Understanding the pricing model

IMPORTANT  This article does not apply to Backupify customers.

Datto SaaS Protection offers a number of subscription options that provide billing flexibility. This article describes the Datto SaaS Protection pricing model.

NOTE  For detailed information about the retention model, refer to the Retention section of this article.

Pricing model

Datto SaaS Protection's pricing model is based on commitment, retention, and billable usage.

Commitment

Commitment means the minimum length of time you agree to pay for the Datto SaaS Protection service on behalf of your clients. The options are:

  • Three-year: A three-year commitment is for 36 consecutive months, or three calendar years. At the end of the commitment term you can switch to a one-year commitment, cancel the agreement, or do nothing and the three-year commitment automatically renews as a new three-year commitment.
  • One-year: A one-year commitment is for 12 consecutive months, or one calendar year. At the end of the commitment term you can cancel the agreement, or do nothing, and the one-year commitment will automatically renew with a new one-year commitment.
  • Month-to-month: With the month-to-month option, you have the flexibility to add or remove licenses on demand, and the next monthly billing cycle will reflect those changes.
    You will be billed for the Datto SaaS Protection service at the beginning of the month, for that month. Towards the end of each month, we take a billable usage snapshot that determines what your bill will be for the following month.

IMPORTANT  The month-to-month option is not available for MSPs that became a partner on January 22, 2023, or at a later date.

Retention

Retention refers to the length of time the client's backed-up data is stored in the Datto cloud before it is removed. The retention types are:

  • Time-based retention (TBR): Backup snapshots are retained in the Datto cloud for the retention period you select with a maximum of one year. 
    • Three daily backups are taken of each end user's service data and retained for 30 days.
    • One of the three daily backups is retained for 90 days.
    • After 90 days, one weekly backup is retained for 90 days, then retained on a rolling basis for up to one year.
  • Infinite cloud retention (ICR): Backup snapshots are retained in the Datto cloud for the retention period you select. The ICR retention type does all you to retain data infinitely.
    • Three daily backups are taken of each end user's service data and retained for 30 days.
    • One of the three daily backups is retained for 90 days.
    • After 90 days, one weekly backup is retained for 90 days, then retained on a rolling basis for up to one year.
    • After one year, one monthly backup is retained for one year, after which each is stored for the selected retention period.

Subscription

Your Datto SaaS Protection subscription consists of the commitment and retention type options you select.

  • One-year commitment — infinite cloud retention
  • One-year commitment — time-based retention
  • Three-year commitment — infinite cloud retention
  • Three-year commitment — time-based retention
  • Month-to-month commitment — infinite cloud retention
  • Month-to-month commitment — time-based retention

IMPORTANT  The month-to-month option is not available for an MSP that becomes a partner on January 22, 2023 or on a later date.

You can have multiple subscriptions based on your organizations' needs. When you add a organization to an existing subscription, referred to as adding the organization to the same pool, the terms apply to all organizations within the same subscription. For example, in a subscription with a one-year commitment, the subscription's end date is the same for all organization licenses billed regardless of when the organization licenses were added to the subscription.

EXAMPLE  
MSP A currently has a one-year commitment — infinite cloud retention subscription that began in March. By the end of March, MSP A has added three organizations to the subscription.
Throughout the rest of the calendar year (April — February), MSP A continues to add organizations to the same one-year commitment — infinite cloud retention subscription.
At the end of February, the commitment terms are automatically renewed (unless another option is implemented) and apply to all the organization licenses included in the subscription.
MSP A also has a month-to-month commitment — time-based retention subscription that includes 12 organizations and a month-to-month commitment — infinite cloud retention subscription that includes 15 organizations. Both month-to-month commitment subscriptions automatically renew at the end of each month (unless another option is implemented).

NOTE  While in a current subscription, you can change a organization from a month-to-month commitment to a one-year or three-year commitment. However, you cannot change a organization from a one-year or three-year commitment to a month-to-month commitment. The retention type can be changed anytime during a current subscription regardless of commitment type. See the article Changing subscription terms.

Billable usage

Datto SaaS Protection bills for user seats that are considered protected seats. When a user's seat status is one of the following, it is a protected seat:

  • Active: The seat exists in the organization and is actively backed up.
  • Paused: The seat exists in the organization; backups were enabled but are currently paused.
  • Archived: The seat no longer exists in the organization, but backups are still accessible.

Usage equals the number of protected seats. Usage is measured near the end of each month when a snapshot is taken of the number of protected seats per pool. Licenses are billed based on usage. Your monthly subscription charge includes your billable usage and the subscription options selected.

Non-billable seat

A seat status of Unprotected means the seat exists in the organization but backups are not enabled. An unprotected seat is not a billable seat and therefore, a license fee is not charged for the seat.

Each SharePoint site and each Team requires a seat but the seat is not billable. Each licensed user has access to their company's SharePoint sites and Teams. Backups of SharePoint sites and Teams are complimentary.

The following graphic illustrates the Datto SaaS Protection seat types. A dollar sign indicates a seat for which a monthly license fee is charged. An M365 shared mailbox is charged a monthly license fee only if it has a license in your M365 environment.


Pricing tiers

The number of licenses for which you are charged determines the cost per-license for each pricing tier. The cost per-license decreases at each tier as the number of licenses increases.

Tiers:

  • 1-99 seats
  • 100-499 seats
  • 500+ seats

One-year and three-year commitment requirements

A one-year or three-year TBR and ICR subscription includes requirements that do not apply to a month-to-month subscription.

Committed amount

The total number of protected organization end users you have at the end of each month in a one-year or three-year TBR or ICR subscription is your "usage" for the month. This is the number on which your subscription charge for the following month is based and is known as the committed amount.

You can add and remove organizations anytime during the one-year or three-year commitment term. At the end of any month, if the number of protected organization end users is greater than the committed amount, the committed amount increases to and remains at that greater amount, referred to as the high-water mark.

You are responsible for paying the committed amount, regardless of whether you’re using all of the committed amount. However, you can redeploy unused licenses to new organizations that you add during the commitment term.

EXAMPLE  
MSP B currently has a one-year commitment — time-based retention subscription with three organizations. The subscription has 72 protected end users.
In May, MSP B adds 7 organizations that includes 180 protected end users to the same subscription. At the end of May, the committed amount is recalculated to 252 (180 + 72).
In June, two of the organization accounts in this subscription are canceled. The accounts include 40 protected seats, therefore, lowering the total number of protected seats in the subscription to 212 (252 - 40). However, the committed amount remains at 252, the high-water mark and MSP B is still charged for 252 licenses each month. MSP B now has 40 unused licenses it can redeploy within its commitment term.

Shared mailbox

Datto will only charge for a shared mailbox if it has a license in your M365 environment as this is considered a user seat type.

A shared mailbox has a license in the M365 environment because of one of the following reasons:

  • The shared mailbox has over 50 GB of storage, at which point Microsoft requires a license.
  • A Microsoft user account converts to a shared mailbox and the Microsoft license was not removed from the account.

An M365 user that is converted to a shared mailbox and has his or her Microsoft license removed will be recognized as having a shared mailbox. Previous backups are maintained and are still subject to retention.