Zoolz is a cloud backup service with desktop applications for Windows and macOS and a web console for managing backed-up computers. It copies selected files to online storage, retains earlier file versions and can keep an additional copy on a local or network drive. Its business plans combine storage for immediate retrieval with cold storage for files that can wait to be recovered.
Storage tiers
Zoolz separates backup selections for Hot, also called Instant, storage and Cold Storage. Both accept scheduled backups, but their retrieval behavior differs. A download from Instant Storage can begin immediately. Cold Storage prepares requested data before releasing it, with a wait of three to twelve hours before restoration starts.
Storage plans allocate capacity to each tier, so a large overall allowance does not mean that every backed-up file has immediate access. Cold files also cannot use the sharing facility available to Instant Storage files.
Plans and account limits
Zoolz is a paid service with a trial. Its entry business plan limits the account to five users and one server, with a maximum individual file size of 20 GB. Larger listed plans remove those user, server and individual-file limits while retaining a defined storage allowance.
Hybrid+ copies
Hybrid+ adds a second backup destination on a local server, external drive or network drive alongside the cloud copy. During recovery, Zoolz Restore checks this local repository before requesting files from the cloud. A file still present locally can therefore be recovered without downloading its cloud copy or waiting for Cold Storage preparation.
The local repository has its own controls. You can filter which selected files enter it and set a space limit. When space runs out, Zoolz removes older local copies to accommodate newer backups; the cloud copies remain available. Enabling Hybrid+ after a backup has already begun does not automatically populate it with all previously uploaded files, although a separate recopy option can add them.
Hybrid+ recovery uses Zoolz’s restore tools. The repository is not a normal folder intended for browsing in Explorer or Finder: some file types remain in their original format, while others are compressed into ZIP files.
Choosing files and scheduling backups
Smart Selections group data into categories such as Office documents, PDFs, ebooks and financial files. Explicit file and folder paths provide a more targeted selection, and exclusion rules can omit extensions or whole folders. Hot and Cold selections are configured separately, allowing different parts of the same computer’s data to use different storage tiers.
Backups can run at a repeating interval or on selected days and times, with an optional time to stop uploading. A full rescan can revisit the selected locations to catch changes missed while a network drive was disconnected. On a regular PC, scheduled jobs require the computer to be awake and the user logged in; the Windows Server application can run scheduled backups without a logged-in user.
Block-level backup for changed files
After the initial upload, Zoolz backs up new and modified files. A changed file is normally uploaded in full, creating another version in cloud storage. For selected files or file extensions, block-level backup instead uploads the portions that changed.
That option changes both transfer and recovery work. Small edits within a large file can require less data to upload, but restoration must reconstruct the file from its initial backup and subsequent blocks. It can therefore take longer to recover than a file stored as a complete copy.
Version recovery
Zoolz Restore lets you choose a backed-up computer and select files or entire folders for recovery. Show Versions exposes the available earlier copies of an individual file. Folder recovery can use a date range and an alternative destination, so recovered material can be placed separately from current working files. Deleted backed-up items can also be included in a restore selection.
The web console provides downloads without starting a desktop restore job, including selection of an earlier file version. Its older-version workflow handles one file at a time, while whole-folder version recovery uses Zoolz Restore. Web downloads from Cold Storage have a daily limit of 1 GB; larger recoveries use the desktop application and remain subject to the cold-storage preparation delay.
Zoolz Business backup policies
In Zoolz Business, administrators can assign backup policies through the web console. A policy defines selections, exclusions, schedules, Hybrid+ settings and transfer controls for its users. Assigned settings replace individual control through the desktop application, keeping a common configuration across managed computers and servers.
Policies also govern what users can do with a backup. Administrators can control deletion and sharing permissions, as well as whether users may start a manual run, pause a backup or exit the client.
