Best Backup Software for PC & Mac

Why You Can’t Skip Backups

Hard drives fail. Ransomware encrypts files. Laptops get stolen. Coffee spills happen. The question isn’t whether you’ll experience data loss — it’s whether you’ll have a backup when it does.

Despite knowing this, most people don’t back up their data regularly. The usual excuse is that backup software is complicated or expensive. Neither is true anymore. The tools in this guide range from free to $60/year, and several offer genuine set-and-forget simplicity.

We evaluated the best backup software across five criteria: ease of setup, backup speed, restore reliability, storage options (local, cloud, or both), and pricing. Whether you’re backing up a single laptop or protecting a small business with multiple machines, there’s a solid option here.

Quick Picks

Best cloud backup: Backblaze — Unlimited cloud storage, dead-simple setup, $99/year for one computer.

Best full disk imaging: Acronis True Image — Complete system images with cloud and local options.

Best free option: Veeam Agent — Free backup for Windows and Linux with solid restore options.

Best for advanced users: Macrium Reflect — Granular control over imaging and scheduling.

1. Backblaze — Best Cloud Backup Software

Backblaze takes the complexity out of cloud backup. Install the app, let the initial backup run, and forget about it. The software continuously backs up all files on your computer (except the operating system and applications, which can be reinstalled) to Backblaze’s cloud servers.

The pricing model is refreshingly simple: $99/year or $9/month for unlimited backup from one computer. No storage limits, no file size limits, no throttling after a certain threshold. In a market full of complex tiered pricing, Backblaze’s flat rate stands out.

The initial backup takes time — days or even weeks depending on how much data you have and your upload speed. After that, incremental backups are continuous and barely noticeable. The software runs quietly in the background, uploading new and changed files as they’re created.

Restoring files is straightforward. Browse your backed-up files through Backblaze’s web interface, select what you need, and download a zip file. For large restores, Backblaze will ship you a USB drive or external hard drive containing your data (the drive fee is refundable if returned within 30 days).

The main limitation is that Backblaze doesn’t create full system images. If your hard drive dies, you can recover all your files but you’ll need to reinstall Windows/macOS and your applications separately. For most home users, this is an acceptable tradeoff for the simplicity and unlimited storage.

Version history covers 1 year by default (extended to forever with the Extended Version History add-on at $2/month). This protects against ransomware — if your files get encrypted, you can restore the clean versions from before the attack.

Rating: 4.5/5
Price: $99/year
Best for: Home users who want effortless, unlimited cloud backup

2. Acronis True Image — Best Backup Software for Full Disk Imaging

Acronis True Image — now marketed as Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office — is the most feature-complete consumer backup tool available. It creates full disk images (exact copies of your entire drive, including OS, applications, settings, and files), supports both local and cloud backup destinations, and includes anti-ransomware protection.

A full disk image means you can restore your entire system to a new drive and be running exactly where you left off — same applications, same settings, same desktop. For users who can’t afford downtime, this is significantly faster than reinstalling everything from scratch.

The software supports backup to local drives, NAS devices, and Acronis Cloud. The Essential plan ($50/year) covers local-only backup for one computer. The Advanced plan ($55/year) adds 50GB of cloud storage. The Premium plan ($125/year) includes 1TB of cloud storage and blockchain-based file notarization.

Backup scheduling is flexible — daily, weekly, on specific events, or continuous. Incremental and differential backups minimize storage use and backup time after the initial full image. The “Non-Stop Backup” feature creates snapshots every five minutes, which is useful for protecting active work.

The anti-malware component is a relatively recent addition and doubles as basic antivirus protection. It’s decent but not a replacement for dedicated security software. The vulnerability assessment and web filtering features add security layers that competing backup tools don’t offer.

Acronis has more moving parts than Backblaze, and the interface reflects that complexity. Setup takes longer, there are more decisions to make, and occasional issues with cloud sync have been reported. But for users who want full protection with disk imaging, it’s the best consumer option.

Rating: 4.3/5
Price: $49.99-$124.99/year
Best for: Users who need full disk imaging and complete system protection

3. Macrium Reflect — Best Backup Tool for Windows Power Users

Macrium Reflect is a Windows backup tool focused on disk imaging and cloning. It creates exact copies of drives and partitions, supports scheduled backups with incremental updates, and includes a bootable rescue environment for restoring systems that won’t start.

The free version (Macrium Reflect Free) handles full disk imaging and cloning — enough for basic backup needs. The paid Home edition ($70 one-time for a perpetual license) adds incremental imaging, scheduling, encryption, and email notifications. The per-license pricing (rather than annual subscription) makes it an excellent value for long-term use.

Image-based backups in Macrium are fast and efficient. The software uses intelligent sector copying, skipping empty space to reduce image sizes. A 500GB drive with 200GB of data produced a roughly 150GB image in our tests — compressed well without sacrificing restore speed.

The Rescue Media Builder creates a bootable USB or disc with a Windows-based restore environment. Unlike some competitors that use Linux-based rescue environments (which can have driver compatibility issues), Macrium’s Windows PE-based recovery is more reliable across different hardware configurations.

Drive cloning is another strength. Migrating from an HDD to an SSD is straightforward — Macrium handles partition resizing automatically and can clone while Windows is running (it completes the process on the next reboot).

The interface is functional but looks like it was designed by engineers for engineers. It’s not intimidating, but it’s not as friendly as Backblaze or Acronis. Documentation is thorough, which compensates for the less intuitive UI.

Rating: 4.2/5
Price: Free / $69.95 (Home, perpetual license)
Best for: Windows users who want reliable disk imaging and cloning

4. Veeam Agent — Best Free Backup Software

Veeam is an enterprise backup giant that offers free backup agents for individual Windows and Linux computers. The free agent provides volume-level and full-system backup to local drives, network shares, or Veeam’s cloud repositories.

For a free tool, Veeam Agent is surprisingly capable. It creates full system images, supports bare-metal recovery (restoring to completely new hardware), and includes a bootable recovery environment. Scheduled backups, retention policies, and email notifications are all included.

The enterprise DNA shows in the reliability. Veeam’s backup engine is battle-tested across millions of corporate installations. Restore has never failed in our testing — you create the image, boot from the recovery media, point to the backup, and the system comes back exactly as it was.

The paid versions (Workstation edition at $40/year or Server edition) add more scheduling options, cloud backup destinations, and management console integration. For home and small business use, the free edition is enough.

Setup is more involved than Backblaze — you need to decide what to back up (full system, specific volumes, or individual folders), where to store it, and when to run. It takes about 10 minutes to configure, compared to Backblaze’s 2-minute setup. But the result is a professional-grade backup running on your home computer.

Rating: 4.1/5
Price: Free / $39.96/year (Workstation)
Best for: Users who want enterprise-quality backup at no cost

5. Duplicati — Best Open-Source Backup to Cloud Storage

Duplicati is a free, open-source backup tool that sends encrypted, incremental backups to a wide range of cloud storage providers — including Backblaze B2, Amazon S3, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, and any SSH/SFTP server. If you already pay for cloud storage, Duplicati lets you use it for backups without paying twice.

The encryption is built-in and enabled by default. All data is encrypted with AES-256 before leaving your computer, so even if your cloud storage is compromised, your backup data remains protected. This is a big advantage over some consumer tools that store unencrypted data in the cloud.

Duplicati’s web-based interface runs in your browser and manages backup jobs, schedules, and restores. It’s clean and well-organized, though less polished than commercial alternatives. Configuration requires more decisions than Backblaze (choose your cloud provider, configure credentials, select folders, set encryption passphrase, configure retention), but the flexibility is the whole point.

Deduplication and compression keep cloud storage costs down. Only changed portions of files are uploaded after the initial backup, and everything is compressed before transfer. In our tests, a 100GB dataset used about 65GB of cloud storage after Duplicati’s compression.

The main concern with Duplicati is stability. As an open-source project with a small development team, updates can be infrequent, and some users report occasional issues with large backup sets. The beta channel is more actively maintained than the stable release, which is an unusual situation. For critical data, it’s worth monitoring the project’s health and having a secondary backup strategy.

Rating: 3.9/5
Price: Free (open source)
Best for: Technical users who want encrypted backups to their own cloud storage

The 3-2-1 Backup Rule Explained

Regardless of which backup software you choose, follow the 3-2-1 rule:

3 copies of your data (the original plus two backups).
2 different storage types (e.g., local drive and cloud).
1 offsite copy (cloud storage or a drive stored elsewhere).

A practical implementation: use Backblaze for continuous cloud backup and Macrium Reflect or Veeam for periodic local images to an external drive. This covers hardware failure (local image for fast restore), ransomware (cloud backup with version history), and physical disasters like fire or theft (offsite cloud copy).

Related Guides

Already lost data? Our guide to the best data recovery software covers tools that can help retrieve deleted or lost files. For sharing large backup files with colleagues, see our roundup of the best file sharing tools. If you’re looking to keep your system healthy and avoid data loss in the first place, check out our essential PC utilities guide. Also, for those interested in the open-source vs. commercial debate for tools like Duplicati, we’ve got a detailed open-source vs. paid software comparison. And if you need to generate strong passwords for your backup encryption, try our password generator.