Genie Backup Manager
“Catastrophic failure” is one phrase you never want to hear when it comes to computers. While we rely on our home and business PCs to pilot our daily workflows, log our personal data, and connect us to the connected world, the reality is that there’s always a chance of your machine bidding ado - for whatever reason.
That’s why there’s a rich trove of local backup software suites available for the grabbing. Built for most operating systems, effective backup solutions allow you to back up everything from documents, images, music and video files, and more. Offloading from your internal, external, or cloud-based storage, backup solutions store your preserved media locally or to off-device media like CD, DVD, and Blu-ray disc.
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One such backup suite is Genie Backup Manager. A London-based company that specializes in backup tools for Windows-based machines, Zoolz offers both a Home and Business package for customers. We have first-hand experience with the software, and this is what we think.
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Features
From the same team that brought us other backup solutions like Zoolz Cloud Backup, BigMIND, and Polarbackup, Genie Backup Manager (currently billed as Genie9 - for version 9) offers both home and business packages for Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 8-10 (no Mac or Linux OS support). Built for customizable backup scheduling, Genie is designed to run in the background, backing up the contents of your entire system or whatever file-types you choose. Users can choose from Full, Incremental, and Mirror backup tiers to manage exactly how Genie offloads.
Windows users will be able to back up everything from emails, images, videos, contacts, plugins, system preferences, and more. Want a true failsafe plan? In the event of a total system/server meltdown, you can build a smart disaster recovery solution, which allows you to pick and choose what files and settings you want to preserve in the event of a shutdown.
Once you’re back online, an easy-to-install recovery wizard will walk you through a step-by-step re-upload of your essentials.
Genie9 allows users to offload files to local storage devices, network hosts, FTP storage, and external media including CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays. There are also plenty of backup preferences you can customize, from when your files will be backed up to the ability to run a backup while you’re logged off your machine.
When it comes to restoration, Genie9 provides you with a Window “exe” for a swift re-install, which means no additional software required.
Privacy
Genie9 is dead-serious when it comes to protecting your backed-up files. Each upload is layered with 128, 192, and 256 AES military-grade encryption, along with password protection for zipped content. Additionally, if you want to backup your content to a cloud storage service, Genie9 offloads to Amazon S3, one of the most reliable and well-protected cloud storage options available.
Pricing
Genie9 is available in both home and business formats. Genie Backup Home 9.0 is $50 for a single PC license, $115 for three, and $180 for a total of five PC installs. There’s also Genie Backup Manager 9.0 Pro. With the expanded business software, a single license goes for $70, three for $160, and five for $250.
A word of warning
As previously mentioned, Genie9 is part of a larger backup-software umbrella, with Zoolz, BigMIND, and Polarbackup as three of the other services. Over the last few years, these organizations have been in the spotlight for some strange activity, with many customers complaining about getting scammed.
The ongoing narrative is that when customers have purchased lifetime subscriptions through one of these backup services, emails have gone out from the companies informing clients that their lifetime subscriptions are no longer supported. Instead of offering a free switchover to a comparable platform, customers were then asked to sign up for another subscription plan altogether. This has forced a number of clients to re-subscribe for fear of losing the backup data they already have stored with Genie9 and its affiliate companies.
While there’s been no official investigation into this phenomena, it’s a red flag nonetheless. Most of these canceled subscriptions were purchased through Zoolz, not Genie9. That being said, we’d proceed with caution when doing business with any of these companies - regardless of the membership you choose.
The competition
Genie9 is up against a solid lineup of competitors. Chief amongst them is Acronis True Image, our favorite backup software of 2021. Acronis offers backup services for phones, laptops, cloud accounts, and the ability to package all these devices together for a synchronized, full-disaster recovery solution. You can also manually select files for backup, or create hourly, daily, or weekly upload schedules. There are plenty of great security features, too, including AES-256 encryption.
EaseUS ToDo Backup is another great backup platform, especially for first-time users. Not only do you get full Windows and macOS support, users can choose from free, paid, and lifetime subscription tiers. The interface is quick and easy to navigate, and there are plenty of security features and excellent customer support to complete your backup experience.
Final verdict
It’s hard to dislike the range of backup services offered by Genie9’s home and business plans. The platform is intuitive, simple to navigate/use, and the peace-of-mind security features are aligned with some of the best protection efforts on the backup software market. While we’d like to advocate more, the idea that some consumers could be “scammed” out of their lifetime subscriptions puts a bad taste in our mouths.
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