One of the biggest changes to the leading Acronis True Image software of recent times (aside from the fact it has also recently been renamed to Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office) is Acronis making the decision to no longer sell perpetual licences to individual customers and instead make the product a subscription only option!
As an Acronis customer of many years myself (about 15 off the top of my head) I was initially quite surprised to hear this news, especially so as I believe that perpetual licences can still offer great value in certain circumstances (especially so with secondary or less important PCs which only require a basic backup solution out of convenience as opposed to those requiring the latest data protection features currently on offer).
With this in mind, I am going to use this article both to address some of the many benefits of this new Acronis subscription software (in my opinion, at least) whilst also listing some good alternatives to Cyber Protect Home Office for anyone looking for similar functionality without the need for a subscription to be paid.
This starts with a quick look at some of the newest features on offer from Acronis which might actually warrant making this subscription-only service a good decision after all?
Are you looking for help and advice on choosing the best backup software for your PC or Mac? If so then be sure to check out our guide to choosing backup software which also contains a list of our favorite choices as tested here on BestBackupReviews.com!
Benefits of using the Acronis Subscription Options
If you have found this article in the search for a non-subscription based alternative to Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office then this might not be the section you are initially wanting to read, but please stick with me for a minute as there are some important points to be made here!
Firstly, there are two important services which are now integrated into the Cyber Protect Home Office software, these are a fully functional anti-virus and cyber protection solution alongside a fully functional cloud storage service which is built directly into the software and operated by Acronis themselves.
By integrating and configuring these services as a part of the backup solution itself, Acronis not only remove the need for their customers to purchase, install and configure these services separately, but also help to mitigate any potential data protection issues which might occur as a result of configuring services such as these incorrectly.
NB – The entry level “Essentials” version of Cyber Protect Home Office does not have the full suite of cyber protection options available, nor does it have any cloud storage allocation included in the subscription like the Advanced and Premium versions do!
Since I don’t want this article to be too long, I am not going to be covering the anti-virus solution nor the cloud storage offering in any great detail. What I do want to point out here is that both of these services come very highly rated with the cloud storage proving a very good service form my own testing here on BestBackupReviews.com and the anti-virus capabilities been independently verified as highly effective form independent experts including AV-Test (click here to see the relevant AV-Test results page).
NB – You can read our full review on Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office for more details on what is included in the software!
Given that many PC users will already be paying separately for both cloud storage solutions and anti-virus protection software (neither of which are typically available on a non-subscription basis), the concept of combining these two services into a piece of backup software and bringing everything together under a single subscription could be very beneficial for many PC users. Furthermore, if you factor in the cost of buying cloud storage and premium anti-virus software individually, plus the fact you will always receive the latest version of the Acronis backup software when on a subscription plan, then this new offering starts to look quite cost effective overall (in my eyes at least).
NB – Remember, Acronis offer a free 30-day trial on their latest Cyber Protect Home Office solutions if you are still undecided and wish to try the latest version out for yourself!
Top 5 Alternatives to Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office
If you have decided that the current subscription-only model now offered by Acronis defiantly isn’t for you then don’t worry, then there are still some great perpetually licenced, non-subscription alternatives available.
Listed below are 5 of our favourite non-subscription Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office alternatives as have been tested and reviewed here on the BestBackupReviews.com website. The focus here, of course, is on listing perpetually licenced backup software with strong disk imaging and backup capabilities as this is what Acronis has become well known for thanks to their True Image (and now Cyber Protect Home Office) backup solutions over many years.
1. Ashampoo Backup Pro 17
It should come as no surprise that Ashampoo Backup Pro 17 tops this list of Acronis alternatives, not only does it include a strong set of image-based disk and partition backup options, but additionally a strong cloud backup offering which supports allowing PC users to make use of their existing cloud storage accounts form many leading providers including Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive amongst others.
Backing up this strong set of core backup functionalities are plenty of other useful features including a well-designed and easy to use application interface, strong scheduling support, potentially unlimited file versioning options, strong AES 256-bit encryption and multiple recovery options including the ability to mount backups as virtual drives and the ability to create bootable recovery media for use with un-bootable PCs.
Best of all, Ashampoo Backup Pro 17 is priced at a one-off cost of just $50 for a single perpetual licence. A 30-day free trial of the software is also available via the official Ashampoo website!
- Disk image backups
- Good cloud support
- AES 256-bit encryption
- 30-Day free trial
- One-off $50 per PC
2. EaseUS ToDo Backup Home
One of the key things which stands out about EaseUS ToDo Backup is the strong set of image-based disk and partition backup tools which are available. In addition to this, the premium (Home) version of the tool also includes disk cloning and migration tools alongside disk image-based recovery tools (as well as some other useful disk image related features including tools for recovering to dissimilar hardware).
In addition to a very strong disk imaging toolset, ToDo Backup also supports many other useful backup functionalities including strong AES 256-bit encryption, good scheduling and automation options, support for backing-up Microsoft Outlook and strong cloud storage support featuring integrations with popular services such as Google Drive and Dropbox (alongside their own cloud storage offering which is provided at an additional cost).
Given that a very competitively priced perpetual offering is available for ToDo Backup (with lifetime free upgrades available for a small additional fee) this leading backup solution naturally becomes a strong, non-subscription based alternative to Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office!
EaseUS ToDo Backup Home is available as a perpetual licence (with free lifetime upgrades included) for just $59 per PC. A 30-day free trial is also available via the official EaseUS website!
- Disk Image backups
- Cloud backups
- AES 256-bit encryption
- 30-Day free trial
- From $39.95 / year!
3. O&O DiskImage 17
One of the key features of DiskImage 17 is its set of strong disk image-based backup capabilities, capabilities which see it offering not only disk and partition image-based backups, but also the excellent 1-click image backup tool plus support for restoring to dissimilar hardware as and when applicable to do so!
Backing up this excellent set of disk image related features are options to additionally make file-level backups (albeit with no built-in cloud support), options for protecting backups with strong AES 256-bit encryption, the use of VHD and VHDX formats for storing and recovering backed-up data and strong automatic scheduling options amongst many other useful features.
O&O DiskImage 17 is priced at a one-off cost of $49.95 for a single, perpetual licence with a 5-device licence bundle also available for a one-off cost of just $69.95! A 30-day free trial of the software is also available via the official O&O website.
- Disk Image backups
- AES 256-bit encryption
- VHD / VHDX formats
- 30-Day free trial
- From $49.95 per device
4. Macrium Reflect 8 Home
Macrium Reflect is a leading piece of disk imaging software which features many of the image-based backup and recovery functionalities found within Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office, minus the need to buy the software on a subscription basis. This excellent set of imaging features includes tools for both backup and cloning of disks as well as tools for more specialist tasks like recovering disk image-based backups to dissimilar or new hardware.
Other useful features found within Macrium Reflect include support for file-level backups, optional use of strong AES 256-bit encryption and the mounting of disk images as virtual dives within Windows for ease of data recovery amongst many other useful features. One noticeable downside to Reflect 8, however, which does see it falling behind the offering from Acronis is the lack of any built-in cloud storage support!
Macrium Reflect 8 is priced at a one-off cost of $69.95 for a single perpetual licence (A 4-device licence is also available at the discounted cost of $139.95). A 30-day free trial of the software is also available via the official Macrium website.
- Disk image backups
- AES 256-bit encryption
- Disk cloning tools
- Free version available
- Pro from $69.95 / PC
5. Paragon Backup & Recovery (Community Edition)
Paragon Backup & Recovery (Community Edition) is a free-to-use disk image-based backup tool from software experts Paragon Software. Featuring a great set of disk imaging tools plus support for many other useful features including VHD file types, data encryption, compression and a strong scheduling engine amongst many others, Backup & Recovery a great and free-to-use alternative to Cyber Protect Home Office!
Whilst this free version of the tool does have some limitations (for example, limited notification options), a more advanced and featureful version of the software is available in the premium Hard Drive Manager Suite solution which is also produced by Paragon Software. Cloud support is available in this tool, however, this is limited and involves WebDAV configuration.
Backup & Recovery Community Edition is 100% free-to-use and can be downloaded via the official Paragon Software website. The premium version of the tool (included in the Hard Disk Manager suite of tools) is also available as a perpetual licence with a one-off cost of $79.95.
- Disk image backups
- AES 256-bit encryption
- VHD format support
- Cloud / WebDAV support
- 100% Free to use
Conclusion
Overall, the benefits provided by a subscription service can be very subjective and whilst I personally happen to think that for many PC users these new services integrated into the Cyber Protect Home Office subscription do offer great value, I also think it is fair to recognise that perpetual software licencing is still a better choice in some circumstances.
If you are looking for a non-subscription alternative to Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office then there are, thankfully, still some very good options available as is shown in the section just above. Remember, when making use of any new alternative, always try and make use of any free-trials (whenever possible) to help ensure that the software does meet your requirements before committing to making a purchase.
NB – Remember that Acronis offer a 30-day free trial of Cyber Protect Home Office if you are still undecided and wish to try the latest version out for yourself!
Are you looking for help and advice on choosing the best backup software for your PC or Mac? If so then be sure to check out our guide to choosing backup software which also contains a list of our favorite choices as tested here on BestBackupReviews.com!