Top 8 Microsoft 365 Backup Solutions for Complete Data Protection

As a business owner relying on Microsoft 365 for critical emails, documents, contacts and more, having a rock-solid backup solution is non-negotiable. Without dependable Microsoft 365 backups, everything from a ransomware attack to an admin‘s accidental mass deletion could lead to catastrophic data loss and downtime.

In this detailed guide, I‘ll share my top picks for the very best Microsoft 365 backup software and services available today. For each recommended tool, you‘ll get an overview of key capabilities, details on supported Microsoft 365 workloads, pros and cons, pricing info and screenshots.

I‘ll also cover best practices for backing up Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive and other Microsoft 365 apps. By the end, you‘ll have the knowledge to choose the ideal backup solution to meet your unique business needs and budget.

Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 – The Gold Standard

Veeam is the undisputed market leader when it comes to Microsoft 365 backup, with thousands of businesses trusting them to securely protect Office 365 data. The solution clocks in with a nearly perfect 4.8/5 star rating on Capterra thanks to an unrivaled feature set.

Overview

Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 delivers flexible, fast and secure cloud-based backup for all your Microsoft 365 workloads:

• Exchange Online – Backs up mailboxes, calendars, contacts and more
• SharePoint Online – Site collections, sites, libraries and lists
• OneDrive for Business – All files/folders for each user
• Microsoft Teams – Channels, chats, files stored in Teams

Additional capabilities include:

• Granular restore – Recover individual Exchange items, SharePoint sites or OneDrive file versions
• eDiscovery search – Instantly find backed-up content for compliance
• Encryption – Secures Microsoft 365 backup data both in transit and at rest
• Reporting – Detailed job reports with statuses and processing stats

Pros

• Industry-leading Microsoft 365 backup
• Encrypted backups for security
• Configurable data retention
• Fast granular restores
• Detailed reporting and alerts

Cons

• Can get expensive for larger deployments
• Some limitations with public folder backup

Pricing

Veeam uses a subscription model based on the number of user licenses. Pricing starts at $4 per user/month with volume discounts available. There is also a free trial for 10 users.

https://www.veeam.com

SolarWinds Backup for Office 365 – Affordable Yet Powerful

If budget is a primary concern but you still want a full-featured Microsoft 365 backup solution from an established vendor, SolarWinds Backup for Office 365 fits the bill nicely.

Overview

SolarWinds delivers comprehensive data protection support across key Microsoft 365 workloads:

• Exchange Online – Mailboxes, calendars, tasks, notes, contacts
• SharePoint Online – Sites, libraries and lists with version histories
• OneDrive for Business – User folders and files

Backup highlights include:

• Compliance search – Helps quickly find messages or files needed for eDiscovery, litigation hold and regulatory requests.

• Alerting – Get notified if a backup fails or problems occur.

• Reports – Review detailed information on backups and snapshot usage.

• API access – Manage backups using SolarWinds‘ REST APIs.

Pros

• Very affordable but still feature-rich
• Strong compliance search capabilities
• Alerts for failed backups or issues
• Native Microsoft 365 backup solution

Cons

• Less granular restores than some competitors
• Advanced admin features require Orion platform

Pricing

SolarWinds Backup for Office 365 starts at just $2.97 per user/month when billed annually – one of the most budget-friendly Microsoft 365 backup solutions on the market.

https://www.solarwindsmsp.com

Spanning Backup for Microsoft 365 – Top-Notch Customer Support

Built exclusively for Microsoft 365 environments, Spanning Backup simplifies and strengthens protection for Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams.

Overview

Spanning Backup delivers automatic cloud-to-cloud backups for your critical Microsoft 365 data sources:

• Exchange Online – Email, contacts, calendar
• SharePoint Online – Sites, docs, list items
• OneDrive for Business – Files and folders
• Microsoft Teams – Chat logs, channels files

Additional features include:

• Granular restore – Recover individual files, folders, SharePoint sites and Exchange mailbox items.

• Audit reporting – Track all backup and restore activity for compliance.

• Legal hold – Preserve mailbox data even if a user account gets closed.

• Alerting – Get notified about failed backups or other issues.

Pros

• Specialized for Microsoft 365 backup
• Intuitive interface to manage backups
• Responsive customer support staff
• Simplified license management

Cons

• Must be cloud-hosted on AWS
• Advanced search requires more expensive plans

Pricing

Spanning Backup pricing starts at $8 per user/month billed annually. Volume discounts are available. They offer a 14 day free trial to test protection for up to 50 users.

https://www.spanning.com

Datto SaaS Protection – Top Marks for Reliability

Purpose built for Microsoft 365 environments, Datto SaaS Protection brings rock-solid reliability, frequent backups and impressive performance.

Overview

Datto SaaS Protection automatically backs up your business critical Microsoft 365 data:

• Exchange Online – Emails, mailbox items, contacts
• SharePoint Online – Sites, libraries, lists and more
• OneDrive for Business – Files, folders and sharing links
• Microsoft Teams – Channels, conversations, shared files

It also provides functionality such as:

• Granular recovery – Restore individual SharePoint and Exchange items.

• External sharing audits – See OneDrive and SharePoint files shared externally.

• Conflict resolution – Decide which file version to keep after accidental overwrites.

• Legal hold – Preserve email and SharePoint data subject to holds.

Pros

• Set and forget reliability
• Backs up multiple times per day
• Fast, granular restore capability
• Auditing for external sharing

Cons

• Can get expensive with large user counts or storage needs
• No Groups or Planner backup yet

Pricing

Datto SaaS Protection is priced per user per month, starting at $3/user for the Standard plan. Pricing scales depending on data volumes and recovery needs.

https://www.datto.com/saasprotection

BitTitan Backup for Office 365 – Specialized Partner Tool

For managed service providers (MSPs) and partners managing clients‘ Microsoft 365 environments, BitTitan Backup brings specialized tools to streamline protection.

Overview

BitTitan Backup centralizes Microsoft 365 protection across client tenants with support for:

• Exchange Online – Mail data, folders, attachments
• SharePoint – Sites, libraries, lists and more
• OneDrive – Files, links and metadata

It differentiates itself with capabilities like:

• Role-based access – Control permissions for client data access

• Multi-tenant dashboards – Unified views across clients

• Delegate backup setup – Clients can choose files/folders to protect

• Usage analytics – Measure adoption and consumption

Pros

• Specialized partner tool
• Multi-tenant management
• Delegated client access
• Centralized analytics

Cons

• Limited mobile functionality
• No Teams backup support

Pricing

BitTitan Backup pricing starts at $2/user/month for Exchange Online backup only, and $5/user/month for the full suite. Volume discounts available.

https://www.bittitan.com

Reasons Your Microsoft 365 Data Needs Backup Protection

While Microsoft 365 already brings a high degree of uptime, redundancy and native data protection for Exchange, SharePoint and OneDrive, relying solely on this is precarious. Both intentional and accidental data loss can and does still occur.

Some top reasons fully protecting your Microsoft 365 environment with third-party backup services is critical:

Accidental Deletions – An admin mistakes mass deletes a SharePoint document library or a user deletes thousands of important emails. Native Microsoft 365 tools offer limited recoverability depending on timing and backups.

Ransomware – Malware infiltrates your tenant and encrypts Office 365 data, SharePoint and OneDrive files. Restoring damaged data without good external backups may prove impossible.

External Sharing – Sensitive company data gets shared externally via anonymous links and ends up compromised. Backup tools often provide visibility into what gets shared externally.

Data Corruption – Software bugs or similar issues distort stored Office 365 data like emails in unrecoverable ways.

Retention Policy Gaps – Native Microsoft 365 retention policies inconsistently apply across apps and workloads, resulting in permanent data loss if users overwrite or delete content.

Legal/Compliance Requirements – Industry and government regulations obligate organizations to preserve data, maintain multiple backup copies and provide means to search/produce records.

Top Benefits of Backing Up Microsoft 365

Beyond just protection against worst-case scenarios like the examples above, comprehensive Microsoft 365 backup tools deliver immense day-to-day value including:

1. Prevent Permanent Data Loss – The #1 benefit of course is being able to restore corrupted, deleted or compromised data that would otherwise be lost forever.

2. Quick Restore of Key Data – Backup tools allow you to rapidly recover and resume access to business critical Office 365 data with minimal downtime.

3. Meet Compliance Mandates – Satisfy legal/regulatory compliance needs for data retention, preservation and eDiscovery.

4. Access Previous File Versions -Restore older versions of SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams files after accidental overwrites.

5. Minimize Downtime – Backup and disaster recovery ensure the business can continue functioning despite outages or data loss.

6. Understand External Sharing – Auditing features provide visibility into risky external file sharing.

Microsoft 365 Backup Best Practices

While this guide focused specifically on backup tools for Microsoft 365, properly protecting your environment requires more than just a third party software solution.

Here are a few best practices I recommend for enabling comprehensive Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive and Teams data protection:

Enable Version Histories – Microsoft 365 includes some native versioning capabilities that enable restoring previous copies of files. Turn this on for SharePoint and OneDrive libraries whenever feasible.

Backup to Two Repositories – Any backup solution should be backing up your Office 365 data to at least two separate repositories for redundancy in case one destination gets compromised.

Test Restores Regularly – All the backups in the world are useless if your team doesn‘t know how to successfully recover data when needed. Routinely test restoring content.

Restrict Admin Access – Limit the number of privilege admin accounts that can access and modify backups. Audit logs should track all admin activity.

Encrypt Backups – Protect data at rest by using a backup solution that allows encrypting the backup archives themselves.

Following best practices around backing up, protecting and being able to restore Microsoft 365 data will help your organization‘s productivity, compliance and continuity efforts.

Closing Recommendations

If you‘ve made it this far, congratulations – you now know more about robustly protecting Microsoft 365 than most organizations ever bother to learn.

The bottom line is that while Exchange, SharePoint and OneDrive all include baseline native data retention and recovery capabilities, these remain clearly insufficient for business critical usage.

My overall recommendation would be to seriously evaluate the #1 solution on our list: Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365. It simply checks all the boxes when it comes to the must have capabilities IT needs from enterprise-grade backup.

That said, I realize budget and other business requirements also factor in. Spanning Backup makes for an affordable yet highly reliable data protection tool for SMBs in particular.

I hope reviewing the pros, cons, features and pricing across these top 8 Microsoft 365 backup solutions gives you clarity on finding the right one suitable for your needs. Reach out in the comments section with any other questions.