Webroot Secure Backup review

Backup is a serious business, but it's also tedious - so much so that many people don't bother.

Webroot Secure Backup could be the ideal choice for people who want to keep their files safe with the minimum of effort. It combines online and local backup into a friendly interface, allowing the most precious files to be backed up securely while larger, less critical files are backed up to an external hard disk.

The basic package costs £15 per year for 2GB of online storage, rising to £20 for 5GB, £30 for 10GB and £50 for 25GB. The actual capacities may be more; unlimited older versions of files are retained, allowing the user to revert to a previous version if the most recent one becomes corrupt, or if unwanted changes have been made. The quoted capacity is for the size of the files on the user's PC, not the amount of server space used. Another welcome feature is the ability to install the software on up to three PCs.

Online backups are encrypted using 128-bit SSL technology before transfer and again before storage. We're pleased to see that they're stored at multiple geographical locations, so users are effectively getting two backups at once. However, there are no options to throttle transfer speeds, so scheduled backups may take up all your bandwidth, making other internet use sluggish.

Scheduling an online backup is easy but various features are notably absent. There are short cuts for selecting the Desktop and Favorites folders, but not for email client user files and other application preferences. It's not possible to set up multiple jobs, such as backing up Outlook daily and My Pictures weekly. If a scheduled backup is missed because the PC is off, it isn't rescheduled. Worst of all, scheduling hourly backups caused problems in our tests. We found that when a backup initiated before the previous one had finished, the software crashed and a full reinstall was necessary. At least our backups remained safe.

File restores include the ability to filter by date, file size, type and name, with matches displayed in a cramped, tree-view file browser. We experienced a bug whereby the text search didn't register until one of the other criteria was altered. Recovering older versions of a file was easy, with a drop-down list showing all versions in chronological order. Each file must be selected individually, though, so returning all files to a particular date is a long-winded process. Recovery is also possible via a web-based interface, which is useful for accessing files from another PC. It's possible to share a folder or file with others by emailing them a link, which is a convenient way to share large files.

The interface for backup to and restoration from local storage adds options to define multiple jobs, choose between incremental and full backups and exclude certain file types. Restore options are more basic, with no search filters and lethargic browsing of folders. It's easier to restore all files to a specific date, though.

There are good ideas here, but Secure Backup has too many rough edges. It doesn't help that there's no manual; the Help button serves as a link to www.webroot.com. BullGuard Backup 8.0 offers similar features and feels more polished. With 10GB of storage priced at £25 per year, it's slightly more affordable, too.