Microsoft 365 backup for MSPs: 34 products compared
Microsoft keeps Microsoft 365 running. Getting a client's data back after a bad week is the client's job, which in practice means the MSP's. Third-party Microsoft 365 backup fills that gap. The catalog's Cloud Backup (M365, Google Workspace, SaaS) category holds 107 products from 47 vendors as of October 2026. This guide looks at the 34 of them that back up Microsoft 365 data, plus the three that back up Entra ID, and at what to check before you standardise on one.
Key facts, October 2026
- 34 products from 31 vendors back up Microsoft 365 data such as Exchange Online, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams. 3 more back up Entra ID.
- None of the 34 is classified as internal MSP tooling: 30 are run by the MSP and paid for by the client, 4 are resold.
- 8 of the 34 expose a public API and 3 have a verified MCP server.
- Only 3 list a verified ConnectWise PSA integration, 2 Halo PSA and 1 Autotask.
- 23 of the 34 come from US vendors. Ten come from Canada, Poland, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, the UK, Australia and Taiwan, and one vendor has no headquarters on file.
Why MSPs back up Microsoft 365 at all
Microsoft's own shared responsibility table lists customer data as the customer's responsibility for every service type, SaaS included. The native recovery tools are short-term safety nets:
- Exchange Online keeps soft-deleted mail for 14 days by default, up to 30.
- SharePoint keeps deleted items in the recycle bins for 93 days, with 14 more days in which an admin can ask Microsoft Support for a restore.
- OneDrive can roll a whole account back to any point in the last 30 days.
These tools work for a user who deleted the wrong folder last week. They don't help when a departed employee's mailbox was removed two months ago, when ransomware encrypted a SharePoint library and the client noticed on day 40, or when the client's insurer asks where the independent copy is.
What about Microsoft 365 Backup?
Microsoft sells its own Microsoft 365 Backup, and it is a real option. It backs up SharePoint sites, OneDrive accounts and Exchange mailboxes, with a recovery window you set per policy at 3 months, 6 months, 1 year or 2 years. It bills pay-as-you-go at $0.15 per GB per month, and the backups stay inside Microsoft's own boundary. Weigh it against a third-party product on three points: whether you want the copy held somewhere other than Microsoft, whether you need retention beyond two years, and whether you want per-seat pricing and a multi-tenant console you can bill from.
What to back up
The core three are Exchange, OneDrive and SharePoint. Every one of the 34 covers some of these. After that, products differ:
- Teams. Coverage varies most here, especially for chats and private channels. Afi's M365 Backup lists private channels, 1:1 chats and the Exchange in-place archive. Ask every vendor for their list.
- Planner and Groups. ConnectWise Cloud Backup, formerly ConnectWise SaaS Backup, and Hornetsecurity 365 Total Backup both list Planner.
- Entra ID. Some vendors sell backup of users, groups and configuration as a separate product. The catalog has three: Barracuda Entra ID Backup Premium, Dropsuite's Microsoft Entra ID Backup and Redstor's Microsoft Entra ID Backup and Recovery. Barracuda includes a basic Entra ID backup with its Cloud-to-Cloud Backup at no extra charge. ConnectWise and Hornetsecurity include Entra ID in the main product.
A sell-through category
| How MSPs relate to it | Products (of 34) |
|---|---|
| Both: you run the console, the client pays per seat | 30 |
| Resold to clients | 4 |
| Internal tooling only | 0 |
The pricing model shapes the margin, and it varies. Keepit advertises flat-rate pricing with unlimited storage. Synology Active Backup for Microsoft 365 is a free add-on for a Synology NAS, so the cost is the hardware and the storage you run. SysCloud caps storage at 100 GB per licence when you only back up SharePoint and Teams, which matters for clients with large file shares and few users. Read the storage terms before you quote a per-seat price.
The landscape in numbers
- 34 products, 31 vendors. Most vendors list one Microsoft 365 product. Kaseya lists two: Spanning M365 Backup and SaaS Protection+, the former Datto product. NinjaOne lists two as well, NinjaOne Backup and Microsoft 365 Backup. Dropsuite's own website now says Dropsuite has been acquired by NinjaOne and continues as NinjaOne SaaS Backup.
- Built for MSPs. Axcient x360Cloud, Cove Data Protection, Redstor and Xopero ONE MSP Backup are pitched at MSPs on their own sites. Hornetsecurity lists a multi-tenant console for managing every Microsoft 365 organisation's backups in one place.
- European options exist. Hornetsecurity (Germany), Keepit (Denmark), CodeTwo and Xopero (Poland), Redstor (UK) and the CyberSentriq Platform (Ireland) are all headquartered in Europe.
Agent-readiness and PSA integrations
| Capability | Products (of 34) |
|---|---|
| Public API | 8 |
| MCP server | 3 |
| CLI | 0 |
The three with a verified MCP server are Cove Data Protection, NinjaOne Backup and the CyberSentriq Platform. Cove and NinjaOne Backup also have a public API. The others with an API are Hornetsecurity 365 Total Backup, IDrive's Microsoft Office 365 Backup, Infrascale Cloud Application Backup, OpenText's Cloud to Cloud Backup, SysCloud and Xopero ONE MSP Backup. For an MSP, an API means seat counts per tenant for billing and failed-backup alerts in your own tooling. MCP means an agent can answer "which tenants had a failed Exchange backup last night" without someone writing glue code.
PSA integrations are thin. Dropsuite lists ConnectWise, Halo and Autotask, ConnectWise Cloud Backup lists ConnectWise and Halo, and AvePoint lists ConnectWise. Everyone else needs a mail-to-ticket rule or an RMM in the middle.
What separates products
- Where the copy lives. Vendors either run their own cloud or use a hyperscaler. Spanning uses AWS data centres in the US, Canada, the EU, the UK and APAC. Cove runs a private cloud in 17 countries. Keepit offers 7 regions. Afi lets you pick the US, the EU (the Netherlands, Germany), Switzerland, the UK, Canada or Australia. Hornetsecurity stores data in the region you choose. For a client with data residency rules, pin the region at onboarding and write it into the contract.
- Backup frequency. SaaS Protection+ backs up three times a day. ConnectWise lists up to six snapshots a day. NinjaOne says multiple times a day. Ask what the default is and whether more frequent runs cost extra.
- Retention and storage. Spanning, CloudAlly, CodeTwo, Hornetsecurity and NinjaOne all advertise unlimited retention. Keepit lists retention of up to 99 years. Check whether "unlimited" applies per user, per tenant or to the whole partner account, and what happens to a leaver's data.
- Immutability. Cove, Keepit, Hornetsecurity and NinjaOne describe their backups as immutable. Axcient calls its version AirGap. Ask who can delete a backup, and whether a compromised admin account at your MSP could do it. Keeping those admin credentials in a technician vault is covered in Password managers for MSPs.
- The multi-tenant console. CodeTwo, for example, supports single or multi-tenant backups. In any demo, look at onboarding a new tenant, alerting on a failed job and exporting seat counts, because those are the three things your technicians will do every week.
- Restore options. Item-level restore, restore to a different user (Spanning offers cross-user restore), PST export (Axcient lists it for x360Cloud) and a self-service portal for end users all save technician time.
Questions to ask in the demo
- Show me a failed backup for one tenant. How do I find out, and does it reach my PSA?
- Which Teams data do you back up: files, channel messages, private channels, 1:1 chats?
- Where is the data stored, can I choose the region per client, and can I move it later?
- Who can delete a backup, and how is that protected against a compromised partner admin account?
- What happens to a departed user's backup, and does it keep using a licence?
- How do I get seat counts per tenant into my billing each month: API, CSV or PSA sync?
- If the client already pays for Microsoft 365 Backup, what do you add?
How to use the catalog for this
The category page lists all 107 products, including Google Workspace, Salesforce and other SaaS backup. Each product page links the evidence behind its API and MCP flags, and the vendor page shows what else that vendor ships. Server and endpoint backup has its own category, BCDR, and a separate MSP backup software guide. Tenant administration tools sit in Microsoft 365 Tenant Management. If a backup product you use is missing, paste its URL and the system will classify and add it.
Frequently asked questions
Does Microsoft back up Microsoft 365 data?
Microsoft keeps the service available and replicates data for resilience, but its shared responsibility model leaves customer data with the customer. Native recovery is time-limited: 14 to 30 days for deleted Exchange items, 93 days in the SharePoint recycle bins and 30 days for a OneDrive restore. Microsoft 365 Backup is a separate paid service.
Is Microsoft 365 Backup enough for an MSP client?
It can be. It covers SharePoint, OneDrive and Exchange, keeps backups for up to 2 years and bills $0.15 per GB per month. MSPs choose a third-party product when they want the copy outside Microsoft, longer retention, per-seat pricing or one console for every client.
How many Microsoft 365 backup products are there for MSPs?
The catalog lists 34 products from 31 vendors that back up Microsoft 365 data in October 2026, plus 3 Entra ID backup products. None is internal MSP tooling. All are sold to or run for clients.
Which Microsoft 365 backup products have an MCP server?
Three, verified against documentation: N-able Cove Data Protection, NinjaOne Backup and the CyberSentriq Platform.
Should MSPs back up Entra ID separately?
If a client's users, groups and policies would take days to rebuild, yes. Barracuda includes a basic Entra ID backup with Cloud-to-Cloud Backup, ConnectWise and Hornetsecurity include Entra ID in their Microsoft 365 product, and Barracuda, Dropsuite and Redstor also sell it as a separate product.
Numbers are from the MSP Navigator catalog on 19 October 2026: 107 published products in Cloud Backup (M365, Google Workspace, SaaS), of which 34 back up Microsoft 365 data and 3 back up Entra ID. Product details come from each vendor's own website and Microsoft's documentation, checked on 19 October 2026. Capability flags are verified against vendor documentation and linked on each product page. The use-or-resell verdict is produced by a classifier reading each product's description and reviewed by hand in samples. Related guides: Email security for MSPs, Password managers for MSPs, Dark web monitoring for MSPs, Data loss prevention for MSPs.