Backupify vs. Spanning – Which SaaS Backup Solution Is Right for You?
As businesses have begun to rely on cloud-first environments, safeguarding SaaS data is no longer optional. If you lost your workspace data tomorrow, business would come to a screeching halt, making comprehensive SaaS backups a critical component of business continuity planning in addition to regulatory compliance. Platforms like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 dominate the corporate landscape, yet their built-in backup capabilities are wildly insufficient in the face of threats like ransomware privilege escalation attacks, insider risks like accidental deletion or malicious behavior.
In response, a robust market of third-party SaaS backup solutions has emerged to close the gap. Two commonly researched solutions in this space are Backupify and Spanning Backup, each with unique strengths and limitations.
What Is Backupify?
Backupify, now a part of Datto, delivers cloud-to-cloud backup services for Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. It automates daily backups, allowing businesses to recover from data loss due to human error or external threats. The platform features a centralized admin dashboard for managing backup operations, which is particularly useful for IT administrators overseeing large-scale deployments.
Two of Backupify’s main appeals include its straightforward, user-friendly interface (some reviews on this are mixed) and its long-standing presence in the market, which lend it a sense of brand trust. However, its protective capabilities lag behind competitors. Notably, it lacks meaningful ransomware protection: alerts exist, but automated remediation is absent. Its compliance support is relatively basic and does not extend to comprehensive frameworks like ISO 27001. Additionally, users have reported that data restoration times can be sluggish compared to other vendors, data may not be restored to original folder locations, and portability is an issue.
Summary:
- Supports Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 with automated daily backups.
- Offers a clean UI and recognized brand credibility.
- Weaknesses include slow restores, minimal ransomware response, and limited compliance depth.
What Is Spanning Backup?
Spanning Backup, a Kaseya product, is designed for backing up Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and Salesforce. It performs daily, automated backups and boasts unlimited storage and retention, a major plus for organizations managing large volumes of cloud data. Its most praised feature is the point-in-time restore, which enables precision recovery of specific data states, mitigating the impact of data loss or corruption.
Spanning’s interface is intuitive and user-focused, making setup and daily operations accessible even to less technical users. However, its security posture is limited. The platform lacks real-time cybersecurity protections, alert systems, or insider threat monitoring. Spanning also does not provide DLP or integrations with broader risk management frameworks, which limits its value for organizations with high compliance and security needs.
Summary:
- Works with Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and Salesforce with unlimited storage.
- Known for positive user experience and point-in-time data recovery.
- Lacks DLP, alerting, and robust cybersecurity integrations.
Key Feature Comparison
Both Backupify and Spanning offer foundational SaaS backup capabilities, but when compared side-by-side with SpinBackup, the gaps become clear. SpinBackup supports the same core platforms, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, and Salesforce, but elevates the offering with advanced cybersecurity features.
Feature | Backupify | Spanning | SpinBackup |
Platforms Supported | M365, GWS | M365, GWS, SFDC | M365, GWS, Salesforce |
Ransomware Protection | ❌ Basic alerts | ❌ Minimal | ✅ Automated recovery |
Insider Threat Detection | ❌ No | ❌ No | ✅ Yes |
Compliance Certifications | ✅ Basic | ✅ SOC 2 | ✅ SOC 2, ISO 27001 |
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) | ❌ No | ❌ No | ✅ Yes |
Backup Frequency | Daily | Daily | 1-3x Daily |
Risk Assessment Engine | ❌ No | ❌ No | ✅ Yes (AI-powered) |
Security Scoring & Reports | ❌ No | ❌ No | ✅ Yes |
API & Admin Controls | ✅ Limited | ✅ Basic | ✅ Advanced |
SpinBackup provides automated ransomware detection and recovery, insider threat protection, DLP, and AI-powered risk assessment. Its compliance certifications include both SOC 2 and ISO 27001, meeting more stringent audit standards than its competitors. Unlike Backupify and Spanning, which both lack meaningful threat intelligence or security scoring, SpinBackup delivers detailed security reporting and risk mitigation tools tailored to the needs of enterprise IT teams.
Where Backupify Falls Short
Despite being a solid choice for traditional backup tasks, Backupify struggles to meet the security expectations of modern businesses. It does not offer AI-based threat detection or any form of automated ransomware recovery. This reactive model forces IT teams to handle incidents manually, often after damage has occurred.
Furthermore, Backupify lacks audit trails and comprehensive version control, making it harder to manage data access and restore older versions with precision. Compliance features are superficial, making them decent for basic needs but insufficient for organizations with strict compliance requirements. Standard technical support is also reported to be slow by numerous users.
Further, users report aggressive lock-ins that prevent them from taking their data with them if the contract is ever canceled. Backupify claims to retain data for 60 days, but they offer no guarantee of this.
Limitations:
- No automated threat detection or remediation.
- Lacks comprehensive audit logging and versioning.
- Compliance certifications are limited.
- Future data portability may be a significant risk.
Where Spanning Falls Short
Spanning offers broader platform support, including Salesforce, but its security capabilities are underdeveloped. It does not include any DLP capabilities, incident response, or cybersecurity integration. This limits its utility in environments where data security is tightly regulated or at high risk.
Even within Salesforce, Spanning provides only basic backup functions with little emphasis on risk mitigation. Its reporting tools are minimal and do not provide actionable insights for security or compliance teams, making it a poor fit for organizations with a robust data protection strategy.
Limitations:
- No DLP or insider threat detection.
- Weak integrations with cybersecurity tools.
- Limited risk visibility and reporting capabilities.
Why SpinBackup Is the Superior SaaS Backup Solution
SpinBackup combines enterprise-grade data protection with robust cybersecurity for comprehensive protection of your data. It detects ransomware in real time and can roll back data automatically, minimizing potential data loss as well as downtime. Solutions that don’t stop ransomware in real time may allow your entire environment to be encrypted, requiring a comprehensive restore. Spin stops ransomware in its tracks with automated incident response, allowing it to deliver on its market-leading 2-hour SLA. Further, SpinBackup can be paired with its SSPM solution to monitor user behavior and enforce SaaS security policies, flagging risky actions by internal users, something neither Backupify nor Spanning offers.
Backing up your archived users may also be important to forensic investigations in the future, finding more and more IT teams seeking to retain this data for a period of time, even after a user leaves the company. Spin.AI offers this capability as an add-on to its standard backup offering, including hierarchical retention and searchability for e-discovery during internal investigations.
Finally, for organizations concerned about the security posture of its providers, SpinBackup meets industry standards with PCI DSS, GDPR, and HIPAA compliance; CSA, ISO 27001, and Data Privacy Framework certifications; and annual SOC 2 Type II audits. SpinBackup also offers DLP capabilities as an added benefit to prevent unauthorized sharing of sensitive data. Highlights:
- Combines backup, DLP, AI-driven ransomware threat detection, automated incident response, recovery, and archive capabilities.
- Supports strong compliance (SOC 2, ISO 27001).
- Delivers AI-powered risk analytics and enterprise-ready reporting.
Recommendation
Backupify and Spanning are both reasonable solutions for basic backup and recovery. However, their lack of integrated cybersecurity features means they fail to address today’s evolving SaaS security threats. For organizations prioritizing business continuity with rapid recovery, real-time ransomware defense,, and compliance-readiness, SpinBackup is the clear choice.