Researched comparison
Best Google Workspace Backup Software for Small Business in 2026
Tierlyn may earn a fee from some links on this page, and some placements are paid and labelled. Neither one decides the order. See our disclosure.
SysCloud is the best pick for most small businesses, because it covers Gmail, Drive, Shared Drives, Calendar, and Contacts, with point-in-time restore and unlimited retention on paid plans. It costs $4 per user per month for business users. The main limit is a 100 licence minimum for new paid accounts.
Key takeaways
- SysCloud is the best pick for most small businesses on coverage, restore options, and retention.
- Spanning Backup suits teams that want daily cloud-to-cloud backup with end-user self-service restore.
- Backupify by Datto suits businesses that buy through a managed service provider and want 3x daily backups.
- SpinOne suits teams that also want ransomware recovery, but its $5,000 per year minimum rules out very small teams.
- CubeBackup is cheapest on licence price, but you must provide the server and storage yourself.
Contents
Tier labels are an editorial grouping, not a number and not a rating out of any total. S means a top tier pick for most readers. A means a strong choice with a clear strength. B means a solid option for a specific need.
Comparison at a glance
Comparison
| Tool | Best for | Standout feature | Price range | Free plan/trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SysCloud | Most small businesses | Broad Google Workspace cover with cross-user restore | $4 per user per month (2 Nov 2026) | 30-day trial stated |
| Spanning Backup | Teams that want simple daily backup | Daily and on-demand backup with self-service restore | Quote only (2 Nov 2026) | Trial stated on vendor pages |
| Backupify by Datto | Businesses served by a managed service provider | 3x daily backups with immutable snapshots | Quote only (2 Nov 2026) | Trial stated on vendor pages |
| SpinOne | Teams that want ransomware recovery | Backup plus ransomware recovery with a 2-hour response aim | $3 per user per month, $5,000 per year minimum (2 Nov 2026) | 15-day trial stated |
| CubeBackup | Teams that want to host backup themselves | Self-hosted backup to local or private cloud storage | $5 per user per year for business (2 Nov 2026) | Trial stated on vendor pages |
| Acronis Cyber Protect | Teams that also protect endpoints | Google Workspace backup inside a wider endpoint and backup suite | From $10.67 per month for Backup Advanced, 12-month contract (2 Nov 2026) | Trial stated on vendor pages |
Ranked by tier
most small businesses.
SysCloud
Best for most small businesses.
SysCloud covers Google Workspace backup with broad app cover and restore options.
Pros:
- Backs up Gmail, Google Drive, Contacts, Calendar, Google Forms, Shared Drive, and Google Classroom.
- Runs backup once per day, with unlimited on-demand backups, and restore includes one-click, user and app-level, and cross-user restore.
- Lists unlimited retention on paid plans, with archives for suspended or deleted users, plus audit logs, role-based access, single sign-on, and immutable backups.
Cons:
- Requires a minimum of 100 licences across all apps backed up for a new paid account, so a 20 user business cannot buy 20 licences alone.
- Caps export at 1 TB of free data export per account in a 12-month period, with extra export at $1,000 per TB.
- Sells AI-based ransomware detection as an add-on, not in the base paid plan.
Price: $4 per user per month for business users, from the SysCloud backup pricing page, checked 2 Nov 2026.
Who should skip it: businesses with fewer than 100 licences across apps, or businesses that need frequent large exports, should compare Spanning Backup or CubeBackup first.
Best for: most small businesses.
teams that want simple daily backup.
Spanning Backup
Best for teams that want simple daily backup.
Spanning Backup covers Google Workspace backup with daily backup and granular restore.
Pros:
- Covers Gmail, Drive including Team Drives, Calendars, Contacts, and Sites.
- Runs backups automatically every day, with on-demand backups at any time.
- Restore includes search and granular recovery, point-in-time versions, and cross-user restore, with document structure, metadata, and sharing settings kept.
Cons:
- Does not state a fixed retention limit in the pages checked, so get the retention rule in writing in the contract.
- Requires selecting each Shared Drive for backup and opting in to auto-protection for new Shared Drives, so a new drive is not automatically protected unless that option is set.
- Does not cover data outside SaaS apps, such as laptops, servers, or on-premises files, and requires a yearly subscription, with no monthly billing.
Price: Quote only, from the Spanning Backup datasheet, checked 2 Nov 2026. No published price appears in that datasheet.
Who should skip it: businesses that need a published price before a sales call, or businesses that also need laptop backup in the same tool, should compare SysCloud or Acronis first.
Best for: teams that want simple daily backup.
businesses served by a managed service provider.
Backupify by Datto
Best for businesses served by a managed service provider.
Backupify by Datto, now sold as Datto SaaS Protection, covers Google Workspace backup through a managed service provider.
Pros:
- Lists Gmail, Calendar, Contacts, Google Drive, and Shared Drives cover, with automated 3x daily backups.
- Stores each backup as a snapshot, with folder structure maintained and backed up data immutable in the backup store.
- Restore includes granular item restore and full account restore.
Cons:
- Is designed specifically for managed service providers, so a small business usually buys it through a provider, not as a direct list-price purchase, and no published per user price appears on the vendor product page checked.
- Prunes backups per the retention period set in policy, so retention is a policy setting, not an automatic infinite store.
- Does not cover Salesforce or other SaaS apps beyond Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, so a business that also needs Salesforce backup must buy a second tool.
Price: Quote only, from the Datto SaaS Protection page, checked 2 Nov 2026. No published price appears on that page.
Who should skip it: businesses that want to buy direct with a published price, or businesses that need Salesforce backup in the same tool, should compare SysCloud or Spanning Backup first.
Best for: businesses served by a managed service provider.
teams that want ransomware recovery.
SpinOne
Best for teams that want ransomware recovery.
SpinOne, through SpinBackup, covers Google Workspace backup with daily backup and fast recovery.
Pros:
- Backs up Google Workspace data with automated daily backup, fast recovery, and a 99.9 percent recovery service level on its vendor pricing page.
- Describes protection for emails, files, chats, calendars, contacts, and related metadata, with Drive, Gmail, Calendar, Contacts, and Shared Drives named for Google Workspace.
- Offers backup frequency of 1x per day on SpinBackup, with 1x or 3x per day on higher tiers.
Cons:
- Sets a minimum subscription of $5,000 per year, so for a 20 user business the minimum, not the $3 per user per month price, sets the bill.
- Includes only 30 GB per licence, with extra storage on demand, and sells SaaS Data Archive for suspended, deleted, or inactive accounts separately.
- Does not name Sites in the same list as Drive, Gmail, Calendar, Contacts, and Shared Drives in the vendor pages checked, so a team that relies on Sites should confirm Sites cover in writing.
Price: $3 per user per month, with a minimum subscription of $5,000 per year, from the SpinOne pricing page, checked 2 Nov 2026.
Who should skip it: businesses with fewer than about 100 users at this price, or businesses that need Sites backup confirmed, should compare SysCloud or Spanning Backup first.
Best for: teams that want ransomware recovery.
teams that want to host backup themselves.
CubeBackup
Best for teams that want to host backup themselves.
CubeBackup is a self-hosted backup tool for Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.
Pros:
- Lists backup for Gmail, Google Drive, Shared Drives, Contacts, Calendar, and Sites, with version history to local storage or private cloud storage.
- Backs up to local disks, NAS, or your own cloud storage.
- Charges per user, not per drive, so Shared Drives and SharePoint sites are backed up free of extra licence charge.
Cons:
- Does not include storage, so total cost is higher than the licence price alone, with vendor documentation estimating about $5 per user per year extra for Amazon S3 storage at an average of 30 GB per user.
- Does not cover managed cloud hosting, monitoring, or support as a cloud service, so you install the software, run the server, monitor backup jobs, and plan offsite copies yourself.
- Risks loss of a local-only backup with the originals if the backup server sits in the same building as your office and a fire or flood hits that building, unless you also copy backups offsite.
Price: $5 per user per year for business organisations, storage extra, from the CubeBackup documentation, checked 2 Nov 2026.
Who should skip it: businesses with no server to run, or businesses that want a vendor-managed cloud backup with no storage duty, should compare SysCloud or Spanning Backup first.
Best for: teams that want to host backup themselves.
teams that also protect endpoints.
Acronis Cyber Protect
Best for teams that also protect endpoints.
Acronis Cyber Protect combines backup, endpoint security, and endpoint management in one agent and console.
Pros:
- Covers Google Workspace backup in the Backup Advanced edition, with Gmail mailboxes and Google Drive files, and Team Drives noted.
- Gives Google Workspace seats free, unlimited Acronis Cloud Storage for cloud-to-cloud backup.
- Lets a team that already protects workstations and servers with Acronis add Google Workspace backup in the same console.
Cons:
- Covers Google Workspace backup only in the Backup Advanced edition, not in its Standard edition.
- Sells Google Workspace backup in five seat packs, with one licence including five seats, so the headline Backup Advanced figure is not a complete Google Workspace total.
- Makes a team that only needs Google Workspace backup pay for a wider platform and learn endpoint licensing it does not need.
Price: From $10.67 per month for Backup Advanced, on a 12-month contract, from the Acronis purchasing page, checked 2 Nov 2026. Google Workspace seats are sold in packs of five, so confirm the seat total in the calculator.
Who should skip it: businesses that only need Google Workspace backup, or businesses with a user count that fits poorly into five seat packs, should compare SysCloud or CubeBackup first.
Best for: teams that also protect endpoints.
How we choose
How we choose
We checked vendor pages on 2 Nov 2026. We kept tools that back up Google Workspace data to a separate store, and we checked Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Contacts, and Shared Drives cover, plus restore options and retention limits. We favoured tools a small business can run without a large IT team, with clear restore paths for leavers. We apply no numeric product scores, and the vendor docs show what each tool covers. Our criteria follow our scoring method. See the backup-recovery hub, Best Backup Software for Architecture Firms in 2026 and Best Disaster Recovery Software for Small SaaS Companies in 2026 for related guides. We state plainly where a vendor shows no price.
Questions to ask before you buy
Which Google Workspace backup tool is cheapest?
CubeBackup is cheapest on licence price, at $5 per user per year, but storage is extra and you run the server. SysCloud at $4 per user per month is $48 per user per year, before the 100 licence minimum. SpinOne at $3 per user per month looks cheaper, but its $5,000 per year minimum sets the real floor. Acronis seats are sold in packs of five. Spanning Backup and Backupify by Datto are quote only.
What retention should you set for leavers?
Keep leaver archives until handover is complete and any legal hold is lifted. SysCloud lists retention of archives for suspended and deleted users. SpinOne sells archive for suspended or deleted accounts separately, so add that option if leaver archives matter. Backupify prunes backups per the retention period set in policy.
Does backup replace Google Vault?
No. Google Vault is a retention and eDiscovery tool for Google Workspace, not a backup with independent restore. Vault can hold mail and Drive data under a retention rule and support legal search, but it does not give you a separate copy you can restore to a user account after a wipe in the same way a backup tool does. Use Vault for legal hold and search, and use a backup tool for recovery after deletion or account loss.
Buyers guide
- Confirm Gmail, Drive, Shared Drives, Calendar, Contacts, and Sites cover in writing for your plan.
- Test restore for one mail item, one Drive file, and one Shared Drive file.
- Test leaver restore: suspend a test user and restore data to another account.
- Confirm retention: how long versions are kept, and what happens when a user is deleted or you cancel.
- Confirm storage limits, export limits, and extra charges before you sign.
- Confirm whether Shared Drives need manual selection or auto-protection.
- Confirm the minimum licence count, billing period, and whether price is per user or per pack.
Frequently asked questions
Does Google Workspace back up my data on its own?
Google Workspace keeps your data highly available and lets admins restore some deleted items for a limited time, but that is not a separate backup you control. If an account is deleted if a retention rule removes it, Google alone may not bring it back. A separate backup stores a copy outside Google, with its own controls.
Which Google Workspace backup tool is best for a small business?
SysCloud is the best pick for most small businesses in this guide, because its vendor pricing page lists Gmail, Drive, Shared Drive, Contacts, Calendar, Forms, and Classroom, with point-in-time and cross-user restore. The price is 4 dollars per user per month, checked on 2 Nov 2026, but note the 100 licence minimum.
What should a Google Workspace backup cover?
It should cover Gmail, Google Drive, Shared Drives, Calendar, and Contacts at minimum. Check Sites, Forms, and Classroom separately if your team uses them, and check whether Shared Drives are backed up by drive or only through a user account. A tool that misses Shared Drives leaves team files unprotected when a member leaves.
How does restore work after an employee leaves?
A backup keeps archives for suspended or deleted users, so an admin can restore mail or files to another user or to a custom folder after departure. SysCloud lists retention of archives for suspended and deleted users, plus cross-user restore. Test it before you buy with a test user and one mail item, and confirm sharing settings survive.
What retention limit should a small business set?
Set retention from your legal and business needs, not from a vendor default alone. Unlimited retention helps for legal holds. A practical start is to keep at least one year of mail and Drive versions, keep leaver archives until handover is complete, and write the retention rule down.
Sources
- SysCloud backup pricing, checked 2 Nov 2026.
- Spanning Backup for Google Workspace datasheet, checked 2 Nov 2026.
- Datto SaaS Protection for Google Workspace, checked 2 Nov 2026.
- Datto SaaS Protection how it works, checked 2 Nov 2026.
- SpinOne pricing, checked 2 Nov 2026.
- CubeBackup on-premises backup advantage, checked 2 Nov 2026.
- Acronis Cyber Protect purchasing, checked 2 Nov 2026.