files that you want synced with all the other local machines that have MyPCBackup. A separate folder makes it very easy to divide your backup and sync files. But, the sync folder can only be either accessed through the desktop app or the website, it isn’t accessible through a central Windows folder like in Dropbox and Google Drive.
The restoration process is easy as well, but we couldn’t find any one single button which could restore all the backed up files at once. MyPCBackup has Windows Explorer integration through which you can upload files and folders by just right-clicking on them and choosing MyPCBackup.
Privacy & Security
Though MyPCBackup does claim that all the files are encrypted before they are uploaded to the server, there is no way for the users to set their encryption key, a feature which is available in many cloud backup services.
The service also claims that there is a 256-bit AES encryption but with no private encryption, even a server side encryption seems very vulnerable to use. Plus, MyPCBackup clearly states in their terms and conditions that they will be scanning through user data for content filtering and recognition. That is a complete violation of privacy which should not be done by any cloud company. In fact, if you are okay with companies snooping through your data, then we would rather recommend Dropbox and OneDrive over MyPCBackup.
Web & Mobile App
We found MyPCBackup’s app very similar to JustCloud’s. In fact, the color scheme is also the same. Users can browse files both in the backup folder and the sync folder. Different versions of the files can be checked and shared.
Files links can be shared through email or on social media, but there is no way to set a time limit on the file links or set a password for them. There is also no search box or tree view structure like the desktop app, so basically you have to drill down to find even a single file.
MyPCBackup has mobile apps for iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows phones. We found the apps extremely easy to use and reliable. As soon as you log in, the app will ask you if you want to automatically upload your phone’s pictures. Apart from that, you can also view and browse through the already uploaded and backed up files. Even with the mobile app, you can share files via email or on social media. Pictures, on the other hand, can be directly shared through messages and social media apps.
Pricing and Plans
This is where things get a little confusing. First of all, MyPCBackup clearly states in bold words on its home page that they provide unlimited backup. But when we scanned through the pricing and plans page, we did not find any unlimited backup plans. In fact, the highest plan available is for 1 TB only.
Apart from that, when you scan through the pricing plans, you will also find that there are a lot of features which need to be paid. These features are already offered by many other cloud backup services for no extra charge. These paid features include network drive backup, video backup, hourly backup and recycle bin access. There is a fixed yearly payment for all these features, and monthly payments are not allowed. On top of that, the price varies from $2 to $99, based on the feature you choose.
What's It Missing?
The file size limit is a big restriction. It could be troubling for business users and even personal users who have a lot of video files that need to be backed up. Security is another issue. With no private encryption, there is no complete guarantee if the data is safe or not.
[review]
Tech Specs:
Specifications
- Free Storage: 1 GB
- Free Trial: No
- System: Windows, and Mac
- Price: Starting at $8.69/month
Mobile
- Mobile Apps: iOS, Android, Windows, and Blackberry
Backup Features
- Free External HD Backup: No
- Continuous Backup: No
- Incremental Backup: Yes
- Backup Scheduling: Yes
- Bare Metal Backup: No
- Exclude File Extensions for Backup: No
- Network Drives: Yes
- Bandwidth Throttling: Yes
- Web Access: Yes
- HIPAA Compliant: No
- File Size Limit: 1 GB
- Included Machines: 1
Security
- Local Encryption: No
- Server Side Encryption: 256-bit
- Keeps deleted files: 30 days
- File Versioning: 30 versions of the file
Sharing/Collaboration
- File Sharing: Yes
- Multiple Accounts: No
- Share Photo Albums: Yes
- Music Streaming: Yes
- Folder Collaboration: Yes
- Outlook Backup: No
