Files, backup and storage4 picks
The best backup apps for Mac
Backblaze is the backup most Mac users should add to Time Machine, and SuperDuper! is the best free one.
BackblazePick it if you have no copy of your photos and documents outside your home and want one kept for you.From $9Backblaze backs up your whole Mac and its external drives to the cloud with no storage cap, for $99 a year. SuperDuper! makes a full, restorable copy of your Mac on an external drive for free. Carbon Copy Cloner suits people who want scheduled, verified drive backups, and Arq sends encrypted backups to cloud storage you already pay for.
How we chose
- 1A copy outside your house
- 2Restorable clone on an external drive
- 3Encryption only you can unlock
Compare at a glance
Tap a name to jump to its write-up.
| App | Price | How you pay | Mac | iPhone | iPad | App Store | Developer | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Backblaze | From $9 | Subscription | Too few ratings | |||||
 Carbon Copy Cloner | $49.99 once | Pay once | Too few ratings | |||||
 Arq | $59.99 once | Pay once | Too few ratings | |||||
 SuperDuper! | Free to start | Free, with paid upgrades | Too few ratings |
Swipe the table sideways to see more
The picks, in order
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Pick it if you have no copy of your photos and documents outside your home and want one kept for you.
For $99 a year, every file on your Mac and any external drive you plug in goes to Backblaze's servers with no storage cap. You can pull back a single file from the web or the iPhone app, or have the whole backup mailed to you on a USB drive. Each plan covers 1 computer, and Arq is the better pick if you want encrypted backups sent to storage you already pay for.
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Pick this if you want scheduled, verified drive backups and 1 license that covers every Mac at home.
Time Machine is free and automatic, but Carbon Copy Cloner gives you real control over when and what gets copied to your external drive, plus snapshots that bring back a file as it looked days ago. It copies only what changed and runs a health check that verifies every backed-up file. The $49.99 license covers every Mac in your household, though SuperDuper makes plain full copies for free.
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Pick it if you already pay for cloud storage and want encrypted, versioned backups sent there.
Your files get encrypted on your own Mac before Arq copies them anywhere, whether that's cloud storage you already pay for, a NAS, an SFTP server or an external drive, and only you hold the password. It keeps point-in-time versions, so a deleted file or a ransomware attack is recoverable. At $59.99 per computer plus storage you manage yourself, it asks more of you than Backblaze, which is $99 a year with no cap.
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Pick this if you want a free, full spare copy of your Mac on a drive in a drawer.
Plug in an external drive and get an exact copy of your entire Mac on it, ready to restore after a dead drive or a stolen laptop. Full copies are free, and $43.95 once adds Smart Update, which copies only what changed, plus backups that start when the drive connects. Time Machine keeps hourly file history for free, so treat this as the whole-disk copy you keep beside it.
Head to head
Stuck between 2 of these? Each comparison lines up price, devices and who should pick which.
- Backblaze vs Carbon Copy ClonerPick this if you want scheduled, verified drive backups and 1 license that covers every Mac at home.
- Backblaze vs ArqPick it if you already pay for cloud storage and want encrypted, versioned backups sent there.
- Backblaze vs SuperDuper!Pick this if you want a free, full spare copy of your Mac on a drive in a drawer.
- Carbon Copy Cloner vs ArqPick it if you already pay for cloud storage and want encrypted, versioned backups sent there.
