Who likes paying for something twice? Nobody! That’s why we designed BackupAssist so that whenever you restore your backup, it’s “forever free”. It sounds obvious, but some subtleties of backup software can catch you out. This article explains how.
It’s common sense that if you pay for the backup, you shouldn’t have to pay for the restore. Yet some backup systems back you into a corner and make you pay for it.
There was a time when expectations were different. When I launched BackupAssist in 2002, most of us still took photos on 35mm film. Once you paid for the camera, the film and the developing, you got back a print and a negative. They were yours to keep and enjoy for life.
I view backups the same way. You pay for the backup media and you pay for the backup software. After that, I expect to restore from that backup for as long as I have it, without paying anyone anything more. The restore should be free forever.
What are the hidden traps?
There are two kinds of hidden traps:
- Being trapped by your backup software vendor.
- In the case of backups stored in the cloud, being trapped by your cloud vendor.
The traps laid by the backup software vendor
The trap starts when your data is locked in a format that only the backup software can read. With only one way in and one way out, the vendor controls a choke point where it can charge tolls. This is quite topical, as we’ve learnt from the events of 2026.
From there the vendor can make business decisions like requiring active maintenance in order for the backup software to work and do the restore. The vendor can raise its prices without your agreement. A worse scenario is if the backup software gets discontinued. In that case, it may be exceptionally difficult to retrieve your data and you may even have to resort to digital forensics tools or a data recovery company to do so. The costs can escalate dramatically if you are forced into this situation.
The traps laid by the cloud provider
This only applies when you store backups in the cloud. Major cloud storage providers like Microsoft and Amazon charge egress fees for data you download, so getting your backup back means an extra bill.
I won’t cover these costs here, because you can avoid them by choosing a provider with low or no egress fees, such as Wasabi or Backblaze.
How does BackupAssist avoid these traps?
Our philosophy is simple: you should be able to recover your data independently, without contacting us, waiting on us or paying us. We’ve built in several layers of design decisions to make that possible. That way, if technology changes in the future and one design decision becomes ineffective, there are other ways back into your data.
For more than two decades, our rule has been to give you more than one way to restore your backup data wherever possible. With multiple options, you can’t be trapped so easily.
In short, we set you up for “forever free” restores with these key design choices:
- Open formats wherever possible.
- Restore and mounting tools with no license needed, where your data is stored in BackupAssist’s encrypted format by necessity.
- Several types of backup on one installation. For example, your primary backup goes to immutable cloud storage, drive images go to a NAS as a secondary, and files go to a portable hard drive as a tertiary.
- Free downloads of our old versions, going back 10 years.
How forever free restores work in BackupAssist Classic
Each backup falls into one of two categories:
- It’s in an open format, so you don’t need BackupAssist to restore it.
- It’s in BackupAssist’s encrypted format, so you need BackupAssist to restore it, but not a license.
Case 1: Restore without BackupAssist
We store backups in formats that other software already opens. You don’t need us at all.
Unencrypted backups (open format)
| What BackupAssist writes | What opens it without BackupAssist |
|---|---|
| Whole-server backups, as drive image (VHDX) files | Windows Server Backup |
| File backups, as ordinary files and folders | Windows Explorer |
| Archives, as ZIP files | Windows Explorer, or any archive program |
| SQL Server database backups, in Microsoft’s own backup format | Microsoft’s SQL Server management tool |
| Microsoft 365 backups, as ordinary files on your own storage | Windows Explorer |
Encrypted backups (open format)
| What BackupAssist writes | What restores it |
|---|---|
| Backups on a disk encrypted with BitLocker | BitLocker, which is built into Windows |
| Encrypted ZIP files | The BackupAssist Classic Restore Console, or any ZIP64 program that supports AES-256 encryption, such as 7-Zip or WinZip |
Case 2: Restore freely with BackupAssist
The restore functions in BackupAssist do not check your license. Simply install it on a fresh computer, start the free trial, point it at your backup and restore. It works even if your BackupCare subscription has expired. More on BackupCare below.
BackupAssist can also restore every open-format backup from Case 1, so for those you can use either BackupAssist or other tools. Many people choose to use BackupAssist’s restore tools simply because they’re more convenient.
But strictly speaking, you only need BackupAssist to restore the following types of backup:
Backups in BackupAssist’s encrypted format
These encrypted backups work differently because in some cases there is no open format that simultaneously supports the type of data stored and encryption. Here is what restores each kind, with no license and no extra cost:
| What BackupAssist writes | What restores it |
|---|---|
| Drive image (VHDX) files that BackupAssist encrypts itself | BackupAssist’s encryption driver, which decrypts and mounts them |
| Cloud backups, which are always encrypted before they leave your server | The BackupAssist Classic Restore Console |
| Encrypted Microsoft 365 backups | The BackupAssist 365 Restore Console |
Because the restore never checks for a paid license, you’ll never be asked for money.
Why did we decide that restoring would never cost extra?
For me, this is a matter of ethics. When you make a backup, you expect to be able to use it later. You paid for the software that made it. I don’t think that deal should include a second bill at the moment you need your data.
So we built one rule into the design of BackupAssist: restoring never costs extra. We believe your data should always be yours: accessible, portable and recoverable, with or without us. You choose where your backups live, whether on a local drive, a NAS, tape or your own cloud account.
A promise alone would not be enough. Software companies get acquired, and new owners can change the pricing. That’s why we rely on open formats: they’re your best guarantee of free restores, whoever owns the company.
I use BackupAssist myself, and that gives me confidence I’ll never be made to pay to get my own data back.
Does the “double-dipping” problem occur in real life?
Yes.
Early in BackupAssist’s life, I spoke to a customer who used ARCserve for tape backup. He needed historical data from his old tapes. ARCserve had since changed its data format, so he needed an old version of ARCserve to read them. The old version would not install on Windows 2000. He had no other way in.
Backup Exec is a more recent case. Its maker announced that it would stop selling it after March 2026, and its users now face the same question: could I restore my files in 10 years if the software no longer exists?
Compare that with BackupAssist. One of our MSPs in Melbourne, Australia, told us how easy it was to get data back from his client’s backups. His client, a construction company, needed emails from 12 years earlier for a court case about a structural warranty. The MSP took an annual backup hard drive off the shelf and read it directly, with no software to install.
What does BackupCare add?
Everyone gets free restores forever. That’s our assurance to you.
So you might wonder what BackupCare adds and why you’d want to subscribe.
In an emergency situation, cyber-resilience is also about convenience, speed and access to help.
That is what a BackupCare subscription and our add-ons are for:
- Faster ways to recover. Options such as bringing a virtual machine back within minutes come with a subscription or an add-on. The Hyper-V Advanced add-on is one example.
- Help when you need it. If you hit a problem or have a question during a recovery, you can contact our technical support.
- Protection before anything goes wrong. You get software updates and our ransomware protections, aimed at keeping your backups safe from attack.
You choose how much of that you want. The free restore is there either way.
