Indie Alternatives

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Indie alternatives to Time Machine

3 products made by independent developers and small teams that do what Time Machine does, 1 of them with a free plan. Free and open-source options come first.

At a glance

ProductPriceOpen sourceSelf-hostPlatforms
SuperDuper!Free plan––Mac
ArqPaid––Mac, Windows
Carbon Copy ClonerPaid––Mac

The alternatives

1. SuperDuper!

Bootable backups and clones for Mac

A Mac app for making full clones and scheduled backups of drives.

Free plan · Mac · Website ↗

2. Arq

Encrypted backup to your own cloud storage

Arq backs up Mac and Windows computers with encryption to cloud storage you choose, such as S3, Backblaze B2, Google Drive or a NAS.

Paid · Mac, Windows · Website ↗

3. Carbon Copy Cloner

Bootable-style backups and disk cloning for Mac

Carbon Copy Cloner by Bombich Software makes scheduled, incremental backups and clones of Mac drives with snapshots.

Paid · Mac · Website ↗

Questions

Is there a free alternative to Time Machine?

Yes. 1 of the 3 indie alternatives listed here have a free plan or are free: SuperDuper!.

What makes these alternatives to Time Machine “indie”?

They are built by independent developers or small teams rather than large companies. Each one is listed because it does the same core job as Time Machine.

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