How much does business backup and disaster recovery cost? A guide to what you are really buying

The short version

Backup and disaster recovery are two different things that often get sold as one, and the difference is where most of the cost and most of the confusion sit. Backup is keeping copies of your data so you can get it back. Disaster recovery is the plan and the means to get the whole business working again after a serious failure, within a time you can live with. You can have good backups and still be down for days, which is why the question is never just "how much does backup cost" but "how fast does this get me back, and how much data could I lose".

Pricing is almost always monthly, and it tracks three things: the volume of data and the systems you protect, how fast and how complete the recovery needs to be, and whether the restores are actually tested. A cheap quote usually means slower recovery, more potential data loss, or backups nobody has ever proven will restore. This guide walks through what drives the figure, the common pricing models, and what good actually looks like.

• Backup is getting your data back. Disaster recovery is getting the business running again. The second costs more and matters more.
• Two numbers set the price more than any other: how much data you can afford to lose, and how long you can afford to be down.
• A backup that has never been test restored is a hope, not a safeguard. Tested recovery is the part worth paying for.

The two targets that decide everything: RPO and RTO

Before any price makes sense, you need two numbers. They sound technical, but they are plain business decisions, and they drive the cost more than anything else.

• Recovery point objective (RPO): how much data can you afford to lose? If your backup runs once a night and a failure hits at 4pm, you could lose most of a day's work. If losing an hour is unacceptable, you need to capture changes far more often, which costs more. RPO is really the question "how far back is it acceptable to go".
• Recovery time objective (RTO): how long can you afford to be down? Restoring a large dataset from a basic cloud backup can take many hours or longer. If your business can survive a day offline, that may be fine. If every hour down costs you money or clients, you pay for the ability to fail over and keep working in minutes rather than hours.

Most of the difference between a cheap quote and an expensive one comes down to these two targets. Tighter RPO and RTO mean more frequent copies, more capable infrastructure, and faster recovery, and all of that costs more. The honest way to buy is to set these targets first, based on what the business can actually tolerate, then price against them.

What drives the cost up or down

Beyond the two targets, a handful of factors move the figure. Two quotes can differ widely and both be fair, because they are protecting different things to different standards.

• Data volume. Most backup is priced by how much you store, so the size of your data is a direct input. It also tends to grow, so what you pay should be expected to rise gradually over time.
• What you are protecting. Backing up files in cloud storage is the cheap end. Protecting on premises servers, virtual machines, databases, and line of business applications costs more, because there is more to capture and more to restore in the right order.
• Microsoft 365 and other cloud apps. Many businesses wrongly assume Microsoft or Google backs up their data for them. They keep the service running, but recovering your specific data after accidental deletion, a mistake, or a ransomware event is your responsibility, which is why dedicated Microsoft 365 backup is a sensible and modest line in most plans.
• How fast and how complete the recovery is. Plain backup that restores slowly is cheaper than a setup that can spin your systems back up quickly after a server or site failure. The faster and more complete the recovery, the higher the cost.
• Retention and compliance. How far back you keep copies, and whether you must hold them for a regulator or a contract, affects storage and therefore price. Longer retention costs more.
• Testing and management. Backups that are monitored, alerted on, and periodically test restored cost more than fire and forget storage, and they are the difference between a backup and a recovery you can trust.

The common pricing models

Providers package backup and disaster recovery in a few ways. None is inherently right or wrong. What matters is that the model fits your data and that you can predict the bill as you grow.

Model	How it works	Best for	Watch for
Per gigabyte or per terabyte	You pay for the volume of data stored, usually monthly	Cloud backup where data volume is the main cost	The bill grows as your data grows; check the rate at higher volumes
Per device or per server	A monthly fee for each machine, workstation, or server protected	Firms that want a predictable line per system	Confirm what a "device" includes, and how servers are priced versus desktops
Per user (Microsoft 365)	A small monthly fee for each mailbox and account backed up	Protecting Microsoft 365 email, files, and SharePoint	Make sure it covers mail, OneDrive, and SharePoint, not just mailboxes
Disaster recovery as a service	Your systems are replicated so you can fail over and keep working fast	Businesses that cannot tolerate long downtime	The capability that justifies a higher price; confirm the recovery time it actually delivers
Bundled into managed IT	Backup and recovery included within a managed support contract	Firms that want one accountable provider and one bill	Confirm it is genuinely included and tested, not a token line in the package

Why bundling with managed IT often makes sense

Backup and recovery are not really a standalone product. They only work if someone watches them, fixes a failed backup the day it fails, and tests that a restore actually works before you need it. That is operational work, which is why backup folded into a managed IT contract often gives better value than a cheap standalone tool nobody is minding. The thing you are paying for is not the storage. It is the assurance that the recovery will work, run by someone accountable when it matters. For a sense of how managed support itself is priced, our guide on how much managed IT should cost covers the models and what drives the figure.

An indicative range, clearly labelled

With the caveat that your figure depends on the factors above, it helps to have a sense of the orders of magnitude. The ranges below are indicative market figures for UK businesses, not a quote, and they are worth sense checking against your own data volume and recovery targets.

• Microsoft 365 backup is typically a small per user monthly fee, often in the low single figures of pounds per user, which makes it one of the most cost effective protections a business can add.
• Cloud backup of files and workstations commonly runs from a few tens of pounds a month for a small business, scaling with data volume and the number of machines.
• Server and application backup sits higher, often in the tens to low hundreds of pounds a month per server, depending on size, retention, and how often it is captured.
• Disaster recovery with fast failover is the premium tier, commonly in the hundreds of pounds a month and up, because you are paying for standby infrastructure and a recovery measured in minutes rather than hours.
• All in, a small UK business protecting Microsoft 365, a server or two, and its workstations, with tested restores, often lands somewhere in the low to mid hundreds of pounds a month. A firm that can tolerate slower recovery pays less; one that cannot be down at all pays more.

The honest way to get a real figure is to set your two targets first, RPO and RTO, then size the data and the systems. A short review turns these indicative ranges into a number you can budget against, and it usually surfaces a gap you did not know you had, most often an unprotected server or a Microsoft 365 tenant nobody was backing up.

What good actually looks like

Cost is only meaningful against a standard, so here is what a sound backup and disaster recovery setup includes. Price against this, not against the headline rate.

• Backups follow the 3-2-1 principle. At least three copies of your data, on two different types of media, with one kept off site. It is the long standing rule of thumb for surviving a failure, theft, or fire.
• An off site, immutable copy. A copy held away from your premises that cannot be altered or deleted, including by ransomware, so you always have something clean to restore from.
• Restores are tested, not just taken. A backup is only proven when someone has restored from it. Regular test restores are the difference between a backup and a recovery you can rely on.
• Recovery targets are written down and met. Your RPO and RTO are agreed, documented, and demonstrably achievable, not assumed.
• Microsoft 365 is covered. Email, files, and SharePoint are backed up independently of Microsoft, so a deletion or an attack does not become permanent.
• Monitoring and accountability. Someone watches the backups, acts on a failure the day it happens, and owns the recovery if you ever need it.

We are not the cheapest place to buy backup, and we are not trying to be. The view we take is simple: backup is only worth anything at the moment you need to recover, and that is the worst possible time to discover it was never tested. The figure that matters is the cost of getting your business working again, fast, with no nasty surprises. Tested recovery, an off site copy, and someone accountable are not the expensive extras. They are the whole point.