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Microsoft 365 Backup Compared for Small Offices
Microsoft 365 keeps deleted email and files for a few weeks, and Microsoft says protecting your data is your job. If you decide you need a real backup, the choice for a small office comes down to Microsoft's own Microsoft 365 Backup or a third-party service. Here's what Microsoft 365 Backup, Acronis, IDrive and CloudAlly each back up, how they charge, and how restores work, using each vendor's own pages.
Why backup is your job, not Microsoft's
- Microsoft says so. Its shared-responsibility guidance says that for every cloud model, including software as a service like Microsoft 365, "you own your data and identities" and are responsible for protecting them (Shared responsibility in the cloud).
- The built-in safety nets are short. Deleted email stays in the Recoverable Items folder for 14 days by default, and an admin can raise that to 30 days (Recoverable Items folder). Deleted SharePoint and Teams files stay in the recycle bins for 93 days (Restore items in the recycle bin). A deleted user can be restored with their data for 30 days (Restore a user).
- Retention policies aren't a restore button. Microsoft Purview retention can keep content even if a user deletes it (Learn about retention policies), but it isn't a point-in-time restore of a mailbox or site.
The full table of built-in windows is in What Microsoft 365 keeps for you.
The four options side by side
| Microsoft 365 Backup | Acronis (Cyber Protect Backup Advanced) | IDrive (Microsoft Office 365 Backup) | CloudAlly (OpenText Cloudally Backup) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exchange (mail, calendar, contacts) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| OneDrive | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SharePoint | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Teams | Not listed as its own workload. Teams channel files live in SharePoint sites, so backing up those sites covers the files. | Yes | Yes ("Teams & Groups") | Yes ("Groups and Teams") |
| Pricing model | Pay-as-you-go per GB of protected data, billed through an Azure subscription | Per seat, sold in packs of 5 seats, with 1-, 3- or 5-year terms | Per seat | Per user (Microsoft Complete) or per 10 GB per service (Files & Collaboration). Quote only. |
| List price (prices checked Oct 2026) | $0.15 per GB per month. Restores are free. | $209.00 per year for a 5-seat pack | $20.00 per seat per year, or $2 per seat on a monthly plan. Entra ID backup is $10.00 per seat per year extra. | No public price. You fill in a form for a quote. |
| Storage | Inside Microsoft 365, in append-only storage | Unlimited Acronis cloud storage included | Unlimited storage included, in a choice of 12 regions | Amazon AWS S3, with data center choices in the UK, USA, Canada, Germany and Australia. You can also bring your own S3-compatible storage. |
| Retention | Set per policy to 3 months, 6 months, 1 year or 2 years | Not stated on the pages I checked. Ask before you buy. | Not stated as a time period on the page I checked. IDrive describes snapshot schedules for point-in-time recovery. Ask before you buy. | Unlimited retention |
| Backup frequency | Restore points every 10 minutes for the past two weeks for OneDrive and SharePoint (then weekly), and every 10 minutes for 52 weeks for Exchange | Not stated on the pages I checked | 3 times a day | Daily, or on request |
| Restore | Whole OneDrive accounts and SharePoint sites rolled back to a point in time, to the same or a new URL. Exchange items restored to the same or a new folder. | Granular restore of emails, files, sites, contacts and attachments | Restore files, folders, emails, contacts and calendars to the user's account or download them | Point-in-time, non-destructive restore of single items or whole mailboxes, including to another user |
| Sources | Microsoft Learn | Acronis purchasing, Acronis Microsoft 365 backup | IDrive | CloudAlly pricing, OpenText product page |
Teams and SharePoint: Microsoft says each team is connected to a SharePoint site where its files are stored, and each private or shared channel gets its own site (Teams and SharePoint integration). Teams chat messages aren't files, and the Microsoft 365 Backup page doesn't list them.
What each one is like
Microsoft 365 Backup
Microsoft's own product backs up OneDrive accounts, SharePoint sites and Exchange mailboxes, and keeps the copy inside the Microsoft 365 boundary in append-only storage. If you stop using it, Microsoft keeps a fixed 90-day grace period in which you can still recover your backups. Microsoft also says Purview retention and deletion policies don't affect the backup recovery window (Overview of Microsoft 365 Backup). To set it up you need an Azure subscription for billing and the SharePoint Administrator or Global Administrator role (Set up Microsoft 365 Backup). Billing shows up in Azure Cost Management (Microsoft 365 Backup billing).
Acronis
For a business buying directly, Acronis sells Microsoft 365 backup only in its Cyber Protect Backup Advanced edition, in packs of five seats. Acronis says one seat is a Microsoft 365 user or a shared mailbox, and a seat that also has access to backed-up SharePoint sites and Teams counts once. Its example: 20 Exchange Online users plus one shared mailbox is 21 seats (Acronis purchasing options). The Microsoft 365 seat pack covers Exchange Online, OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams and Entra ID backup, with unlimited cloud storage (Acronis store). Acronis also scans Microsoft 365 backups for malware.
IDrive
IDrive charges per seat, where a seat is a Microsoft 365 user, and includes unlimited storage. It covers OneDrive, Outlook and Exchange, SharePoint, and Teams and Groups. Entra ID backup is a separate $10 per seat per year. IDrive says a paid subscription needs at least one active seat to back up SharePoint sites, Teams and Groups, or Entra ID (IDrive Microsoft Office 365 Backup).
CloudAlly
CloudAlly is now part of OpenText and sold as OpenText Cloudally Backup. There are two Microsoft 365 options: Microsoft Complete, priced per user, which requires activating all Exchange users, and Files & Collaboration, priced per 10 GB per service with no minimum. You request a quote for both (CloudAlly pricing). The main difference from the others is retention. OpenText says retention is unlimited (OpenText Cloudally Backup for Microsoft 365).
Worked example: a 15-person office
This assumes 15 licensed users, one shared mailbox, and 300 GB of mail and files in total. The 300 GB is a made-up number for the example. Check your real storage in the Microsoft 365 admin center before you estimate. List prices checked Oct 2026.
| Option | Arithmetic | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Backup | 300 GB × $0.15 × 12 months | $540.00, rising as your data grows |
| Acronis | 16 seats (15 users + 1 shared mailbox) needs 4 packs of 5: 4 × $209.00 | $836.00 |
| IDrive | 15 seats × $20.00 | $300.00 (more if IDrive counts the shared mailbox as a seat. Its page doesn't say.) |
| CloudAlly | No public price | Ask for a quote |
Which to pick
This is my opinion, not a test result.
- If you want the simplest setup and are fine with the copy staying inside Microsoft: Microsoft 365 Backup. Microsoft publishes restore-speed figures for it, which the other three pages I checked don't, and there's no seat count to manage. The bill grows with your data, and it needs an Azure subscription.
- If your insurer, a client contract or your own policy wants the copy held by a separate company: one of the third-party services. For the lowest published per-seat price, IDrive. For long retention, CloudAlly, which advertises unlimited retention. If you already use Acronis Cyber Protect for PC backup, the same product covers Microsoft 365.
- Whatever you pick, ask the retention question in writing before you buy, and test one mailbox-folder restore and one SharePoint-folder restore in the first week. The full list of questions is in Questions to ask any backup vendor.
Where to start
- Microsoft 365 Backup: set up in the Microsoft 365 admin center
- Acronis Cyber Protect Backup Advanced
- IDrive Microsoft Office 365 Backup
- OpenText Cloudally Backup for Microsoft 365
Sources
- Shared responsibility in the cloud (Microsoft Learn)
- Recoverable Items folder in Exchange Online (Microsoft Learn)
- Restore items in the recycle bin that were deleted from SharePoint or Teams (Microsoft Support)
- Restore a user in Microsoft 365 (Microsoft Learn)
- Learn about retention policies and retention labels (Microsoft Learn)
- Overview of Microsoft 365 Backup (Microsoft Learn)
- Set up Microsoft 365 Backup (Microsoft Learn)
- Microsoft 365 Backup billing (Microsoft Learn)
- Teams and SharePoint integration (Microsoft Learn)
- Acronis Cyber Protect purchasing options (Acronis)
- Acronis Cyber Protect store: Microsoft 365 seats (Acronis)
- Acronis Microsoft 365 backup (Acronis)
- IDrive Microsoft Office 365 Backup (IDrive)
- OpenText Cloudally Backup pricing (CloudAlly)
- OpenText Cloudally Backup for Microsoft 365 (OpenText)