Code42 ends consumer CrashPlan backup plans to prioritize business services

Code42, the company behind the CrashPlan online backup service, stopped accepting new subscribers for its CrashPlan for Home plan on Tuesday, with the backup firm shifting its focus away from consumers to enterprise and small business customers.

The CrashPlan website advises users that, effective as of August 22, Code42 will no longer accept new CrashPlan for Home subscriptions nor renewals of existing subscriptions. The sunsetting of the service will apparently take place over several months, with CrashPlan for Home expected to cease on October 23, 2018.

The service will continue to honor existing CrashPlan for Home subscriptions during this time, and has extended customer subscriptions at no extra cost by 60 days, to give users time to transition to a new backup system.

For customers wanting to stay with the service, Code42 suggests they move over to CrashPlan for Small Business, which costs $10 per month per device. Customers choosing this option will have their data moved over and will be able to use CrashPlan for Small Business for the remainder of their current Home subscription for free, followed by a 75 percent discount off the service for the following 12 months.

Carbonite is being offered as an alternative option, selected as an "exclusive partner" to Code42 for home users. Just as with CrashPlan for Small Business, subscribers are being offered a price cut for switching services to Carbonite, this time a discount of 50 percent, though customers won't be charged until their CrashPlan for Home subscription expires.

For customers who have a CrashPlan for Home subscription that extends beyond October 22, 2018, CrashPlan will automatically upgrade their account to the Small Business plan before the end-of-support date.

"The needs of our business and consumer customers have diverged dramatically in the past few years," said Code42 president and CEO Joe Payne about the end of the consumer service. "With the rise in threats facing organizations today, we are uniquely positioned to deliver the data security and visibility solutions those organizations require. This continues to fuel our high growth and is driving our strategic decision to focus solely on business and education markets."

"We worked hard to find the best possible alternatives for CrashPlan for Home customers as we transition out of the consumer market."

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31 Comments

StrangeDays 12951 comments · 8 Years

About 7 years ago

A bunch of my former dot com colleagues work for Code42, neat to see them in the news here. Seems like a pretty decent place to work in Minneapolis.

jbdragon 2312 comments · 10 Years

WHO? Never heard of it. maybe that's why they're getting out of the Home market. I've been using Carbonite for years.

ihatescreennames 1970 comments · 19 Years

jbdragon said:

WHO? Never heard of it. maybe that's why they're getting out of the Home market. I've been using Carbonite for years.

Right. Think about that. For most consumers backing up isn't even a thought that enters their mind. So, you're already in the minority for even performing a backup in the first place. Now, you're someone who is obviously aware of at least some backup solutions and you've never even heard of CrashPlan. I imagine that CrashPlan's consumer side doesn't amount to very many people. It's probably just time for them not to bother with such a small subset of their customers, maybe more effort than it's worth.

boltsfan17 2294 comments · 12 Years

jbdragon said:

WHO? Never heard of it. maybe that's why they're getting out of the Home market. I've been using Carbonite for years.

Crash Plan has been around a long time, maybe even before Carbonite. Not sure why they are getting out of the home market since Crash Plan had been one of the best companies to use.

Rayz2016 6957 comments · 8 Years

boltsfan17 said:

jbdragon said:

WHO? Never heard of it. maybe that's why they're getting out of the Home market. I've been using Carbonite for years.

Crash Plan has been around a long time, maybe even before Carbonite. Not sure why they are getting out of the home market since Crash Plan had been one of the best companies to use.

They're not getting out of the home market; they're simply covering up a massive dent in their business model, or this is a classic bait and switch; I haven't decided which.
The Home plan offered backups for all the machines in your home. This is dumb: a family of four all downloading music and videos and whatever else will use an awful lot of resources. There's no way you can plan ahead with that sort of arrangement.

So what CrashPlan is doing is getting rid of the families that are eating them alive, and hoping that those that stay will migrate to a service where they can charge per machine.

This 'focus on business' is pure bull. They got the maths wrong