NinjaOne Archiver: email archiving built into SaaS backup

What NinjaOne Archiver is

NinjaOne describes Archiver as "an add-on for NinjaOne SaaS Backup that enhances backup capabilities". In practice it changes what the service is for. A standard SaaS backup takes scheduled copies of mailboxes so that you can restore what users delete or lose. Archiver adds a second, continuous capture method, journaling, so that every inbound and outbound message is copied at the mail server as it passes through, including messages a user later deletes. That copy is held in immutable storage, kept under your retention policies and made searchable for compliance, HR and legal work.

It works with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, so it suits organisations on either platform, or both. NinjaOne's product page calls it the NinjaOne Email Archiver and lists it alongside NinjaOne SaaS Backup as "NinjaOne SaaS Backup with Archiver"; the documentation simply calls it Archiver. Whatever the label, it is one product: the same per-user licence covers the backup and the archive, managed in the same portal.

If you are new to the subject, start with what email archiving is and how email archiving differs from backup. For the backup side of the product on its own, our Cloud Security site covers NinjaOne SaaS Backup in depth.

Dropsuite is now NinjaOne SaaS Backup

NinjaOne completed its acquisition of Dropsuite on 2 June 2025. The Dropsuite service is now sold as NinjaOne SaaS Backup, and NinjaOne's own glossary defines Dropsuite as "the former name for the NinjaOne SaaS Backup product". You will still see the old name in places:

• Distribution catalogues list the bundles under the Dropsuite vendor name, each labelled "Powered by Dropsuite"
• Help centre articles for NinjaOne SaaS Backup are still hosted at help.dropsuite.com
• The old Dropsuite console is now the NinjaOne SaaS Backup Partner Portal, and customers work in the End-User Portal
• Older documents call the archive plan "Business Archive" or "Backup + Archiving"

If your contract, invoice or login page still says Dropsuite, it is the same platform. Licensing for the Dropsuite name is covered on our sister site, Software Licensing UK.

Key capabilities

These are the archiving features NinjaOne documents for the Archiver plan, and what each one does for you.

Security is the same as the rest of the service: NinjaOne lists AES-256 encryption, TLS 1.2, multi-factor authentication and role-based access, and says the archive is fully cloud-native with no on-premises infrastructure. It also says the product supports GDPR, NIS2, SOC 2 and HIPAA requirements. An archive helps you meet obligations like these; it does not make an organisation compliant on its own, which is why we start with your retention rules rather than the product.

How journaling capture works

Journaling is what separates an archive from a backup. Rather than taking snapshots of a mailbox, the mail system sends a copy of each message to a separate journal address as it is processed.

• Microsoft 365: once the tenant is authenticated, NinjaOne connects over remote PowerShell and creates a journal rule and a distribution group. Mailboxes you add to the archive become members of that group, so their mail is copied to a dedicated external journal mailbox that NinjaOne runs for your organisation. It uses Microsoft's envelope journaling, and existing mail is backed up from the mailbox first. Our Exchange Online journaling page explains why the journal mailbox has to sit outside Exchange Online.
• Google Workspace: journaling is set up by hand in the Google Admin console with Gmail routing rules that also deliver a copy to the archive's journal address. You can archive everyone or, with a Google group, only selected users. See Google Workspace journaling.

NinjaOne is open that journaling depends on correct configuration and valid credentials: if a credential expires, journaling stops and email backups may rely only on periodic snapshots until someone reauthenticates. That is why we can check journaling with you at set-up and show your administrators where to see its status.

Archive and backup in one licence

An archive and a backup do different jobs, and many organisations need both. Because Archiver is a plan of NinjaOne SaaS Backup, one per-user licence covers both:

• Backup and restore of mailboxes, OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams and Google Workspace data, with point-in-time restores
• A journaling archive of email with retention, eDiscovery and legal hold
• More frequent OneDrive backups: NinjaOne says three a day on Archiver, against one a day on Standard
• Leavers handled in one place: a leaver's archive can be deactivated rather than deleted, and stays searchable by administrators

Two points to plan for. The plan applies to every user backed up in an organisation, so you cannot put some users on backup only and others on Archiver in the same organisation. And enabling Archiver is one-way: NinjaOne says that once it is enabled you cannot revert to the regular SaaS Backup service. The bundles page sets out the differences in full, and the deactivated mailboxes page covers leavers.

Archiver covers Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace mail. NinjaOne's documentation notes that other mailboxes connected over IMAP are backup-only, because IMAP does not support journaling, so ask us if you run another mail system.

Who it suits

NinjaOne Archiver is a good fit for small and mid-sized organisations on Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace that need to keep email for a defined period and find it again, without running a separate archive product next to their backup. Typical reasons to consider it:

• Regulated firms that must keep a durable copy of communications, such as firms under the FCA's record-keeping rules
• Organisations dealing with disputes, employment claims or subject access requests that need to search mail quickly and defensibly
• Businesses that want to keep leavers' mailboxes searchable without paying for licences on accounts nobody uses
• Teams moving from an older archive or a pile of PST files, which NinjaOne can ingest (see archive migration)

Microsoft and Google have their own retention and discovery tools, and for some organisations those are enough. Our Office 365 email archiving and Google Workspace email archiving pages compare them fairly with a separate archive.

How Forever Systems helps

We supply NinjaOne Archiver and help you set it up so it does what your policy says:

1. Talk through what you need to keep, for how long and why, and who needs to search it
2. Recommend the right bundle, check the fit against NinjaOne's storage allowance and confirm where your archive will be held
3. Set up the organisation, the Microsoft 365 journal or Google Workspace routing rules, and the first retention policies with you
4. Assign compliance roles so the right people can search, review and place holds, and IT admins cannot read archived mail
5. Plan leavers, legacy archives and private Teams chats, and show your administrators how to check journaling status

Pricing depends on the bundle, the number of users and the term, so ask us for a quote. Contact us to talk about archiving your Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace email.