15 Best Backup Software for Mac in 2024

There’s one thing everyone needs to know when it comes to data loss: it tends to happen at the worst possible moment, when you expect it the least. That’s why you can’t afford to let your guard down at any time. Instead, you need to equip yourself with Mac backup software and keep all important files protected.

Selecting the best Mac backup software tool tailored to your specific requirements can be challenging. This detailed guide helps you navigate through the top 15 Mac backup software tools of 2024, featuring the finest options in cloud-based and free Mac backup solutions.

Best Mac Backup Software: Summary of Our Picks

Best Backup Software for Mac (macOS 14 Sonoma)

What to Look for in Mac Backup Software?

There are countless different paid and free Mac backup software tools to choose from, each offering a unique set of features and capabilities. Here’s a brief overview of some of the things you should consider when choosing Mac backup software:

Top 15 Best Mac Backup Software Tools

Let’s delve into an updated analysis of the top 15 best Mac backup software tools available in 2024. Each tool listed has garnered the trust of numerous users globally; however, this does not guarantee that all will perfectly align with your specific requirements. We invite you to explore this comprehensive review thoroughly to make an informed choice that best suits your needs.

1. Time Machine​

Storage space: limited only by the size of your backup drive | Speed: fast | System Requirements: macOS 10.5 or newer | Backup type: local

Overview:

Time Machine is Apple’s best backup solution for Mac, and you can find it included for free in Mac OS X Leopard and newer. Once configured and activated, Time Machine automatically creates incremental backups of files, folders, and even apps on a dedicated backup drive.

The backup process is completely non-distracting since Time Machine runs quietly in the background and rarely requires any user input. To recover lost files using this Mac backup software, you simply need to bring up Time Machine’s user interface (a floating Finder window) and choose your backup.

Key additional features:

• Time Machine backs up your files automatically on an hourly, daily, and weekly basis.
• You can encrypt your Time Machine backups to make them accessible only to users who know the backup password.
• Can back up to external drives or selected network-attached storage devices.
• Supports restoration to the same Mac or a different Mac from the backup.

2. Disk Drill

Storage space: limited only by the size of your backup drive | Speed: fast | System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.11.6+ | Backup type: local

Overview:

Disk Drill is actually a data recovery tool first and Mac backup software second. Because backups are the most reliable way to recover permanently deleted data, the developers of Disk Drill decided to include several extremely useful backup features, including the ability to create byte-to-byte disk and partition backups.

In addition to them, Disk Drill can also temporarily back up deleted files to guarantee their recovery in the future. Also worth mentioning is a feature called Recovery Vault, which backs up metadata to increase your recovery chances. All backup and recovery features are characterized by their intuitive nature and reliability.

Key additional features:

• Thanks to Guaranteed Recovery, you can always reliably recover deleted files—even after the Trash folder has been emptied.
• With Disk Drill, you can quickly and easily recover over 400 file formats from all storage devices.
• Disk Drill can create S.M.A.R.T. information and alert you ahead of time that your hard drive is starting to fail.
• Optimized for Macs with Intel, M1, M2, and M3 chips.

3. SuperDuper!​​

Storage space: limited only by the size of your backup drive | Speed: fast | System Requirements: requires macOS 10.10 Yosemite or later | Backup type: local

Overview:

SuperDuper! Is a simple but extremely effective Mac backup software that you can use to create a fully bootable backups of your Mac. The app has a simple user interface with just a few basic options, so even inexperienced users are typically able to learn how it works in just a couple of minutes.

Thanks to the built-in scheduler, you can set up SuperDuper! once and forget about it, leaving it to intelligently back up your entire drive whether your Mac is awake or asleep. The latest version of this backup tool minimizes the possibility of disk errors without negatively affecting backup speed.

Key additional features:

• SuperDuper! updates only files that have been changed since the last update.
• The tool ensures that backup tasks are always completed according to the defined schedule.
• Compatible with Apple silicon, supporting both HFS+ and APFS file systems.
• Features Smart Update, Smart Delete, and Smart Wake to optimize backup processes.
• Allows backups to run alongside Time Machine and supports cloning Time Machine backups to other disks.
• Offers extensive scheduling options, AppleScript support, and user-friendly UI improvements.

4. Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office​

Storage space: limited only by the size of your backup drive | Speed: average | System Requirements: Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11 and newer | Backup type: local and cloud

Overview:

Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office is an advanced data protection solution that seamlessly integrates cybersecurity and backup features. It offers comprehensive protection by combining real-time antivirus and antimalware scanning with our tried-and-true backup technology. Whether you need to safeguard individual files or entire system images, Acronis ensures that your data is safe from modern cyber threats.

This software runs quietly in the background, maintaining constant protection without disrupting your workflow. With robust cloud and local backup options, Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office not only secures your data against loss but also guards against ransomware and cryptojacking attacks.

Key additional features:

• Acronis True Image secures your Mac from all modern cyber threats.
• This Mac backup software can make a replica of a Windows or Mac system while it’s in use.
• You can conveniently see the status of your backups and antimalware protection just by opening the tray notification center.
• Full image backups for complete system recovery.
• Active Protection to monitor and respond to threats in real time.

5. Carbon Copy Cloner

Storage space: limited only by the size of your backup drive | Speed: fast | System Requirements: macOS 10.15 and newer | Backup type: local

Overview:

Carbon Copy Cloner is a tried and tested Mac backup tool that you can use to create automated, incremental backups of all your data. Considering that this Mac backup software is essentially a single-purpose tool, there are many features to play with and explore.

For example, Carbon Copy Cloner lets you create custom backup schedules, allowing you to back up your data hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or whenever you connect to your backup drive. You can keep track of your backup tasks thanks to handy notifications, which are displayed directly in the macOS Notification Center.

Key additional features:

• Carbon Copy Cloner can keep multiple snapshots of the same file, allowing you to easily restore a specific version from your backup.
• You can quickly learn useful information about your volumes just by opening Disk Center.
• Native support for both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs.
• Continues to support and provide downloads for earlier versions like CCC 5 for older macOS versions up to Big Sur.

6. Get Backup Pro (v3)​

Storage space: limited only by the size of your backup drive | Speed: Average | System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.10 or higher | Backup type: local

Overview:

Get Backup Pro is an advanced Mac backup software tool that you can use to back up data on any Mac without Time Machine. The tool creates the so-called incremental backups (more about them later in this article), which means that it saves valuable hard drive space because only new and modified files are copied.

Sometimes, it can be useful to clone an entire volume instead of backing up only individual files. Fortunately, that’s something Get Backup Pro can help you with as well. You can also use it to bidirectionally synchronize two folders, which can save you a lot of time if you’re often transferring files between two computers using a USB flash drive or external hard drive.

Key additional features:

• You can encrypt backups using AES-128, AES-256, Blowfish, or Triple DES.
• Full-disk backups created using Get Backup Pro are bootable, making it easy to restore a non-booting Mac.
• Backup, archive, disk cloning, and folder synchronization capabilities.
• Ability to create bootable and encrypted backups.
• Offers data compression and multi-volume backups.

7. ChronoSync​

Storage space: limited only by the size of your backup drive| Speed: fast | System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.12 or newer | Backup type: local and cloud

Overview:

ChronoSync is an all-in-one backup solution aimed at Mac power users and professionals who store highly valuable work-related data on their Mac computers. You can use it to synchronize between two Macs using built-in file sharing, back up a specific folder or files locally or to the cloud, and more.

All backup tasks can be scheduled ahead of time and executed automatically according to a specific schedule, and ChronoSync can even send push notifications to your iPhone on task completion. You can try everything this local and cloud backup Mac tool has to offer for free for 15 days, which should be more then enough to evaluate what it’s all about.

Key additional features:

• Offers complete sync, backup, and bootable backup capabilities.
• Can target devices or folders visible in Finder, including volumes, thumb drives, NAS, disk images, and cloud services.
• Direct connections to Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, Google Cloud, and other cloud services.
• Supports event-triggered scheduling, allowing backups to run in response to specific triggers like connecting a drive.
• Advanced file filtering and archiving capabilities to manage data effectively.
• Incremental backups to save only modified files since the last backup, enhancing speed and efficiency.
• Bootable backups to ensure system recovery is straightforward and reliable.

8. SmartBackup

Storage space: limited only by the size of your backup drive | Speed: Fast | System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.13 – 11.6.4 | Backup type: local

Overview:

SmartBackup is straightforward free Mac backup software that makes it easy to sync folders, volumes, or create complete bootable backups. You can download this tool directly from its official website and install it on any Mac running macOS 10.10 or later. Even though macOS Big Sur isn’t officially supported (the last version of SmartBackup was released more than 2 years ago), we haven’t noticed any issues.

Because SmartBackup has been created specifically for Macs with modern SSDs, it can offer major performance advantages over other similar utilities. If backup speed matters a lot to you, then this Mac Backup software may just be the right fit for you.

Key additional features:

• Designed to be fast and optimized for SSDs.
• Custom sync engine that leverages multi-threading for high performance, particularly beneficial for modern SSDs and professional Xsan volumes.
• Capable of syncing between internal and external hard drives, RAIDs, Xsan volumes, and network shares or NAS.
• Supports creating a bootable clone of your HFS startup disk on macOS installations using HFS.
• Optional archiving of changed or deleted files in timestamped folders during each sync.
• Built-in search panel to locate and restore archived files.
• Natively supports dark mode and is optimized for Apple Silicon.

9. Backblaze

Storage space: unlimited | Speed: depends on your internet connection | System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.9 or higher | Backup type: cloud

Overview:

Backblaze is a cloud storage and data backup provider offering personal cloud backup solutions targeting both home users and enterprises. Its personal backup product stands out thanks to its truly unlimited storage space and straightforward pricing (starting at $6 per month per computer).

Data security is of great importance when it comes to the cloud backup of Mac computers, and Backblaze addresses it by using robust encryption and encouraging its users to enable two-factor authentication. All files you’ve backed up to Backblaze’s cloud storage service can be easily shared with others, and “unsharing” files to prevent those who have received access links from accessing them is similarly easy.

Key additional features:

• Backblaze supports two-factor authentication to keep your data protected against hackers.
• You can ask Backblaze to have a 256 GB flash drive ($99) FedEx to you or an external drive up to 8 TB ($189).
• Unlimited online backup for a flat rate, allowing backup of all data including documents, photos, music, and movies.
• Automated backups to ensure data is continuously protected without user intervention.
• The ability to locate a lost or stolen computer.
• Version history that saves old file versions for 30 days (extendable with an upgrade).
• Easy file restoration via the web, and the option to have a USB drive shipped worldwide with your data.
• Secure data encryption to protect user privacy.

10. Carbonite Safe

Storage space: unlimited | Speed: depends on your internet connection | System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite – macOS 11.6.4 | Backup type: cloud

Overview:

Carbonite Safe is an automatic cloud backup solution aimed at home users. To use it, you need to install the client app on your Mac and select the files and folders you want to back up. Carbonite Safe will then automatically upload copies of your files to the cloud and capture any changes you make. When you need to recover something, you can simply select the file or folder from your cloud backup and get it back with a single click.

Because Carbonite Safe targets home users, all important options and features are always readily accessible and clearly labeled. Should you ever need help with something, you can contact Carbonite’s award-winning team of customer support specialists and receive an answer to your question in no time.

Key additional features:

• Carbonite Safe uses 128-bit encryption to keep your data safe.
• You can access your backed up data from anywhere, at any time.
• Provides unlimited, encrypted, automatic backup for a single computer at a flat price.
• Allows you to restore all or selected files with just a click.
• Offers secure file access from any device along with a mobile app.
• Protects all file types including photos and videos.
• Easy-to-use with a straightforward setup and automated backup processes.
• Version history to protect against accidental deletions or malicious attacks.

11. SpiderOak One Backup

Storage space: from 150 GB| Speed: depends on your internet connection | System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.9 – 11.6.4 | Backup type: cloud

Overview:

SpiderOak One Backup positions itself as an enterprise-grade cloud backup solution for regular home users. It brings to the table state-of-the-art data protection and security features to ensure that your files remain safely protected regardless of which cyber threats you happen to encounter.

In addition to offering a polished client app for macOS, SpiderOak One Backup also runs on Windows and Linux, which means that you can keep your data seamlessly synchronized across different computers. If that’s not convenient enough for you, then you should know that SpiderOak One Backup also lets you share files securely with others through a web-based interface.

Key additional features:

• End-to-end encryption for maximum security and privacy.
• Real-time backup ensures that changes are instantly backed up.
• Version history that saves multiple versions of files allowing recovery of older versions.
• Supports file sharing through secure ‘share rooms’ which can be password protected.
• Syncing functionality across multiple devices, ensuring all files are up-to-date on all devices.
• Privacy focused with zero-knowledge encryption, ensuring only you have access to your data.

12. MSP360 Backup

Storage space: depends on which cloud storage service you choose | Speed: depends on your internet connection | System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.12 – macOS 11.6.4 | Backup type: cloud

Overview:

MSP360 Backup provides a versatile and robust data protection solution designed for both individual users and businesses. This advanced backup tool offers a flexible approach by supporting a wide range of cloud storage options, allowing users to select the service that best fits their needs. With features like block-level backup, file versioning, and secure AES-256 encryption, MSP360 Backup ensures efficient and secure data storage.

The software supports both local and cloud-based destinations, making it an ideal choice for comprehensive backup strategies. Its user-friendly interface simplifies the setup of backup plans, while advanced features like real-time backup, hybrid backup, and customized retention policies provide flexibility and control over data protection. Whether you’re looking to safeguard business documents or personal data, MSP360 Backup delivers reliable and accessible backup solutions.

Key additional features:

• File-level backup to local or cloud storage, supporting over 30 cloud storage providers including Amazon S3, Amazon Glacier, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.
• Offers encryption and compression to secure and optimize backup data.
• Capable of incremental and block-level backups, reducing backup size and time by only copying parts of files that have changed.
• Flexible backup scheduling and retention policies to manage how backups are retained over time.
• Command line interface available for advanced users and automation.
• Supports network locations backup, making it suitable for small business environments.

13. IDrive​

Storage space: from 5 GB | Speed: depends on your internet connection | System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite – macOS 11.6.4 | Backup type: cloud

Overview:

IDrive is a versatile cloud backup service with attractive personal and business plans. You can use it to back up multiple Macs, PCs, iPhones, iPads, and Android devices into a single account, which you can access from anywhere. Unlike many other cloud backup services, IDrive can perform sector-level backup or file-level backup to secure your entire computer.

All data transfers are protected with 256-bit AES encryption using a user-defined key, and IDrive retains up to 30 previous versions of all backed up files. These and other features make this Mac backup solution great for home and business users alike.

Key additional features:

• Offers cloud backup for multiple devices under one account, including PCs, Macs, iOS, and Android devices.
• Supports continuous data protection for real-time file syncing.
• Zero-knowledge encryption available as an option for enhanced security.
• File sync and share capabilities integrated into the service.
• Incremental and compressed backups to save bandwidth and storage space.
• Physical shipment of hard drives for large data restoration (IDrive Express).
• Compatible with servers and databases for business plans.

14. Dropbox

Storage space: from 2 GB | Speed: depends on the speed of your internet connection | System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.7 or later | Backup type: cloud

Overview:

Dropbox is a popular cloud backup service that many Mac users consider to be synonymous with cloud storage in general. While the free plan offers only 2 GB of storage space, you can purchase 2 TB of additional storage space for $9.99 a month. Yes, there are less expensive options out there, but Dropbox stands out thanks to its seamless macOS integration and polished user interface.

Being one of the most popular cloud backup options in the world, Dropbox integrates with many third-party services, allowing you to easily share your files in Trello, Slack, or whatever tools your team wants to use.

Key additional features:

• File sync and backup across multiple devices
• File sharing and collaboration tools
• Extensive third-party app integrations
• Advanced security features including two-factor authentication and file recovery
• Smart sync to save hard drive space
• Dropbox Paper for collaborative workspace

15. Google One (Google Drive)

Storage space: from 15 GB | Speed: depends on your internet connection | System Requirements: Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan and newer| Backup type: cloud

Overview:

Google One is a subscription service that lets you expand your Google Drive storage space. The free plan includes 15 GB of data, which should be more than enough to thoroughly test what Google’s cloud storage solution has to offer. You can then purchase 100 GB of storage space for just $1.99 per month, but you can go as high as your wallet allows you.

Google Drive is an especially great choice if you’re already heavily invested in Google’s ecosystem and use tools like Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and Slides, on a daily basis. Google Drive also integrates with all kinds of third-party tools, and it runs on all major platforms.

Key additional features:

• Integration with Google Workspace apps like Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides
• AI-driven search capabilities and content organization
• Enhanced security features including two-factor authentication and secure file sharing
• Option for family sharing on larger storage plans
• Features such as VPN for enhanced online privacy, dark web monitoring, and more sophisticated control over data storage and sharing

How Does Backup Software for Mac Work?

All backup software tools share the same goal: create additional copies of files to protect them from data loss. However, not all backup software tools accomplish this goal the same way. Here are the three most common backup types:

• Full backup: This backup type makes a full copy of the entire storage, making it the slowest and least efficient of the three most common backup types. On the other hand, full backups are robust and quick to restore from, which makes them great for situations where a small amount of data needs to be backed up on a regular basis, such as hourly or daily.
• Differential backup: This backup type starts with a full backup, which is then used to determine which files have changed since it was taken. Only files that have changed since the last full backup was taken are copied during subsequent backups. This makes differential backups efficient and relatively easy to recover from.
• Incremental backup: The most efficient backup type is the incremental backup because it only copies files that have changed since the last backup. The most important disadvantage of this backup type is how long it takes to perform a full restore.

Since all three backup types have their advantages and disadvantages, it’s a good idea to combine them together.

For example, you can create a full byte-to-byte backup of your entire Mac on a semi-regular basis to gain the ability to quickly recover your apps and system configuration and supplement the full backup with a cloud backup tool configured to protect your most important files in real-time.

The following step-by-step instructions illustrate how easily you can back up your entire Mac drive using Disk Drill’s byte-to-byte backup feature:

1. Download, install, and launch Disk Drill for Mac.
2. Select Byte-to-Byte Backup from the left pane and click the “OK, let’s do it” button.
3. Select the drive or partition you want to back up and click Create backup.
4. Specify where you want to save the byte-to-byte backup and click Save.
5. Wait for the backup process to finish.

Summary

The good news for Mac users is that all Macs with macOS Leopard or newer, including the latest macOS Sonoma, come equipped with the best free Mac backup software: Time Machine. Additionally, there are numerous other outstanding Mac backup software tools available that can complement Time Machine. These tools enhance your backup strategy, further minimizing the risk of data loss.