Acronis True Image for Mac
A backup tool that saves your data to both the cloud and a hard disk
From £40 a year for one Mac, or £59 for three Macs
Developer Acronis, acronis.com OS OS X 10.8 or later
Many of us use Time Machine for backups by default, but you should always have a backup of your backup. Acronis has branched out from PC backup tools and launched True Image, a lightweight backup tool for Mac.
Backup is a boring but necessary evil, so it’s essential the software is easy to use and invisible. In this regard, True Image is just about perfect. The interface is clear, and only includes features and options a home user would need. The speedy backups don’t hit performance too hard; this is a great backup tool. Getting your files back is also a breeze. You can restore single files (or the entire image should your hard drive fail) with little hassle. A minor caveat is that True Image doesn’t support Macs with Fusion drives or Boot Camp partitions.
As well as the local disk backup option there’s a cloud-based route available through Acronis. There are three pricing and storage tiers: 250GB will set you back £40 a year, 500GB costs £80 a year and 1TB £150 a year. The bottom two levels are good value, but there are other services offering unlimited storage for less than £150 a year. Backing up a large amount of info over even a fast internet connection takes time, but the security of having an offsite copy of your data is priceless.
The best backup software is largely invisible to the user and does its job simply, with minimal fuss. True Image fits the bill perfectly here. The cloud pricing could be marginally more competitive, but the overall package is good value. Christopher Brennan