ProBackup vs Afi for Google Workspace™
Google can't undo a deleted mailbox folder or an overwritten Drive™ file. ProBackup and Afi both back up Google Workspace™ automatically.
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Finding the best backup solution for Google Workspace™
Gmail™, Drive™ and Calendar™ hold most of what a company knows: contracts, customer threads, finance sheets and every meeting.
Google runs its infrastructure reliably, but under the shared responsibility model your data is yours to protect. A user who empties their trash, a sync client that overwrites a folder, or a deleted account after someone leaves can remove years of work. Google Vault keeps mail and files for retention and legal holds, but it can’t restore them into a user’s Gmail™ or Drive™. In this guide we compare two automated Google Workspace™ backup services: ProBackup and Afi. We look at which data gets protected, how restores work, where your backups live, and what each costs.
What Google Workspace™ data gets protected?
Both services back up the core of a Google Workspace™ domain: every user’s mailbox, Drive™ (including shared drives), calendars and contacts. Afi also backs up Google Chat, Google Directory and Google Classroom, which ProBackup doesn’t; Afi can’t restore Chat, only export it.
Afi
Gmail (with labels and attachments), user and shared drives, Contacts, Calendar, Google Chat (chats, spaces and their attachments), Google Directory (users, groups and organisational units) and Google Classroom.
Not backed up: Not documented. Chat is backed up but can’t be restored, because of Google Chat API limitations.
ProBackup
Gmail™ threads, Drive™ files (including the shared drives the connecting super admin is a member of), calendars, calendar events, contacts and contact groups. One backup covers every user in your domain; you can exclude users.
Not backed up: Google Chat, Directory and Classroom, and shared drives the connecting super admin isn’t a member of.
Backup and restore functionality
What Afi offers
Afi is a backup platform for Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, with Salesforce and cloud infrastructure on its higher plan. Backups run once or three times a day per policy, and by default Afi keeps every snapshot and item version indefinitely; admins can set version-based or grandfather-father-son retention instead. Restores range from a single email, file, event or contact to a whole account, into a separate folder or overwriting existing content, and also into another user’s mailbox or drive. Afi also keeps Drive file IDs, so links to a restored file keep working. Its documentation lists limits too: Chat can’t be restored, Google-specific elements in native documents aren’t restored, and overwriting calendar events sends notifications to every invitee.
What ProBackup offers
ProBackup backs up every user in your domain every 24 hours and restores what went wrong as a new copy, so nothing that still exists is overwritten.
With ProBackup, you can restore:
- Mail threads with their replies. Gmail™ accepts a restored thread once the original is gone from the mailbox, trash included
- Drive™ files to their original folder, or to the owner’s My Drive if that folder is gone
- Calendar events and contacts
You can also export mail as .eml files, from a single thread up to a whole mailbox, for a mailbox you need to hand over or archive.
Navigating your backup history
How Afi shows your backups
Afi offers online preview of backed-up data, full-text search across backups, global search across users, and the version history of each file. Drive™ search works on file and folder names, IDs and modification date.
How ProBackup shows your backups
ProBackup shows your backup the way your domain is organised. You can:
- Pick any day in the calendar and see the domain as it was then
- Browse mail by user and year, and Drive™ by My Drives and Shared Drives
- Search every backup at once with global search
Other ProBackup features
Afi is the more specialised Google Workspace™ tool. ProBackup’s features are mostly in what sits around the backup:
One licence for your other apps
The same ProBackup subscription also backs up ClickUp, Asana, monday.com, HubSpot, Slack, Notion, Jira and more, with one place to search and restore.
Proactive alerts
ProBackup emails you when a user drops out of your backup, and a weekly deletion report lists what was deleted, only when something was.
Excel exports
Export any table, such as a user’s mail list or a shared drive’s files, to Excel in one click.
Data residency
Choose where your backup is stored from 9 AWS regions.
Price plan differences
Afi pricing
Afi’s SaaS Backup plan has a list price of $3 per user per month (or $36 per user per year), starting from 5 users. Each user licence adds storage to a shared pool for the whole domain, and archived users of people who left are retained without a licence. Afi offers a 14-day free trial.
Because pricing is per user, cost follows your headcount (at list price):
- 10 users: $30/month
- 50 users: $150/month
- 200 users: $600/month
ProBackup pricing
ProBackup prices by plan and storage, not by user. Prices below are per month for the smallest storage tier when billed annually (billed monthly in brackets):
- Plus: $25/month ($31 monthly), 10 GB
- Pro: $38/month ($47 monthly), 10 GB, adds Google Drive sync, unlimited global search and smart alerts
- Premium: $69/month ($86 monthly), 25 GB, adds SSO, audit reports and bulk attachment downloads
Mailboxes and Drives are large, so most Google Workspace™ domains need a larger storage tier than the smallest one: check pricing for every tier. Which tool costs less depends on how many users you have versus how much data they keep. 7-day free trial, no credit card required.
Which solution is right for you?
Choose Afi
Choose Afi if you need backups several times a day, unlimited retention, restores that overwrite in place or move data between users, Chat, Directory or Classroom coverage, HIPAA, or one console for Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.
Choose ProBackup
Choose ProBackup if you want:
- Daily snapshots of Gmail™, Drive™, Calendar™ and Contacts that you can browse by day
- Restores as new copies that never overwrite existing data
- Mail exports as .eml files, from one thread to a whole mailbox
- Alerts when a user drops out of the backup, and weekly deletion reports
- Pricing by storage rather than by user
- One subscription that also covers your project management, CRM and collaboration apps
Complete feature comparison
| ProBackup |
|
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|---|---|---|
| Backup frequency | ProBackup Daily |
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| Data retention |
ProBackup
Plus: 6 months Pro: 2 years Premium: 4 years |
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| Data covered | ProBackup Gmail, Drive (incl. shared drives), calendars, events, contacts and contact groups |
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| Restore granularity | ProBackup Yes: Mail threads, Drive files, calendar events and contacts, restored as new copies |
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| Data navigation | ProBackup Yes: Browse mail by user and year, Drive by My Drives and Shared Drives, on any day |
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| Data export | ProBackup Yes: Excel exports, mail as .eml files (one thread up to a whole mailbox) |
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| Storage | ProBackup Managed AWS storage, choice of 9 regions |
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| Proactive monitoring | ProBackup Partly: Email when a user drops out of your backup (Pro and Premium), weekly deletion report |
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| Reports | ProBackup Yes: Status emails, audit reports, deletion reports, restore reports, virus scanner |
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| Compliance | ProBackup Yes: SOC 2 Type II report and GDPR compliant |
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| Pricing | ProBackup From $25/month (billed annually, 10 GB), not per user |
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| Free trial | ProBackup Yes: 7 days, no credit card |
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Sources
Afi facts on this page were checked against Afi’s own pages on 9 November 2026: Google Workspace backup, pricing, backup and recovery documentation, what’s supported, Google Chats, backup policies, notifications, monitoring, compliance and trial. Competitors change their plans; check their site for current details.
Secure your Google Workspace™ data today
If you want a daily, browsable backup of your domain that restores without overwriting anything, under the same licence as your other SaaS apps, start with ProBackup for Google Workspace™.