Restow vs Keepit for Microsoft 365 backup
Keepit is a Danish SaaS backup service that bills per protected application, not per user or per GB, stores data in its own mirrored data centres and offers regions in Denmark, Germany, the UK, the US, Canada and APAC.
The short answer
Keepit fits organizations that want a European vendor cloud with unlimited storage, two mirrored data centres per region and backup for several SaaS applications beyond Microsoft 365.
Restow fits if you want the backups on infrastructure you control, a published one-time price, and an open format you can restore from without the vendor.
At a glance
| Aspect | Restow | Keepit |
|---|---|---|
| Price model | Community free. Business €595, Service Provider €1,950, one-time, net (pre-sale until release: €476 and €1,560). No per-user fee. | Subscription per protected application, three tiers, prices on request only. Unlimited storage, no egress or transaction fees. |
| Where it runs | Self-hosted: one Docker Compose stack on a Linux server or VM you control. | SaaS in Keepit's own data centres. |
| Where backups are stored | Your choice: local disk, S3-compatible object storage, NFS or SMB, in the region you pick. | Two mirrored Keepit data centres in the region you pick (e.g. EU-DE). No own-storage option found. |
| Microsoft 365 coverage | Exchange Online mail, calendar, contacts; OneDrive; IMAP mailboxes; Linux and macOS servers and clients (file-level agent); imported mail files. No SharePoint or Teams in version 1. | Microsoft 365, plus other SaaS applications such as Salesforce and Google Workspace. |
| Restore testing | Weekly sampled restore: data is read back through the restore path and compared byte for byte. | Not documented in the pages checked. |
| Source code and exit | AGPL-3.0 core, source-available Business and Service Provider modules, open documented storage format with a standalone restore tool. | Proprietary. Export format not found in the pages checked. |
Where Keepit is strong
- Unlimited storage and no egress, ingress or transaction fees.
- Data mirrored across two data centres in the chosen region, with a German region.
- ISO/IEC 27001 certified.
- Covers more SaaS applications than Microsoft 365.
Where Restow is different
- A published price: Business €595, Service Provider €1,950, once.
- Runs on your own server; the data never leaves infrastructure you chose.
- A weekly restore test per mailbox.
- An open storage format and a standalone restore tool.
What Restow does not do (yet)
- Restow does not back up SharePoint or Teams in version 1.
- The audit log, SSO and roles are in development for Business.
- Licenses include no support; setup is available on quote.
- The server and endpoint agent runs on Linux and macOS, file-level; Windows is planned.
- Restow 0.1.0 is a beta: do not use it as your only backup.
Keepit: the facts, with sources
Each line is taken from Keepit's own documentation unless the rating says otherwise. "Checked: not found" means we looked in the named sources and did not find it, which is not proof that it does not exist.
| Fact | Source | How solid |
|---|---|---|
| Three subscription tiers (Business Essentials, Enterprise Unlimited, Governance Plus), differentiated by retention length, support level and (top tier) customizable Data Processing Agreements. All require contacting sales; no price points are published. | Keepit Pricing | Official source |
| Billing is per SaaS application/service protected (Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Google Workspace, etc.), not per user and not per GB; combining multiple applications qualifies for bundle discounts. | Keepit Pricing | Official source |
| All tiers include unlimited hot storage, with no egress, ingress or transaction fees. | Keepit Pricing | Official source |
| Six data-centre regions: EU-DK, EU-DE, UKI, US, CA and APAC; data for a given customer sits in two mirrored data centres within the chosen region. | Backup and recovery for Microsoft 365 | Official source |
| Vendor-hosted only. No self-hosted deployment or customer-controlled storage (BYO S3 or similar) option was found on the pages checked. | Same pages, absence checked directly | Checked: not found |
| ISO/IEC 27001 certified; the vendor states support for compliance regimes including HIPAA, SEC, ESMA, EBA and EIOPA. | Keepit Pricing | Official source |
| Restore is described as fast "smart search and restore," able to move multiple terabytes a day back to the original location with folder structure and metadata intact. This is a vendor performance claim, not an independently benchmarked figure. | Keepit marketing copy, help-center search results | Moderate |
| An export/exit data format was not found in the pages checked this pass. | Not found | Open question |
| Not open source. | Absence checked across the pages above | Checked: not found |
Frequently asked
How much does Keepit cost?
Keepit publishes no prices. All three tiers require contacting sales. Billing is per protected application.
Where does Keepit store data?
In Keepit's own data centres, mirrored across two sites in the region you choose. We found no option for your own storage.