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Backblaze sells cloud storage that people and businesses use to back up their files and store big piles of data.
Backblaze is a cloud storage company. It does two main things: it backs up people's computers automatically so their files survive a crash, theft, or spilled coffee, and it rents out cheap cloud storage space to businesses that need to keep large amounts of data.
The backup product is the simpler one. You install a small piece of software, and it quietly copies your files to Backblaze's servers in the background. If your laptop dies, you download your files back or have a hard drive shipped to you. Customers pay a flat fee per computer per year, which makes it easy to understand and easy to forget about — and forgetting about it is exactly the point, since backups only matter when something goes wrong. Its business storage product, called B2 Cloud Storage, is the other half. Companies use it to store files they need to keep but don't touch often, like video archives, old project files, or data their own software produces. It is built to be much cheaper than the big cloud providers, and it works with lots of existing software tools, so customers can plug it in without rewriting their systems. The money comes from subscriptions. Consumers and small businesses pay yearly or monthly for backup, and developers and larger companies pay for the storage and data they use in B2. The pitch is straightforward: cheap, reliable storage without the complexity or the bill shock of the giant cloud platforms. That puts Backblaze in a tough neighborhood — it competes with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Alphabet's Google Cloud, and consumer backup names like Carbonite, now owned by OpenText. Backblaze wins on price and simplicity, and it has built a loyal following among small businesses and developers who find the big clouds overkill.
Backblaze is a small, unprofitable company by public-market standards, which makes its path to steady profits the central question for investors. It went public in 2021 and has grown revenue at a healthy clip, but it has posted losses as it spends on sales and infrastructure. Its honest, engineering-heavy culture is part of its brand: for years it published hard-drive failure statistics from its own data centers, a rare peek under the hood that made it a cult favorite among techies. The company's headquarters is in San Mateo, California.
Saved answer · last researched 15 Nov 2026