Ashampoo Backup Pro 26 review: Easy, effective PC backup

At a glanceExpert's Rating

Pros

Friendly, comprehensive wizards

Drive, partition, and file/folder (plain and compressed) backup with versioning

Real-time file backup

Support for network sources and destinations

Supports cloud storage

Cons

“Real time” backup lags

No backup from rescue disc

Our Verdict
Backup Pro 26’s comprehensive task wizards for imaging, real time, file backup, and disaster recovery provide all the hand-holding even the least experienced user needs. However, it’s missing some features that would make it truly “pro.”

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Despite the oddball corporate moniker, Ashampoo makes some very effective software. Not the least of which is Backup Pro 26. For the average home user, it’s a friendly and solid backup solution. However, it’s missing a couple of features that would make it truly “pro.”

What are Ashampoo Backup Pro 26’s features?

If there’s a backup task or methodology, Backup Pro 26 generally offers a user-friendly implementation of it. Imaging of entire partitions and drives, backup of files and folders, real-time backup, incremental (not differential) backup, and disaster recovery — including boot media.

Note that the real-time backup was so laggy in my testing (up to a couple of minutes), that I asked if it’s actually continuous. Real time means that any file change instantly invokes a backup, which is how Ashampoo describes it, while continuous is simply very granular (a couple of minutes or so) scheduled backup. I had not received an answer as of the time of this writing.

Backup Pro 26 steps you through creating backup plans, with both simple (Easy Backup) and more comprehensive (Wizard) options, the latter featuring tons of options compartmentalized to single pages. Options such as very granular scheduling, the number of backups to keep, notifications, compression, encryption, etc. Why the confusing naming, I can’t tell you — both options step you through the process. Think of the two as “Basic” and “Granular.”




Ashampoo Backup Pro 26’s confusingly named simple and advanced wizards.Jon L. Jacobi

The clarity of baby steps in the Wizard option makes the process a bit more fool-proof for new users. Pros might prefer fewer steps and more options per page. But both wizards spell out the steps nicely in plain language. Kudos for that.

Though the interface overall is very friendly, it can be tedious in spots. For instance, manual file selection requires clicking through two dialogs rather than one. I’m being picky, and as I said before, the average user will spend a lot more time running backups than defining them.

Ashampoo Backup Pro’s backup wizards spell out the steps nicely in plain language. Kudos for that.




Why Backup Pro makes you drill through two dialogs to select a folder rather than present an expandable tree, I’m not sure. It’s tedious.

Backup Pro uses the common.vmdk format as its backup container, which can easily be attached to VMWare or VirtualBox virtual machines. However, this is only if you don’t encrypt them (you can compress). Otherwise you must use Backup Pro to restore files. The same goes for encrypted, and/or compressed file/folder backups.

Unencrypted, uncompressed file/folder backups may be browsed using nothing but Windows Explorer. Backup Pro can mount any of the image files it creates for browsing as well as browse compressed or encrypted file/folder backups. Versioning is supported, so you can also go back in time to previous iterations of files. Nice.




Ashampoo Backup Pro 26’s backup browser. You need this now to browse the formerly open format drive and partition backups, as well as any compressed or encrypted file and folder backups.Jon L. Jacobi

While Backup Pro will create a rescue USB stick or CD/DVD, the usual option to create a ISO image is missing. This won’t affect many users, but it forced me to create my own using Rufus for grabbing screen shots inside a virtual machine. Yes, woe is me.

Additionally, the rescue disk is restore-only — i.e., there’s no facility for creating new backups. Most users won’t care, but I have on many occasions found it necessary to create a backup of a failed installation before trying to repair it, and that requires backup software on an external boot disc.

Note that even if your subscription (see the pricing section below) expires, the rescue disc can still restore backups.




Backup Pro 26’s boot disc proved compatible and efficient, though you can’t create new backups using it.

Backup Pro handily supports cloud destinations, including OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, Google Drive, Dropbox, Strato HiDrive, 1&1, MagentCLOUD, OwnCloud, nextCloud, as well as any WebDAV server. Some of those might be unfamiliar, which reflects the European roots of the program.

Conspicuously missing from the cloud destinations are Amazon S3 and S3 compatibles, which often offer the best value. To utilize these with any backup software, use one of the utilities in our roundup of cloud managers.




Ashampoo Backup Pro 26 supports a number of cloud storage services, though not cheaper S3 types.Jon L. Jacobi

One thing I did not particularly care for with Ashampoo was its somewhat confusing presentation of partitions and disks when defining a full system backup. There is a note saying pertinent hidden and system partitions will also be backed up when you select any partition on a bootable disk. A good thing, as a full system restore absolutely requires these.




We do wish Ashampoo Backup Pro 26 organized partitions by drive a bit more intuitively. Jon L. Jacobi

I’d much prefer Backup Pro 26 displayed partitions grouped by drive as R-Drive Image does. See below.




Our favorite backup program, R-Drive Image.

A couple of the very useful Backup Pro features are the ability to trigger backups on media insertion, and network locations are supported as both sources and destinations. These do drift towards the “pro” side of the equation.

How does Ashampoo Backup Pro 26 perform?

Ah software… While the version 25 that I initially tested (26 was just released) performed without issue on our software test bed, version 26 started out with a thud — unable to communicate with its background service. The issue turned out to be that removing version 25 without deleting a real-time backup job (plan, in Ashampoo speak), bollixed the background service installation.

If you’re upgrading from version 25, be sure you delete (after noting which folders are being backed up) any real-time backup plans first — even if it’s a bit of a pain.




To avoid this message, delete any real-time backup plans defined using Backup Pro 25 before installing version 26.

Backup Pro 26 never glitched during any of the multiple tasks I threw at it: imaging and file backup, local and online, encrypted/compressed, unencrypted/uncompressed, plus restore of all. A nice change from the initial install woes.




Backup Pro 26’s performance on our storage test bed was perfect.

That said, one backup report had the start time at 06:00 when in fact it was 14:00. Also, the Backup Pro progress meter starts from six o’clock. Is this a Euro thing, or just an obsession with the number six?

Speed-wise, all was about par for the course given the media used for the destination. When I say par, backup software generally operates at around half the maximum transfer rate of any given media.

How much is Ashampoo Backup Pro 26?

A perpetual license for Backup Pro 26 was available at the time of this writing for $33, discounted from $66. You can also rent it for $18 a month though I’d stick with uncompressed, unencrypted backups if a subscription is your choice. Otherwise you’ll only be able to restore compressed/encrypted backups from the recovery disc if and when the subscription lapses.

Should you buy Ashampoo Backup Pro 26?

Backup Pro 26’s overarching support for so many backup chores, plus its comprehensive, easy-to-understand wizards are major selling points for less experienced users. But the lack of backup from the recovery disc and no differential backup are definitely not “pro” in my book.

Still, I encourage you to download the demo and decide for yourself if you like Backup Pro 26. I recommend the perpetual license to avoid restore hassles in the future, or as I already said — stick with uncompressed, unencrypted backups. Also, feel free to peruse the reviews of our favorite backup programs such as R-Drive Image.