# Backup and disaster recovery for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, September 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "backup and disaster recovery solution" and as "data backup and recovery service", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/cloud/backup-and-disaster-recovery/smb/

**Standing:** Acronis Cyber Protect leads with 37% of first choices; verdict contested. 46 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Acronis Cyber Protect | 37% | 0% | 40 |
| 2 | IDrive Business | 22% | 0% | 35 |
| 3 | Backblaze | 7% | 6% | 17 |
| 4 | Veeam | 4% | 10% | 20 |
| 5 | Cove Data Protection | 4% | 0% | 12 |
| 6 | Axcient x360Recover | 0% | 7% | 14 |
| 7 | Veeam Data Platform | 0% | 18% | 11 |
| 8 | Datto | 0% | 23% | 13 |

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: no first choice
- GPT-5.4 mini: no first choice
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Acronis Cyber Protect; alternatives Axcient x360, Datto SIRIS, Druva Data Resiliency Cloud, HYCU
- Perplexity Sonar: Acronis Cyber Protect; alternatives Cove Data Protection, IDrive Business, Veeam
- Grok 4.1 Fast: Acronis Cyber Protect; alternatives Axcient x360Recover, Backblaze, IDrive Business, Veeam Backup Essentials
- Mistral Small: Acronis Cyber Protect, Cove Data Protection
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Acronis Cyber Protect; alternatives Axcient x360Recover, Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud, Cove Data Protection, Datto SIRIS
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Acronis Cyber Protect; alternatives Datto, NinjaOne, SpinOne, Veeam Backup & Replication
- Kimi K2: Datto SIRIS; alternatives Acronis Cyber Protect, Cove Data Protection, IDrive Business, Veeam Backup & Replication
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Acronis Cyber Protect; alternatives Axcient x360Recover, Backupify / Datto SaaS Protection, Infrascale, Keepit
- MiniMax M2.5: Acronis Cyber Protect; alternatives Backblaze, IDrive Business, Veritas Backup Exec

## Sources the answers cite

57 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- hyperconvergence.com: 36 answers, 38 citations
- axcient.com: 28 answers, 32 citations
- listicler.com: 24 answers, 24 citations
- ifeeltech.com: 23 answers, 29 citations
- veeam.com: 22 answers, 29 citations
- expertinsights.com: 17 answers, 24 citations
- consilien.com: 16 answers, 20 citations
- digacore.com: 15 answers, 15 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://hyperconvergence.com/best-backup-and-disaster-recovery-solutions-for-smbs (36 answers)
- https://listicler.com/best/best-backup-disaster-recovery-small-businesses (24 answers)
- https://axcient.com/blog/backup-and-disaster-recovery-solutions (23 answers)
- https://ifeeltech.com/blog/best-cloud-backup-small-business (18 answers)
- https://consilien.com/news/best-cloud-backup-solutions-smb-2026 (16 answers)
- https://digacore.com/blog/cloud-backup-solutions-for-small-business (15 answers)
- https://cybersecurityessential.com/smb-msp/smb-guides/best-smb-backup-solutions-2026 (11 answers)
- https://ironorbit.com/disaster-recovery-solutions-for-small-businesses (11 answers)
- https://veeam.com/solutions/small-business.html (11 answers)
- https://expertinsights.com/backup-and-recovery/top-disaster-recovery-dr-software-solutions (10 answers)

## Warned against

- Microsoft OneDrive: 8 of 8 labels negative. "Services like Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, and similar sync platforms mirror deletions and ransomware encryption, so they do not provide independent recovery copies." (Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt)
- Dropbox: 8 of 8 labels negative. "Services like Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, and similar sync platforms mirror deletions and ransomware encryption, so they do not provide independent recovery copies." (Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt)
- Google Drive: 7 of 7 labels negative. "Services like Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, and similar sync platforms mirror deletions and ransomware encryption, so they do not provide independent recovery copies." (Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt)
- Google Workspace: 4 of 4 labels negative. "Native SaaS Platform "Backups" (The Shared Responsibility Trap)... Why to avoid it" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://it-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://it-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, it-ai-index.com.