Are Free or Cheap Providers Better?
This is a difficult one to answer as in reality, some free services are better than other providers paid options and some paid options are truly awful, no matter how expensive or cheap they appear to be! If I was to choose a package today I wouldn't consider the price. The most expensive home user packages still only equal a few pounds per month so I'd be more inclined to look at the provider, the service, the features of the service and the reliability as a whole rather than simply how much something costs. I want my data to be secure and my life made easier. I don't need to save a pound here and there on a sub-standard service.
For me, it's all about the service, price does not come into it. To start with, work out what sort of solution you're looking for. If you're backing up thousands of business critical files or simply backing up photos from your mobile, you're going to need vastly different service plans. On top of this, you want to make sure you've got the best plan for your
needs. You don't want to be paying £50 per month on a plan to store 50 photos and you really don't want your multi-million pound business backed up on a £2.00 a month cloud storage account easier. You should choose a package and a provider that meets your needs, that fits your purpose and don't simply take the cheapest or even free option.
If you want security and reliablity, my advice would be to choose one of the major providers like Carbonite or Mozy. Those guys both have business/enterprise solutions available to suit all of your business needs and they also offer small/home user/personal packages which you can use to backup your personal data. What's good about these guys is that they offer sub accounts too. So if you want to allocate your staff disk quota for backing up their individual files you can do that and have it all controlled under one location.
To summarise, forget about cheap providers or even free. Find a reputable company and pick a service plan that meets your needs. Don't overcook it and don't sell yourself short. Pay a bit of money for peace of mind and reliability and you'll be better off in the long run.