According to the company, backing up data has become increasingly important given the fact that people are storing more and more of their personal lives on their personal computers.

"What can a home user do to back up their PC?" says Gavin Smith, founder and CEO at DataFort. "External hard drives and traditional tape drives are too expensive, and if your house burns down, so does your backup. Automatic and efficient, off-site backup is the answer - it has gone from strength to strength in the commercial world in recent years - but until PCFort it has been far too expensive and complicated for home user."

Smith warned against using Web-based email accounts from Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! as a storage solution, citing instances where data in Internet accounts was permanently lost. He argued that a secure and reliable off-site backup service such as PCFort was the best option.

PCFort backup is priced at £1.99 per gigabyte per month for UK users, EUR 2.99 per month for European customers, and $2.99 per month for US customers. The prices are 75 percent lower than the nearest rival, the company says.