Utilize our preferred free software to secure your PC before it becomes too late.
Instead of protecting one machine with one local app, it uses a central backup server with client agents installed on the machines you want to protect. It supports local, remote, and cloud locations such as Google Drive. Mostly for basic everyday use, with Déjà Dup you choose what to back up, pick a destination, turn on automatic backups, and let it run. It covers everything from selected files and partitions to full system backups, and supports full, incremental, and differential backup modes. Quite useful for basic local imaging – not so much for advanced automation or cloud workflows.
A clone is a current replica and is useful for drive migration, but it usually does not preserve a history of older versions. A native cloud plan is convenient, but software that writes to your own external disk, NAS, FTP server or cloud account can be less expensive and avoids locking recovery to one vendor. Choose Macrium instead when image recovery depth is the overriding priority, or Acronis when an integrated security and cloud subscription is the goal.
Like AOMEI, it allows you to exclude file types that you don’t want to backup, and you can also manually edit out individual files and folders from your backup list. However, while restoring, this process takes too much time since you will have to restore incremental backups of each cycle. Macrium Reflect has both free and paid versions, but the free tool comes with all the essential features including Differential backup, unlike many programs that don’t offer scheduled backups in the free version. Also, all the following software are free backup solutions and their free versions should be good enough for most people but we have also talked about their premium features. One thing I noticed in G2 reviews is how often users highlight Cove’s block-level, incremental backups.
The Web interface feels far clunkier than the free Photoshop alternatives desktop app (the mobile app’s only being slightly better), but the client does appear and sync within your taskbar in a similar fashion to the rest of the backup utilities on our list. The downloadable apps for Windows, Mac OS X, and mobile platforms automatically syncs your SkyDrive folder across devices so there’s no need for manually back up, and the accompanying client neatly sits in your system tray for sheer convenience and speedy access without opening your browser. A free Microsoft account grants you access to 7GB of free storage – unless you’ve been using the service since before April 2012 – and a small wealth of features including hosting for documents, video, audio, and various settings depending on your device’s available Windows integration. The Dropbox interface, whether accessed on mobile platforms or through the site, is elegant and easy to traverse given it’s collapsible list and left-hand pane for accessing your documents, photos, links, and various shared folders you’ve set up. Be sure to download the accompanying Android or iOS app and check out our guide on how to use Google Drive for a comprehensive list of tips, tricks, and the best practices for using the cloud-based storage drive. Drive features one of the cleanest and sleekest interfaces of any of the software on our list, with a simple white background and side-pane navigation that lets you easily create or upload files with a single click.
Differential Backups compared to Incremental Backups
PolarBackup delivers a cost-effective and secure way to manage cloud storage and hybrid backups, making it ideal for long-term archiving and remote access. Carbonite is a reliable cloud backup solution that secures your data through automated and encrypted backups. While testing it across my laptop and mobile, I found the desktop sync client kept selected folders mirrored in the cloud automatically, even when I was offline. Differential backups require more time to create than incremental backups, but are quicker to restore since you only need the latest iteration. Differential and incremental backups require a initial full backup to be restored. This is generally done with local client software that offers just basic functions like file backup and sync.
For the majority of PC users, EaseUS Todo Backup 2026 (Home) is the top choice for Windows backup.
However, if you’re already paying for cloud storage on another service, you can automatically have your backups sent to your DropBox, Google Drive, or OneDrive account. Todo by EaseUS is the first traditional backup tool on this list. Unlike OneDrive, a free Dropbox account comes with 2GB of storage, which is a shame.
Additional factors regarding EaseUS Todo Backup 2025:
Supporting all modern versions of Windows up and including to the latest Windows 11, ShadowMaker Free is a great solution for making backups at no cost. The fully featured Backup Pro line is also available on a yearly subscription from just $16 per year or as a perpetual license for $60. Whilst some select features, including encryption and compression, are reserved for premium editions of the software (Ashampoo Backup Pro) Backup FREE gets the backup basics just right and is ideal for all types of Windows users. Other key features include user-definable historic file versioning (allowing many file versions to be kept), resource-efficient operation, easy backup plan creation, good automatic scheduling plus built-in tools for creating bootable recovery media.
Its sync modes include basic, real-time, mirror and two-way synchronization. Macrium Reflect X Home is the most recovery-focused product in this list. The best Windows backup software is not simply the program with the longest feature list. Many backup platforms now support Android and iOS, allowing users to safeguard photos, messages, and app data directly to the cloud or a secure storage system. Backup software provides automation, version history, and error checks that manual copies don’t. Once set up, they quietly run in the background so your data stays safe without constant manual effort.
Also available in AOMEI Backupper is support for flexible automatic backup scheduling plus the ability to keep multiple historic versions of any backups made (providing enhanced malware protection amongst other benefits). Developed by leading software developers AOMEI, Backupper Standard stands out as a well-designed and easy to use free backup solution. BackUp Maker also supports saving backup data to various destinations including locally attached hard drives, external hard drives, network locations, FTP/SFTP/WebDAV servers plus third-party cloud storage (working via desktop sync applications). Various backup methodologies are supported as is a wizard-style guided configuration system which helps to get the correct backup settings in place with relative ease.
Clonezilla
If your backup requirements are fairly basic and a free backup solution works for you, then such software can be a great option. This means EaseUS ToDo Backup is a great “go to” choice for anyone seeking a free yet highly functional backup solution. Below is a quick look at the top 5 free backup software solutions mentioned in this guide, scroll down for the full and detailed list of free backup software titles. Before listing my top 10 favourite free backup software titles (which is further down in this guide if you wish to jump straight there), here are a few quick things to look out for when choosing such free backup software for yourself. Pair these with the right backup software, and you’ll have a robust system for keeping your important data safe and secure across all your devices. It fully supports Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 but doesn’t officially support anything older than Windows 7 (SP1) or Windows Server 2008 (SP1).
File backups can be further sub-categorized into full backups, differential backups, and incremental backups. To improve management, combine a full backup and its chained incremental backups into a single backup. Windows 11 does not change the answer — every tool on this list supports it, and the right pick still depends on the job. And in v1 every run creates a full archive of your selected folders; incremental backups are on the roadmap but not shipped, so very large, slowly-changing datasets are better served elsewhere for now. Make sure the backup solution you choose supports all your data sources.
Despite being a free alternative, Ashampoo have still included significant functionality into this tool making Backup FREE a great choice for anyone seeking a reliable free backup solution. More details on all MSP360 Backup editions plus the 15-day free trial of the Pro edition are available via the official MSP360 website. MSP360 Backup Pro is available as an annual subscription priced at $29.99 per year for Windows (or $19.99 per year for Linux and macOS devices).