Best Mac backup software: Top backup apps compared

We are starting with Apple’s Time Machine software because it is included with every Mac. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be the best option for you.

Time Machine is a reliable tool for local backups of Macs, providing a full-sized initial backup of every file on the Mac and incremental backups throughout the day as long as the Mac is attached to a designated Time Machine external drive. That drive can be disconnected and used as an external drive for other computers or paired with multiple Macs for backups.

The first backup takes the longest while every file on the Mac is rolled into the Time Machine backup, but it gets quicker from there. Time Machine’s Restore function allows users to open and scroll through past backups to locate and restore files, which is useful if something was accidentally deleted or you made changes to a file and need to go back to an earlier version.

When paired with Apple’s Migration Assistant, porting data and user profiles from an old Mac to a new one is simple. When importing a Time Machine backup to a new Mac, Time Machine inherits previous backups as well.

For security, users can designate a password to encrypt their Time Machine backups and there are reminders about the number of days since the last backup that encourage you to keep it plugged in.

However, Time Machine is more geared towards external hard drives, which can be lost, damaged, or stolen, and it relies on said drive being connected to your Mac (you could use a NAS drive). It is best to have both a local and secure off-site copy of your data, and the online backup market has grown over the past few years with services like iCloud, OneDrive, Dropbox, and Box.

Despite its limitations, Time Machine is an excellent solution for local backups of Macs. While it requires an external hard drive connected to the Mac for consistent functionality, it offers excellent protection built into the operating system.

ChronoSync for macOS, from Econ Technologies, can give those who want it tighter control over their backup options in a format that doesn’t overwhelm. The software is based on several core modules including Home Folder Backup, Data Volume, Synchronize Two Folders, Multiple Folder Backup, Bootable Backup, Backup to a Disk Image, and Folder Backup.

Simply select your desired function from the ChronoSync Organizer/home screen. For example, select the task you want to create, specify your settings (e.g. folders you want to copy over, file types to copy, a schedule, etc.), and hit “Synchronize”.

Synchronizations can also be set up to simulate functions. For the truly die-hard and geeky, rule-based copies and tasks can be set up. 

You can readily back up to NAS and file servers, the program supporting Apple’s HFS+ and APFS file formats as well as others. ChronoSync also supports backing up to Google Cloud and Amazon storage.

For users looking to make bootable clones, this is just as easy as what SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner have become known for. Choose a source volume, choose a target volume, hit “Synchronize,” let the process run. ChronoSync can create two types of bootable clones: standard and mirrored. The former creates a bootable system on the destination volume, leaving other files on the volume intact. Mirror replaces the entire contents of the destination volume with files from the source.

A readily-accessible manual offers quick access to a guidebook that comes in handy and there’s easy access to the company’s ticketing system should you require tech support. 

Where price and offerings are concerned, ChronoSync offers something valid for your money. There is also a entry-level ChronoSync Express package that is part of the SetApp bundle (reviewed here: SetApp review). The company also offers a 15-day trial without requiring a credit or debit card.

Bombich Software’s Carbon Copy Cloner has been a popular utility for cloning data on Macs since it launched in 2002. It supports HFS+ and APFS drive formats, local volumes, and NAS-enabled networks. However, it cannot back up Windows file formats, optical media, web-based platforms, or Apple’s Time Machine platforms.

Carbon Copy Cloner has a comprehensive user interface, and customizable filters and grants access to configuration options like disk encryption, task notes, and bandwidth configuration for NAS backups. Other tools, such as scheduling, can be performed without issue. The task manager allows users to save and configure multiple backup tasks. A scripting feature allows custom scripts to be loaded and activated as needed.

The SafetyNet feature allows for drive formatting or stopping processes before overwriting data on a volume. However, there are some weak points, including Apple’s lack of openness and the need for bootable external volumes. Creating a bootable external volume in Carbon Copy Cloner is currently a hit-or-miss proposition, with attempts at creating a bootable external volume failing due to Apple’s protocols. Other utilities face the same issues.

Carbon Copy Cloner pairs well with utilities like Time Machine, Apple’s Migration Assistant, and SuperDuper!. The company’s customer support is friendly and speedy, and the software offers quick access to help guides. A supportive community and frequent developer updates are another bonus. If Carbon Copy Cloner is not in your arsenal of handy utilities, you should download it and give it a try. There’s a full-featured 30-day trial. 

SuperDuper! (version 3.8 at the time of this review) is a popular Mac cloning and restoration app that is easy to install. It supports APFS and HFS+ file formats and can be customized to fit individual needs. In addition to cloning, the app supports scheduling and allows users to specify files to be copied over, including Unix-specific elements like user folders, shared users, shared users and applications, and backup files.

SuperDuper! easily restores data from one volume to another, which is simpler than using Apple’s restoration options in macOS’s Disk Utility. The user interface displays the number of files copied, copy speed, data evaluated, time elapsed, and amount of data moved from the source volume to the target volume. Users can edit provided scripts or write their own, choose between methods such as Total Backup and Smart Backup, and set up events like permission repairs before a copy begins, scripts to execute after a copy has completed, and for the Mac to eject the target volume, shut down, go to sleep, or quit SuperDuper! once the copy is done.

However, SuperDuper! has room for improvement. For example, it can’t back up to network volumes and it doesn’t support FAT, exFAT, or NTFS for Windows and Linux volumes. We hope that the network backup comes with a further update.

We like the fact that SuperDuper! retails for a one-time payment rather than on a subscription plan You can use it for free, but you need to pay to unlock scheduling, smart updates, and some other features.

Over the years, Shirt Pocket has consistently provided solid updates, pinned down bugs, supported new protocols introduced by Apple, and communicated well through its tech support and marketing. Overall, SuperDuper! is a reliable local cloning and restoration app for the Mac that can be readily customized and scripted, and is excellent value.

lDrive is a backup utility that handles both local and web/cloud-based backups (similar to Backblaze and Carbonite). It allows you to continually backup your entire drive to the cloud, while also letting you drag and drop files to the cloud to access remotely. lDrive also allows you to back up external hard drives.

lDrive’s user interface is very straightforward. Your Desktop, Documents, Music and Pictures folders are automatically selected for backup, along with the contents of ~/Library/Mail.

Features like Rewind and Snapshots allow you to restore from earlier versions of files or snapshots of the complete data set.

To add other folders, click ‘Change’ at the bottom of the window – that’s not exactly intuitive. You can add videos to the backup, but locating them in lDrive’s interface can be complicated.

Both scheduling and restoring are straightforward, however. As is choosing a local drive as the destination for a backup in place of lDrive’s servers.

All data is encrypted, with the option to set your own private encryption key.

You have the choice of restoring by having data physically shipped to you. This is free for the first restore each year, but if you are based outside the US you’ll have to pay for shipping.

The subscription-based tier system offers a free Basic account with 10GB of online disk space for free with no credit or debit card required. That 10GB free tier allows for local backups and is pretty generous, but the real steal is the IDrive Mini plan, which, for less than 3 bucks a year, gives you access to 100GB of storage.

lDrive’s free tier and the ability to spread your data allocation in the paid tiers across multiple computers makes it attractive. Overall, though, it’s expensive for a single machine.

Get Backup Pro by BeLight Software is easy to download, install into the Applications folder, and run (although we did encounter a few problems assigning full disk access).

The user interface keeps things simple, scheduling full backups, cloning, and incremental backups worked like a charm, and a slate of customization options allows for specific files and folders to be chosen and app data to be added to the backup/clone process.

The impressive level of customization makes it easy to set tasks up, while an excellent restoration system installed data where it needed to be without fail. Get Backup Pro to be very capable, running flawlessly under macOS Sequoia.

The software is priced well and is also available through MacPaw’s SetApp subscription service. The option of a 30-day demo gives you time to play around with it, and the licensing is flexible.

Get Backup Pro presents a nice array of options beyond what Apple’s free Time Machine utility offer and is excellent for the casual user and the home market.

Mac Backup Guru offers what’s expected from a backup utility in terms of core backup and archival functionalities and works to take it a step further.

It offers both a synchronized clone backup, which can create standard copies of folders and drives as well as incremental backups that track changes and back up the changes (like Time Machine does).

The application’s easily customizable settings offer tight control over aspects such as setting the source and destination volumes, and you can pick and choose specific volumes and folders to include and exclude. The scheduler feature works like a charm.

Apple’s Time Machine will create snapshots of your hard drive at different times throughout the day, but there’s way to control when these are created or when they’re deleted. Mac Backup Guru offers this feature. Additionally, the number of recent snapshots can be designated as well before older snapshots are deleted.

There’s also backup/cloning feature that taps into iCloud-related tools and makes a copy of all your iCloud-based files to help complete the cloned volume.

Still, there’s room for improvement. For example, the app doesn’t confirm how much space it’ll need for a copy, leaving you rolling the dice as to whether you have enough space on the destination drive for the full copy.

Mac Backup Guru is an easy-to-use backup tool that keeps options and settings to a minimum while offering several useful features. It’s also good value – at the time of writing it was on offer for less than $9/£7.51, a significant discount on its usual $29/£24.15 price.

Backblaze is an online, offsite backup service that allows you to back up your Mac to its servers automatically or according to a schedule you set.

Backblaze backs up the contents of your Documents, Pictures, Movies and Music folders, but excludes your Applications folder. Backblaze also excludes some file types from being backed up, such as .dmg disk images – that restriction can be switched off, however.

Backups are kept for 30 days, so you can restore from any that ran during that time. As you would expect, backups are incremental so only files that have changed since it last ran are copied. Data is encrypted and you can optionally add a six-digit passcode to provide an additional layer of security.

When it comes to restoring your data, you have three options: you can restore via Backblaze’s web interface or you can have files sent to you on a USB stick or hard drive for an additional fee. And there’s a 100% refund if you return the USB stick or hard drive within 30 days, though you’ll have to pay shipping and taxes.

You can view individual files and choose which ones to download. And you can view and share backed up files on an iPhone or iPad with the Backblaze mobile app.

The Locate your Computer service tracks your Mac’s location to help you find it if it’s stolen – similar to Find My. If a lost Mac is still running backups your Mac can tell you its current IP address and show you recently backed-up data.

Backblaze’s user interface comprises a menu bar item and a System Preferences pane. However, that pane is more like a fully fledged application, with options to exclude files, add folders and disks to the backup, and throttle bandwidth. It’s simple and very Mac-like.

If you only need to back up one Mac, and particularly if you want to back up external disks, Backblaze’s simplicity and price give it the edge over Carbonite and IDrive.

With Backblaze your data is stored in secure data centres and two-factor authentication adds an extra level of security.

Acronis True Image for Mac works as a customizable backup utility as well as an antiviral/anti-malware app. It starts at $49.99/£42.99 per year for the Essentials version that includes one computer with local backup and anti-ransomware. You can pay more for cloud based backups, which is why we also include it in our round up of cloud-based Mac backup apps.

You’ll find Backup, Protection, Disk Cloning, and Archive modules. The Backup module allows you to designate source and destination volumes as well as choose which files are backed up and to where. It’s easy to create exclusion lists as to which files can by bypassed when it comes to backing up, and the scheduling feature worked well.

The Backup module also leads to True Image’s Acronis Survival Kit, which allows for a bootable backup drive to be created that your Mac can boot and install a new operating system from.

The Disk Cloning module works well, and makes quick copies of volumes as needed. The Archive module allows you to offload local data to Acronis’ cloud structure, which is handy for freeing up local space.

The Protection module offered a good degree of antiviral protection, catching no less than 23 potential threats from a sample archive off the bat.

Unfortunately, during our testing there were bugs that couldn’t be avoided and user interface elements that were either inconvenient or needed a complete overall.