Feb 07, 2018 The Best Backup Software. Nobody likes taking the time to back up a PC's document, media, and system files, but doing so can save you a world of hurt. Download and install the best free apps for Backup Software on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android from CNET Download.com, your trusted source for the top software picks. Paragon Backup & Recover 2012 Free offers all the features most home users will need. Paragon Software Group You know you're supposed to make regular backups, yet you're just not doing it.

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Why You Should Trust Me

Hi, my name is Thomas Boldt, and I used to be terrible about making backups. Used to be. I create huge amounts of digital data in the form of photographs, digital design work and software reviews like this one, but almost all of it is stored on my personal computer. Because so much of my life is built on computers, it makes perfect sense for me to be extremely careful about backing up my data to make sure nothing gets lost. I didn’t always think this way – but you only need to lose your treasured memories once before you start to get serious about backups. If I was a bit more careful to start with, I wouldn’t have waited that long.

Roughly a decade ago, I had an old hard drive die that contained a huge amount of my early photography work. The first developing steps of my photographic style are gone forever because I didn’t think my hard drive would be the one to fail unexpectedly. Since that disaster, I’ve been diligent about making backups on a regular basis, but before I wrote this review my backup system was entirely manual. Creating backups manually takes a lot of time and effort that could be better used on other projects, so I’ve decided that it’s time to find a better way to safeguard my data. Hopefully, my exploration of the various backup programs available for Windows 10 will help you make sure that you don’t follow in past-me’s unlucky footsteps.

The Truth About Saving Your Data

Even though you’re just making a copy of your files, maintaining a proper backup system isn’t as easy as it seems. If you’re just backing up a few documents, you might be able to get away with manually copying them to a small USB key, but that’s not going to do the job if you have a lot of files – and it’s definitely not going to ensure that you have the regularly updated backups you need to secure your data.

When it comes to properly backing up your data, the first thing you need is at least one high-capacity external drive. Prices per gigabyte have dropped quite a lot in the last few years, and drives of 3 or 4 terabytes are becoming more affordable. This might tempt you to go out and get the biggest drive you can find, but it’s important to know that not all drives are created equal. Some drives fail more consistently than others, and some that you wouldn’t want to use as your main computer drive are fine for occasional backups.

While I’m not going to recommend any specific type or manufacturer of a drive, there are people whose entire businesses are based on hard drives: data center operators. They have vast amounts of data about drive failure rates, and while they’re not exactly conducting scientific research, the results are worth looking at. You can check out one company’s dataset here, but it’s important to note that even if you buy the drive that fails the least doesn’t mean it can never fail – it just improves your odds. On a long enough timeline, every drive will fail and become unreliable or unusable, which is why backups are absolutely essential.

Solid-state drives (SSDs) are less likely to fail than older hard drives with spinning magnetic platters, largely because they have no moving parts. There are other more technical reasons as well, but they are a bit outside the scope of this article. SSDs are also still far more expensive than platter-based drives, which means that they’re not usually the best candidates for backup drives unless you only have a small amount of data to back up.

If you want to read more about the SSD vs HDD comparison, you can find a great overview of the topic here.

The golden rule of backing up data is that it’s not truly safe unless it’s in at least two separate backup locations. Back in college, I had professors who said digital data didn’t even really exist unless it was stored in two separate locations. That might seem excessive, but the only way a hard drive crash can be worse is if your backup data is also corrupted. Suddenly, another safety net seems like a great idea, but by then it’s too late to set one up.

Ideally, one of your backup copies should be located in a physically separate place from the original copy. That may not be an option for confidential professional files, but if you’re dealing with material that sensitive you may want to hire a cybersecurity team to handle things instead of going for a DIY approach.

If all your drives give up the ghost, an entire industry has developed around data recovery, but it can cost thousands of dollars for platter-based drives. They must be opened in a dust-free clean room, hopefully repaired, and then sealed again, and even after all that there is no guarantee that you’ll get any of your files back. You may get some of it back, or absolutely nothing – but you’ll probably still be charged for it.

The smart solution is just to make proper backups. It’s not that hard at all – or at least it won’t be, once you’ve chosen the right backup software.

Do You Need PC Backup Software

The short version is that just about everyone needs backup software of some kind. Not having a backup of your files is sort of like owning a home without fire insurance: everything may seem fine without it until all of a sudden nothing is fine and your entire life is changed forever. In this example it’s your digital life, but many people don’t think about how fragile it is to only have a single copy of their data – until it’s gone.

I hope the above didn’t scare you, but it’s important that you know what you’re dealing with. But does it really affect you personally?

It depends on how deeply you embrace the digital lifestyle. If you only use your computer to store a few photos and documents, you’ll probably be fine with using the backup function that is built into Windows 10. It’s not exactly bad, but it is the most basic backup system you can possibly build. As long as you can remember to update your backup, you might not lose too many files if something happens to your hard drive, but a dedicated backup program is a much better option.

If you use your computer professionally, you absolutely need a backup solution that is robust enough to ensure you don’t lose any of your files or any of your client’s data. Even if you’re just storing personal files that you use regularly, you’re going to want to make sure that you have backup copies that are safely stored and regularly updated. Good backup software will make this job infinitely easier than trying to handle it manually or using the built-in Windows 10 backup system.

How We Chose the Winners

There’s more to good backup software than meets the eye, and the available programs are not all created equal – far from it. Here’s how we evaluated each of the backup programs in this review:

Does it offer scheduled backups?

Remembering to update your backups is one of the biggest hassles in the entire process. A backup from six months ago is better than nothing, but a backup from yesterday will be far more helpful if something goes wrong. Good backup software will allow you to schedule the backup process at regular intervals, so that you can configure it once and then not worry about it again.

Can it create sequential backups?

Hard drives can fail in strange ways. Sometimes malware can corrupt some of your files before you notice it or before your security software catches it. While it’s rare, this may mean that your scheduled backup procedure runs and stores a copy of the corrupted version of your files (any Altered Carbon fans out there?). Good backup software will let you create multiple dated backup copies, allowing you to restore an earlier uncorrupted version of the files.

Can it back up your entire computer?

If the worst should happen and your hard drive fails completely, it can be a huge hassle to configure your new drive. Reinstalling and updating Windows manually can take a very long time, not to mention reinstalling all of your favorite programs. If you have a bootable backup of your entire computer handy, you’ll be up and running much faster than restoring everything by hand.

Can it back up only your new and altered files?

While drive prices are falling, they’re still not exactly cheap. If you only update your stored backup with new and revised files, you’ll be able to use a much smaller storage drive than you would otherwise. It will also speed up your backup process, which can be a huge help if you’re storing large amounts of data.

Can it store your files in a network location?

This is a more advanced feature than most casual home users will need, but since having a physically separate backup is one of the “best practices” for good data management, it deserves to be included. If you have a NAS setup or access to a large off-site FTP server, it can be very helpful to have software that knows how to access network storage locations.

Is it easy to use?

This might seem like an obvious point, but it’s actually quite crucial. One of the biggest reasons that people don’t bother to make proper backups is that it seems like too much work, so any program that isn’t simple should be avoided. A good backup program will be so easy to configure and use that you won’t mind setting everything up.

Is it affordable?

There’s something about data storage and recovery that makes some companies charge excessively. Perhaps it’s because they understand how valuable your data is to you, but it seems more reasonable to keep the software affordable so that everyone can stay protected.

Is it available for multiple devices?

Many people have more than one computer, and in a small office or family household, there can be quite a few. Most software licenses are sold for individual computers, which means that buying multiple license copies can get pretty expensive. Ideally, the best backup software will allow you to install it on multiple devices to ensure that all your data is secure no matter which computer it’s on.

The Winner’s Circle

The Best Paid Backup Software: Acronis True Image

($49.99 for 1 computer, $79.99 for 3 computers, $99.99 for 5 computers)

You can back up to any drive attached to the computer, the Acronis Cloud (subscription required), FTP servers, or NAS devices on your local network

There aren’t very many software programs that perfectly balance ease of use and powerful features, so it’s always a treat to discover a new one. Acronis True Image checks all the boxes listed in the ‘How We Chose the Winners’ section, and then goes above and beyond to include a set of additional tools. The only minor issue that I had with the program was that it requires you to set up an Acronis account in order to use the program, but it uses this to handle cloud backups and other online service integrations. Setting up an account is quite easy to do, although it obviously does require internet access and a working email address.

Once the sign-up is out of the way, Acronis presents you with a simple interface that guides you on how to set up your first backup. You can choose to back up your entire desktop or just a specific set of folders, and there is a wide range of customization options when it comes to the storage location, schedule, and method.

Scheduling backups is probably one of the most important parts of the entire process, and you’ve got a great deal of flexibility with Acronis. One of the most useful features is the ability to wake the computer up out of sleep to perform the scheduled backup, so you don’t have to worry about missing a backup if you forget the schedule and put your computer to sleep on a backup night.

The backup methods available are also quite extensive, allowing you to choose from a single backup copy, multiple full backups, or a range of incremental systems designed to help you save space. If none of those fit the bill, you can define an entirely custom scheme that matches your specific needs.

Aside from these excellent backup options, Acronis True Image also comes with a number of other helpful tools for working with your drives and data. The Archive tool allows you to store large rarely used files on a separate drive or the Acronis Cloud, and the Sync tool lets you use the Acronis Cloud as a transfer method for ensuring that all your files are available across all your devices.

The Tools section itself contains a number of handy features for dealing with your data. You can create a bootable copy of an entire drive to install on a new computer, create rescue media to help you diagnose computer problems, or securely delete your data from a drive before you recycle it. Perhaps the most unique of these is the ‘Try and Decide’ tool, which essentially allows you to create a virtual machine ‘sandbox’ to open email attachments from unknown senders or test out potentially dangerous software programs that you might not install otherwise. There are plenty of times when I’ve been testing out new software programs that I’ve wished for just such a feature!

Last but not least is the Active Protection section, which monitors your computer’s running processes for potentially dangerous behavior. Acronis includes this with the goal of preventing your files and your backups from being corrupted by ransomware, a type of malware that encrypts files and holds them hostage until a payment is made to the criminals. While the feature might be useful, it’s not a substitute for dedicated anti-malware security software.

It’s not exactly clear how Acronis determines what makes a process suspicious, but the five it identified for me were all totally innocuous: my VPN app, my gaming mouse configuration tool, and so on

Even though we’re focused on Windows 10 for the purposes of these reviews, it’s worth noting that Acronis has mobile app versions available for both iOS and Android, allowing you to back up all the photos, videos, contacts, and other data from your phone and store it in the same location as your other backups.

Learn more about True Image from the Acronis official website here.

The Best Free Backup Software: AOMEI Backupper Standard 4

I’ve explored a lot of free software over the years, and while it’s hard to argue with the price point, each program usually leaves something to be desired. Despite the fact that the name doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, Backupper Standard is a solid piece of free software that manages to be both extremely capable and easy to use.

Unlike most free software programs, the interface is simple and easy to use

You can back up your entire system, your entire drive, or just selected files and folders, and you can schedule them any way that you want. You can also easily save to a NAS or other shared computer, although there are no options to back up to a cloud or any other off-site network location.

You can choose to create full backups or incremental backups to save time and space, although you can only choose to create sequential backups in the paid version of the program. While that’s one of the more useful features from the ‘How We Chose the Winners’, I decided that it wasn’t completely essential considering that the rest of the program is very capable and easy to use (and free!).

The additional tools that are included aren’t the most useful, as they have to do with verifying and working with the backup image files you create, but there is the option to create a bootable restore disk to help you recover a damaged system. You can also use the Clone feature to quickly make a copy of any existing drive to any blank drive, down to the exact byte.

While Backupper Standard doesn’t have the same powerful features found in Acronis or some of the other paid options, if you’re just looking for a simple file backup solution, this might do the job for you. It will be especially useful for those of you who have multiple computers to back up, which is where the other paid options really start to get expensive. You can download the free version of AOMEI Backupper Standard from the developer’s website here.

The Paid Competition

StorageCraft ShadowProtect 5 Desktop

($84.96, licensed for up to 19 machines)

Despite what you might guess from the semi-imposing name, this backup program offers a fairly limited range of options. Unfortunately, that simplicity doesn’t translate into ease of use. It’s not even remotely what I would describe as user-friendly, but if you have the time and skills to dig through its interface, it should serve you well enough.

The program initially loads on the Management View tab instead of the Wizards tab, and as a result, it’s not immediately clear where to begin

While the scheduling and method options are solid, there are no immediately evident options for creating bootable backups to restore your computer if your drive fails. Considering how expensive this program is, I was a bit disappointed by the lack of additional features. It’s really just a backup program and nothing else, although the fact that you can install it on up to 19 computers will be very useful for multi-computer households. Yet even with that advantage, you’d have to own a large number of devices to balance out the cost compared to some of the other options.

Oddly enough, it was also one of only two programs I reviewed in this category to require a restart after installation. This is because of the way the program is designed with a client/server model, but that struck me as a bit excessive considering what it can do. It’s a minor annoyance, but I’m the kind of person who leaves 70 tabs and tasks running in the background, which makes unnecessary restarts a hassle.

Paragon Backup & Recovery

($29.95 for 1 machine, scaling per additional license)

If Acronis isn’t to your taste, Paragon Backup & Recovery also has a very user-friendly design at a more affordable price point. The tradeoff for this price break is that it has a more basic set of features, and although it also requires you to set up an account with Paragon in order to use it, there doesn’t seem to be much advantage to this process (if any). There is no cloud backup option, although you can send your backups to network drives.

Backups are easy to create, whether you want a one-time backup or a regularly scheduled option. You can backup your entire computer, selected folders, or just selected file types, and you can schedule the computer to wake up, create your backup, and then go back to sleep, which allows you to save time by scheduling backups for the middle of the night even if you’ve put your computer to sleep out of habit.

Paragon also includes a couple of other tools, including a partition manager, a secure delete function and a drive imaging tool that allows you to create an exact bootable copy of your existing drive. Unfortunately, these tools are largely locked out during the trial, so you’ll have to make your purchasing decision just based on the backup function.

Genie Timeline Home

($39.95 for 1 computer, $59.95 for 2)

At first, Genie Timeline seemed to be the most user-friendly of the programs I reviewed. It makes it extremely simple to set up a backup, although the method of selecting what type of files you want to back up is a bit strange. It offers two methods: a standard file browser to manually select folders for backup or the ‘Smart Selection’ mode which allows you to define types of files to back up – photos, videos, bookmarks, and so on. This may be simpler for many computer users, but oddly the layout for Smart Selection has one hidden option for Ebooks that is inexplicably buried on its own page.

In theory, it also includes a couple of extra tools such as a ‘disaster recovery disk creator’, designed to create rescue media, but for some reason, this feature is not installed along with the main program. Instead, you have to download and install it separately, which seems like a very odd choice for such a basic and useful feature.

Overall, it’s a decent program for making simple backups, but it’s a bit limited in terms of its scope for what it costs. Several of the other programs I looked at provide better value for money while still keeping the interface very user-friendly, so you may want to look elsewhere.

NTI Backup Now EZ 6

($29.99 for 1 computer, $49.99 for 2 computers, $89.99 for 5 computers)

Many people swear by this program, but I found the layout to be a bit overwhelming due to the text overlaid directly on icon images. There is a solid range of backup options, however, including the option to backup to the NTI Cloud or to any local network device. Like Genie Timeline, there are two ways to select your backups: using their EZ select mode or by specifying files and folders. Scheduling is a bit limited but adequate, although you can’t choose between backup methods, which forces you to make a full backup every time the task runs.

The one unique feature of Backup Now is the ability to back up your social media accounts, but I wasn’t able to make it work – each time I tried to log in to one of my accounts, the program failed to respond and eventually crashed. NTI has also developed a mobile app for iOS and Android to help you backup your mobile device photos, but it does require the creation of an NTI account in order to sync with your computer.

While it has some unique features, a backup program that crashes during any part of its operation doesn’t fill me with confidence in the rest of its abilities. So while the social media feature may be tempting, you should still probably look elsewhere for a backup solution.

The Free Alternatives

EaseUS ToDo Backup Free

Free software is often plagued by unwanted third-party software that gets bundled into their installers, and unfortunately, this is one of them. I almost disqualified it from the review because of this, but overall it’s a fairly decent free option as long as you know how to disable the additional software installations. Don’t worry, I paid close attention so you won’t have to!

The installer is even designed to hide the fact that it is possible to opt-out of these additional programs, although it’s easy enough to do once you see how

Once you actually get into the program, however, it’s got a clear, well-designed layout that doesn’t overwhelm you with options. The free version allows you to schedule backups of your entire computer and of specific files and folders but limits you when it comes to certain features such as backing up your Outlook client or creating a disk image for migrating to a new computer. There are also some additional tools included such as a recovery disk creator and a secure file eraser.

The interface is simple and clean, although it sometimes feels like there isn’t enough visual definition between the various elements

Irritatingly, the developers chose to limit the backup speed of the free version in order to make the paid version more attractive, which feels to me like an unnecessary and even slightly underhanded sales tactic. When you combine that with the sneaky third-party software that is included in the installation process, I have to recommend that you look elsewhere for a free backup solution, despite the fact that the rest of the program is effective.

Macrium Reflect 7 Free Edition

This free option is unique for a bad reason – it requires that you download a whopping 871 MB for the basic installation, which is a bit astonishing considering the limited features it offers. Apparently, this excessive size is largely due to the inclusion of WinPE components which are used to create recovery media, but it is by far the largest download of all the programs I reviewed. If you’ve got a slow or metered internet connection, you may want to look elsewhere for free software.

Free software isn’t always the most user-friendly, and Macrium Reflect is no exception

On top of this huge download requirement, the free version of Macrium Reflect only allows you to create a backup image of your entire computer. You cannot select specific files or folders to back up, which means that you’re forced to create an extremely large backup file every time you run it.

One useful feature that is unique to Macrium is the ability to create a Macrium-specific recovery environment and add it to your boot menu, allowing you to restore a corrupted drive image even if you’re unable to boot into Windows. This is a cool feature, but it doesn’t feel like enough to overcome the other limitations of the free version.

A Final Word

This has all been a lot to take in, I know, and thinking too much about data loss can be a panic-inducing situation – but you really shouldn’t take any chances with your important data. Hopefully, you’ve now found a backup solution that will work for you and keep your files safe, one that you’ll be able to set up easily and not have to worry about again. Just remember to check your backup copies every so often to make sure things are working smoothly, and you’ll be able to rest easy knowing your data is secure.

Remember: it needs two separate backups or it doesn’t really exist!

Do you have a backup solution you love that I didn’t mention? Let us know in the comments below and I’ll be sure to take a look at it!

Why You Should Trust Us

I’m Adrian Try, and I’ve been using and abusing computers for decades. I’ve used quite a variety of backup apps and strategies, and I’ve suffered a few disasters as well. As a tech support guy, I’ve come across dozens of people whose computer died without having a backup. They lost everything. Learn from their mistake!

Over the decades I’ve backed up onto floppy disks, Zip drives, CDs, DVDs, external hard drives and network drives. I’ve used PC Backup for DOS, Cobian Backup for Windows and Time Machine for Mac. I’ve used command line solutions using DOS’s xcopy and Linux’s rsync, and Clonezilla, a bootable Linux CD capable of cloning hard drives. But despite all of this, things have still gone wrong, and I’ve lost data. Here are a couple of stories.

On the day my second child was born, I came home from the hospital to discover that our house had been broken into, and our computers stolen. The excitement of the day vanished instantly. Fortunately, I had backed up my computer the previous day, and left the tall pile of floppies on my desk, right next to my laptop. That was too convenient for the thieves, who took my backup as well—a good example of why it’s good to keep your backups in a different location.

Many years later, my teenage son asked to borrow my wife’s spare USB hard drive. The first thing he did was format it, without even glancing at the contents first. Unfortunately, he picked up my backup hard drive by mistake, and I lost the lot again. I discovered clearly labeling your backup drives is a very good idea.

These days Time Machine constantly backs up anything I change to an external hard drive. In addition, most of my files are also stored online and on multiple devices. That’s a lot of very valuable redundancy. It’s been quite a while since I’ve lost anything important.

What You Need to Know Up-Front about Computer Backups

1. Back Up Regularly

How often should you back up? Well, how much work are you comfortable losing? A week? A day? An hour? How much do you value your time? How much do you hate doing your work twice?

It’s good practice to back up your files daily, and even more often if you’re working on a critical project. On my iMac, Time Machine is constantly backing up behind the scenes, so as soon as I create or modify a document, it’s copied to an external hard drive.

2. Types of Backup

Not all backup software works in the same way, and there are several strategies used to make a second copy of your data.

A local backup copies your files and folders to an external hard drive plugged into your computer or somewhere on your network. If you lose a file or folder, you can restore it quickly. Backing up all of your files on a regular basis is time-consuming, so you may want to copy just the files that have changed since you last backed up. That’s known as an incremental backup.

A bootable clone, or disk image, creates an exact duplicate of your hard drive, including your operating system and software. If your hard drive fails, you can boot directly from your backup hard drive and get straight back to work.

A cloud backup is like a local backup, but your files are stored online rather than on a local hard drive. That way, if your computer is taken out by fire, flood or theft, your backup will still be available. Your initial backup may take days or weeks to complete, and you’ll need to pay an ongoing fee for the storage, but they are worthwhile. We’ll cover cloud backup solutions in a separate review.

3. Offsite Backup is Crucial

Some disasters that can take out your computer may also take out your backup. That includes natural disasters like fire and flood, and as I discovered, theft.
When I worked in a bank’s data center in the 80s, we’d fill suitcases with dozens of tape backups, and carry them to the next branch where we stored them in a fireproof safe. The suitcases were heavy, and it was hard work. These days, offsite backup is much easier.

One option is cloud backup, and as I said, we’ve covered those online backup services in a separate review. Another option is to use several hard drives for your disk images and store one at a different location.

4. Syncing Your Files is Helpful, but Not True Backup

Now that most of us use multiple devices—desktops, laptops, smartphones, and tablets—many of our documents are synchronized between those devices via the cloud. I personally use iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive and more.

That makes me feel more secure and is helpful. If I drop my phone into the ocean, all of my files will magically reappear on my new one. But syncing services are not true backup.

One major problem is that if you delete or change a file on one device, the file will be deleted or changed on all of your devices. While some syncing services allow you to return to a previous version of a document, it’s best to use a comprehensive backup strategy as well.

5. A Good Backup Strategy Involves Several Backup Types

A thorough backup strategy will involve performing a number of backups using different methods, and possibly different apps. At a minimum, I recommend you keep a local backup of your files, a clone of your drive, and some sort of offsite backup, either online or by storing an external hard drive at a different address.

Who Should Back Up Their Computer? Everyone.

Everyone should back up their computer. All sorts of things can happen that result in data loss. No one is immune, so you should be prepared.

What could possibly go wrong?

• You could delete the wrong file or format the wrong drive.
• You could modify an important document, and decide that you prefer it the way it was.
• Some of your files could become corrupt due to a hard drive or file system problem.
• Your computer or hard drive could suddenly and unexpectedly die.
• You could drop your laptop. I’ve laughed at a few YouTube videos of laptops being dropped in the ocean or being left on the roof of a car.
• Your computer could be stolen. It happened to me. I never got it back.
• Your building could burn down. Smoke, fire and sprinklers are not healthy for computers.
• You could be attacked by a virus or hacker.

Sorry if that sounds negative. I hope none of those things ever happen to you, but I can’t guarantee it. So it’s best to prepare for the worst. I once met a lady whose computer crashed the day before her major university assignment was due, and lost everything. Don’t let that happen to you.

How We Tested and Picked

1. What types of backup can the app create?

Does the app backup your files and folders, or create a clone of your hard drive? We include apps that can perform both types of backup, and some can do both. In this roundup we won’t include apps that back up to the cloud—those apps deserve their own review.

2. What types of media can it back up to?

Can the app back up to external hard drives or network-attached storage? CDs and DVDs are slower and offer less storage than these, so are rarely used today. Spinning drives are larger and less expensive than SSDs, so are a good medium for backup.

3. How easy is the software to set up and use?

Creating a backup system is initially a big job, so apps that make setup easy score extra points. Then implementing your backup strategy takes diligence, so apps that offer a choice between automatic, scheduled and manual backups can make your life much easier.

Backups can be time-consuming, so it’s helpful not to have to back up all of your files each time. Apps that offer incremental backups can save you hours.

And finally, some apps offer sequential backups. These are multiple dated backup copies, so you are not overwriting a good file on your backup disk with one that has just become corrupt. That way you’re more likely to have an uncorrupt version on one of your drives.

4. How easy is it to restore your data using the app?

The whole point of all of these backups is to recover your files if something ever goes wrong. How easy does the app make it to do this? It’s good to experiment and find this out in advance. Create a test file, delete it, and try to restore it.

5. Cost

Backup is an investment in the value of your data, and worth paying for. It’s a type of insurance that will minimize the inconvenience you’ll suffer if (or when) something goes wrong.

Backup apps cover a range of prices, from free to $50 or more:

• Apple Time Machine, free
• Get Backup Pro, $19.99
• SuperDuper!, free, or $27.95 for all features
• Mac Backup Guru, $29.00
• Carbon Copy Cloner, $39.99
• Acronis True Image 2019, $49.99

Above is what the apps we recommend cost, sorted from cheapest to most expensive.

The Winners

Best Choice for Incremental File Backups: Time Machine

Many people don’t back up their computers because it can be difficult and a little technical to set up, and in the busyness of life, people just don’t get around to doing it. Apple’s Time Machine was designed to change all of that. It’s built into the operating system, easy to set up, and works in the background 24-7, so you don’t have to remember to do it.

Time Machine was originally designed to work with Apple’s Time Capsule hardware, which, along with their Airport routers is being discontinued. But the Time Machine software will continue to be supported and works with other hard drives. It should remain an excellent backup option for years to come.

Time Machine is included free with macOS

“Time Machine backs up all of your files to an external storage device so that you can restore them later or see how they looked in the past.”

Time Machine backs up your files and folders to a hard drive connected to your computer or on your network. It’s convenient, uses a local hard drive, and constantly backs up your files as they change or are created, so you’ll lose very little (probably nothing) when disaster hits. And importantly, restoring individual files and folders is easy.

Here’s how Apple Support describes the app:

“With Time Machine, you can back up your entire Mac, including system files, apps, music, photos, emails, and documents. When Time Machine is turned on, it automatically backs up your Mac and performs hourly, daily, and weekly backups of your files.”

“When you use Time Machine on a computer using Apple File System (APFS), Time Machine not only keeps a copy of everything on your backup disk, it also saves local snapshots of files that have changed on your internal disk, so you can recover previous versions. These local snapshots are saved hourly (unless you deselect Back Up Automatically) and they’re stored on your computer’s internal disk.”

The app is very easy to set up. When you first connect a blank hard drive, you may be asked if you’d like to use the drive to back up your computer. Alternatively, click on the Time Machine icon at the left of your menu bar, and select Open Time Machine Preferences.

Once you have set up the software, Time Machine keeps:

• Local snapshots as space permits,
• Hourly backups for the last 24 hours,
• Daily backups for the past month,
• Weekly backups for all previous months.

So there’s a lot of redundancy there. Although it uses more storage space, it’s a good thing. If you’ve just discovered something went wrong with one of your files months ago, there’s a good chance you’ll still have an older good copy still backed up.

I back up my 1TB internal hard drive (which is currently half full) to an external 2TB drive. 1TB isn’t enough, because there will be multiple copies of each file. I’m currently using 1.25TB of my backup drive.

Restoring a file or folder is quick and easy. Select Enter Time Machine from the menu bar icon.

Helpfully, the Time Machine interface looks just like Finder, with previous versions of your folder going off into the background.

You can move back through time by clicking on the title bars of the windows in the background, the buttons on the right, or the calendar on the far right.

When you find the file you’re after, you can have a look at it, get more information, restore it, or copy it. The ability to “quick look” at a file before restoring is useful, so you can make sure it is the desired version of the file you’re looking for.

Best Choice for Hard Drive Cloning: Carbon Copy Cloner

Bombich Software’s Carbon Copy Cloner is a more capable backup app with a more complex interface, though “Simple Mode” is also available, allowing you to back up your drive in three clicks. Significantly, the app allows you to back up your computer in an additional way: by creating an exact clone of your Mac’s hard drive.

Carbon Copy Cloner can create a bootable drive that mirrors your Mac’s internal drive, and then update only the files that have been added or modified. In a disaster, you will be able to start up your computer with this drive and work as normal, then restore your files onto a new drive once you purchase one.

A Personal & Household license is $39.99 from the developer’s website (one-time fee), covering all computers in the household. Corporate purchasing is also available, starting at the same price per computer. A 30-day trial is available.

Where Time Machine is great at restoring files and folders that have vanished or gone wrong, Carbon Copy Cloner is the app you want when you have to restore your entire drive, say when you’ve had to replace your hard drive or SSD due to a failure, or you’ve bought a new Mac. And because your backup is a bootable drive that’s a mirror image of your main drive when disaster hits and your main drive fails, all you need to do is reboot your computer from your backup, and you’re up and running.

All of that makes the two apps complementary rather than competitors. In fact, I recommend you use both. You can never have too many backups!

This app has more features than Time Machine, so its interface is more complex. But Bomtich has made their app as intuitive as possible by using four strategies:

1. They’ve tweaked the app’s interface to make it as easy to use as possible.

2. They’ve provided a “Simple Mode” interface that can perform a backup in three clicks.

3. The “Cloning Coach” will alert you to any configuration concerns and concerns about your backup strategy.

4. They also offer guided setup and restore, so that getting back your lost information is as easy as possible.

Besides making the interface easy to use, you can automatically keep your backups up-to-date by scheduling them. Carbon Copy Cloner can back up your data hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and more. You can specify what type of backup is to be done, and chain together groups of scheduled tasks.

The Competition and Comparisons

SuperDuper! (Bootable Backups)

Shirt Pocket’s SuperDuper! v3 is an alternative to Carbon Copy Cloner. It’s a simpler app, where many of the features are free, and the full app is more affordable. SuperDuper! has been around for a healthy 14 years, and although new features have been added, the app looks a little dated.

The interface is very easy to use. Just choose which drive to back up, which drive to clone it onto, and the type of backup you want to perform. Like Carbon Copy Cloner, it will create a fully bootable backup, and can update it with just the changes you’ve made since the last backup.

Download SuperDuper! for free from the developer’s website. Pay $27.95 to unlock scheduling, smart update, sandboxes, scripting and more.

ChronoSync (Syncing, File Backup)

Econ Technologies ChronoSync 4 is a versatile app with many talents. It can synchronize files between your computers, backup your files and folders, and create a bootable clone of your hard drive. This one app can perform every type of backup you need.

Restoring files backed up by ChronoSync can be as easy as browsing for the backed up file using Finder and copying it, or using the app itself to sync your files back to your hard drive.

You can schedule your backups to take place at a regular time, or whenever you connect a specific hard drive to your computer. It is able to back up only the files that have changed since your last backup, and can copy multiple files simultaneously to speed up the operation.

$49.99 from the Econ Store. Bundles and student discounts are available. ChronoSync Express (an entry-level version that can’t do bootable backups) is $24.99 from the Mac App Store. ChronoSync Express is included with a SetApp subscription. A 15-day free trial is available.

Acronis True Image (Disk Cloning)

Acronis True Image 2019 for Mac is another alternative to Carbon Copy Cloner, allowing you to make cloned images of your hard drive. The more expensive plans also include online backup.

True Image is a little more expensive than Carbon Copy Cloner, and aimed more at corporations than individuals and small businesses. It lacks a personal license that allows you to use the app on all your computers. The app costs $79.99 for three computers, and $99.99 for five.

You use the app through an intuitive dashboard, and the restore feature allows you to quickly recover your entire drive, or just the files you need.

Acronis True Image 2019 Standard (single license) costs $49.99 (per computer) from the developer’s website. A 30-day free trial is available.

Mac Backup Guru (Bootable Backups)

MacDaddy’s Mac Backup Guru is another app that creates a bootable disk image of your main drive. In fact, it supports three different types of backup: direct cloning, synchronization, and incremental snapshots. You can use it to backup either your complete hard drive, or just the folders you specify.

What makes it different is that it can continually keep that backup in sync with any new changes you make, or alternatively keep incremental backups that don’t overwrite older backups with your changes, in case you need to go back to an earlier version of a document. It’s also a little less expensive than its competitors.

$29 from the developer’s website. A free trial is available.

Free Online Backup For Mac

Get Backup Pro (Disk Cloning, Folder Sync)

Belight Software’s Get Backup Pro is the most affordable app on our list (not including Apple’s free Time Machine), and it offers you a range of backup types, including incremental and compressed file backups, bootable cloned backups, and folder synchronization. It’s another app that may do everything you need.

Free Backup Software For Mac Reviews 2017

“Backup, clone, archive, sync—all in one app.”

Backup and sync can be scheduled, and the app supports external or network drives, as well as CDs or DVDs. Backup templates let you include data from iTunes, Photos, Mail, Contacts and your Documents folder. You can encrypt your backups for additional security.

The app is easy to use, including when it comes time to restore your files. You’re even able to restore your files onto a computer that doesn’t have the app installed.

$19.99 from the developer’s website, or included in a SetApp subscription. A free trial is available.

Free Backup Software For Mac Reviews Iphone

Free Alternatives

1. Free Apps

We’ve already mentioned a few free ways to backup your Mac: Apple’s Time Machine comes preinstalled with macOS, and SuperDuper!’s free version is able to do quite a lot. You can also perform a quick and dirty backup using Finder, by dragging your files to an external drive.

Here are a couple of additional free backup apps that you may like to consider:

• FreeFileSync is a free and open source app that creates backups by syncing your changes to an external drive.

• BackupList+ can create full system clones, regular backups, incremental backups and disk images can be performed. It’s useful, but not as user-friendly as some of the other apps.

Some cloud backup providers allow you to back up your computer locally with their software for free. We’ll cover those apps in a future review.

2. Use the Command Line

If you’re more technically inclined, you can bypass apps and use the command line to perform backups. There are a number of commands that are helpful for doing this, and by placing these in a shell script, you’ll only have to set things up once.

Useful commands include:

• cp, the standard Unix copy command,
• tmutil, which allows you to control Time Machine from the command line,
• ditto, which copies files and folders intelligently from the command line,
• rsync, which can back up what has changed since the last backup, even partial files,
• asr (apply software restore), which allows you to restore your files from the command line,
• hdiutil, which allows you to mount a disk image from the command line.

If you’d like to learn how to use the command line to roll your own backup system, refer to these helpful articles and forum discussions:

• Mac 101: Learn the Power of rsync for Backup, Remote, Archive Systems – Macsales
• Backup to external HDD with terminal commands – Stack Overflow
• Control Time Machine from the command line – Macworld
• Make Back Ups from the Command Line in Mac OS X with These 4 Tricks – OSXDaily