No Excuses 7 Free Mac Backup Apps
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What We Like Automatic encryption keeps backup data safe from hackers. Less expensive than Carbon Copy Cloner. Provides customization options for what you back up. What We Don't Like Doesn't provide a data log of backup activity. No cloud support. Get Backup from BeLight Software is available in free and paid (pro) versions. The pro version has some nice feature enhancements that are worth the small additional charge, but the free version has all the basic functionality that many Mac users will ever need. Free and noteworthy features include the ability to create full and versioned backups, exclude files and folders, synchronize files and folders, and create bootable clones of a startup drive. Sign Up for Get Backup 05 of 07
No Excuses: 7 Free Mac Backup Apps
There's no excuse not to maintain current backups
By Tom Nelson Tom Nelson Writer Tom Nelson is an engineer, programmer, network manager, and computer network and systems designer who has written for Other World Computing,and others. Tom is also president of Coyote Moon, Inc., a Macintosh and Windows consulting firm. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on June 4, 2021 Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email Apps Best Apps Payment Services Regularly backing up data should be at the top of every Mac user's to-do list (Windows users, too). Don't delay; tomorrow may be too late. If you don’t currently use a backup app, try one of these Mac backup apps. You're going to feel a lot better knowing that, should something happen to your Mac’s storage system, you can quickly retrieve any lost data and get right back to work. 01 of 07Lowest Barrier of Entry Time Machine
What We Like Seamlessly integrates any external drive. Shows what a file looked like in the recent past. Built into Mac OS X and macOS. What We Don't Like Less secure than cloud storage. Doesn't archive data. Requires an external drive, which can also fail. Read Our Time Machine Review Time Machine, which is included with OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and later, is the backup app of choice for many Mac users. And why not; it's easy to set up and easy to use. It's also easy to forget about. Once you set it up, you can go about your daily business without giving backups a second thought. Time Machine automatically takes care of everything for you. Time Machine also works with OS X's migration assistant, making it an effective choice for moving data to a new Mac as well as performing backups. While it offers a number of attractive features, Time Machine isn't perfect. We recommend using Time Machine as the core of your backup strategy and relying on other backup apps for additional capabilities, such as cloning or remote/cloud backup. Learn More About Time Machine 02 of 07Backups and Bootables SuperDuper
What We Like One-step restore for easy file retrieval. Simple UI leaves little room for user mistakes. Create bootable drives of disks for restoration. What We Don't Like Cannot choose specific folders or files to back up. Slow; backs up everything each time it runs. A paywall blocks some features. SuperDuper is a backup application that supports the traditional full and incremental backup approaches many of us know. It's also capable of creating bootable clones of a startup drive, one feature that Time Machine lacks and which SuperDuper performs well. SuperDuper's core features (creating clones and backups) are free. The paid version of SuperDuper includes additional features, such as the ability to set up schedules to automate your backups or clone creations. Smart Updates are incremental versions of a clone and significantly reduce the time it takes to update an existing clone. User scripts allow you to create custom backup routines and schedules. Download SuperDuper 03 of 07Most Features Carbon Copy Cloner
What We Like Lightning-fast backup speed. More advanced features than other solutions. Ability to chain tasks together. What We Don't Like Restore speed is slower than backup speed. Interface may be confusing for novice users. History logs don't appear in the main window. Read Our Carbon Copy Cloner 4 Review Carbon Copy Cloner is the granddaddy of Mac cloning software. It has long been a favorite of the Mac community. While widely used for creating bootable clones, Carbon Copy Cloner can also create full and incremental backups, schedule tasks, and back up to any networked share that your Mac can mount on its desktop. Download Carbon Copy Cloner 5 04 of 07Most Secure Get Backup
What We Like Automatic encryption keeps backup data safe from hackers. Less expensive than Carbon Copy Cloner. Provides customization options for what you back up. What We Don't Like Doesn't provide a data log of backup activity. No cloud support. Get Backup from BeLight Software is available in free and paid (pro) versions. The pro version has some nice feature enhancements that are worth the small additional charge, but the free version has all the basic functionality that many Mac users will ever need. Free and noteworthy features include the ability to create full and versioned backups, exclude files and folders, synchronize files and folders, and create bootable clones of a startup drive. Sign Up for Get Backup 05 of 07