Backblaze vs Backblaze B2: Which Should You Buy?

Quick verdict

If you’re staring at a growing pile of data on your NAS or PC and just want it backed up without thinking, the choice is surprisingly straightforward once you understand what each service actually is. They share a parent company but solve fundamentally different problems.

You are…	Buy this
A homelabber wanting set-and-forget, unlimited backup of a single PC or external drives	Backblaze (affiliate)
A self-hoster needing an S3-compatible target for server backups, NAS apps, or custom scripts	Backblaze B2 (affiliate)

The core tension is simple: unlimited, brain-dead-simple backup for a flat fee, versus granular, pay-as-you-go object storage that your infrastructure can talk to directly. I’ve used both in my lab, and the wrong choice leads to either wasted money or a backup strategy that simply doesn’t work.

Spec-by-spec

	Backblaze	Backblaze B2
Category	Cloud Backup	Object Storage
Type	SAAS	SAAS
Price	$9/mo	$6/TB/mo
Best for	Off-site NAS/PC backup	S3-style off-site target
Pros	Unlimited personal, cheap B2	Cheap, simple, NAS-native
Cons	B2 egress costs	Egress fees

Understanding the fundamental difference

The naming is confusing, and Backblaze doesn’t do itself any favors here. Backblaze (affiliate) is a managed backup application. You install its software on a Windows or macOS machine, it scans your drives, and it continuously pushes everything to the cloud. You don’t decide how it stores data; you just pick the files or drives and it handles versioning, scheduling, and retention. It’s a direct competitor to something like CrashPlan, not Amazon S3.

Backblaze B2 (affiliate) is the exact opposite. It’s raw object storage—buckets, keys, and an S3-compatible API. There’s no official “backup software” included. You bring your own tool: Duplicacy, Restic, a Synology Hyper Backup job, a TrueNAS Cloud Sync task, or your own rclone script. You have full control over data structure, retention policies, and encryption, but you also bear full responsibility for configuring it correctly.

When unlimited personal backup wins

For a single desktop or a DAS plugged into a PC, Backblaze (affiliate) is a no-brainer. The $9/mo flat fee covers unlimited data from one computer and any directly attached external drives. In my early homelab days, I had a Windows box with 8TB of media. A B2 bill for that would’ve been $48/mo just for storage, before any egress. Backblaze’s personal backup handled it for nine bucks. The catch is that it’s not server-native. You can’t install it on a Linux headless box, a NAS OS, or a VM host. It’s strictly a desktop client. If your “NAS” is actually a Windows machine with a bunch of drives, it works. If it’s a Synology or Unraid box, you’re out of luck.

The “cons: B2 egress costs” note in the facts is a bit of a misnomer for the personal backup product itself—restores from the personal backup are done via a web downloader or a mailed USB drive, not B2’s egress pricing. But it’s a fair warning that the company’s ecosystem has egress fees lurking in the B2 side, which can surprise you if you later bridge the two.

When B2’s object storage is the only sane choice

If you run a proper NAS, Backblaze B2 (affiliate) is your target. Synology, QNAP, TrueNAS, and Unraid all have native B2 integrations. You point your backup job at a B2 bucket, set a retention policy, and it just works. The $6/TB/mo price is among the cheapest S3-compatible storage you’ll find, undercutting Wasabi’s $7/TB/mo (though Wasabi has no egress fees, a different trade-off). For my 2TB of critical documents, photos, and Docker configs, B2 costs me $12/mo. The rest of my media lives on a local backup drive because I’m not paying to store Linux ISOs in the cloud.

The elephant in the room is egress. B2 charges for data downloaded. For pure backup, this is a non-issue—you only pay egress during a real disaster recovery. But if you’re thinking of using B2 as a cheap content delivery origin or a frequently accessed archive, those fees will bite. Plan your restore budget: know that pulling down a terabyte will cost you extra. Many homelabbers mitigate this by pairing B2 with a free Cloudflare account, which can eliminate egress fees if you’re serving content through their network, but that’s an advanced setup.

Pros & cons

Backblaze

Pros

• Truly unlimited storage for one machine, no per-gigabyte math required.
• Dead simple setup: install, log in, and it backs up everything.
• Inexpensive at $9/mo for peace of mind on a primary PC.

Cons

• Desktop OS only; cannot back up a NAS, server, or Linux machine directly.
• The “unlimited” license is per computer; you need separate licenses for multiple machines.
• Restore process is clunkier than a native file browser, relying on zip downloads or physical drive shipments.

Backblaze B2

Pros

• Native S3-compatible API works with virtually every backup application and NAS OS.
• Pay-as-you-go pricing at $6/TB/mo is excellent for selective, critical data backups.
• Full control over encryption, retention, and data lifecycle rules.

Cons

• Egress fees make frequent restores or data access expensive.
• No included software; you must configure and maintain your own backup tool.
• Costs can become unpredictable if you don’t monitor bucket size and API calls.

Which should you buy

The decision hinges on a single question: Is your data on a desktop PC or a server/NAS?

If you’re backing up a personal Windows or Mac machine with a lot of data, get Backblaze (affiliate). The unlimited model is perfect for large media collections where you’d rather not think about per-TB costs. Just remember it’s a safety net, not a sync service—restores are for emergencies, not daily file sharing.

If you have a Synology, Q