Top 13 Free Backup Software

This is a list of free backup software packages: most of them are open source software.

Before choosing a backup software, you need to check the features of each program.

1. AMANDA
   

   AMANDA, the Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver, is a backup solution that allows the IT administrator to set up a single master backup server to back up multiple hosts over network to tape drives/changers or disks or optical media. Amanda uses native utilities and formats (e.g. dump and/or GNU tar) and can back up a large number of servers and workstations running multiple versions of Linux or Unix. Amanda uses a native Windows client to back up Microsoft Windows desktops and servers.

   
   
   
   


2. Areca
   

   Areca Backup is an Open Source personal backup solution which is released under the General Public License (GPL) v2.
   It basically allows you to select a set of files / directories to back-up, choose where and how (as a simple file copy, as a zip archive, ...) they will be stored, and configure post-backup actions (like sending backup reports by email or launching custom shell scripts)

   
   


3. BackupPC
   

   BackupPC is a high-performance, enterprise-grade system for backing up Linux, WinXX and MacOSX PCs and laptops to a server's disk. BackupPC is highly configurable and easy to install and maintain.

   
   


4. Bacula
   

   Bacula is a set of Open Source, enterprise ready, computer programs that permit you (or the system administrator) to manage backup, recovery, and verification of computer data across a network of computers of different kinds. Bacula is relatively easy to use and efficient, while offering many advanced storage management features that make it easy to find and recover lost or damaged files. In technical terms, it is an Open Source, enterprise ready, network based backup program.

   
   


5. Clonezilla
   

   You're probably familiar with the popular proprietary commercial package Norton Ghost®. The problem with these kind of software packages is that it takes a lot of time to massively clone systems to many computers. You've probably also heard of Symantec's solution to this problem, Symantec Ghost Corporate Edition® with multicasting. Well, now there is an OpenSource clone system (OCS) solution called Clonezilla with unicasting and multicasting!

   
   


6. Comodo Backup
   

   Provides a safe storage space for your data. You can backup documents and media, upload data files and programs, run applications directly from Online Storage space using Online Drive.

   
   


7. Create Synchronicity
   

   Create Synchronicity is a powerful and lightweight open source backup and synchronization program, available in many languages. (What can it do?)Create Synchronicity is especially light: zipped, it weights about 150kB (that's 20 times less than an average MP3 file). It makes the backup process extremely easy, while remainining fully customizable.

   
   


8. DeltaCopy
   

   In general terms, DeltaCopy is an open source, fast incremental backup program. Let's say you have to backup one file that is 500 MB every night. A normal file copy would copy the entire file even if a few bytes have changed. DeltaCopy, on the other hand, would only copy the part of file that has actually been modified. This reduces the data transfer to just a small fraction of 500 MB saving time and network bandwidth.

   
   


9. DirSync Pro
   

   DirSync Pro (Directory Synchronize Pro) is a small, but powerful utility for file and folder synchronization. DirSync Pro can be used to synchronize the content of one or many folders recursively.Using DirSync Pro you can make incremental backups. In this way you'll spare lots of time because you don't have to copy all the files each time you want to update your backup; only new/modified/larger files would be copied.

   
   


10. duplicity
    

    Duplicity backs directories by producing encrypted tar-format volumes and uploading them to a remote or local file server. Because duplicity uses librsync, the incremental archives are space efficient and only record the parts of files that have changed since the last backup. Because duplicity uses GnuPG to encrypt and/or sign these archives, they will be safe from spying and/or modification by the server.

    
    


11. FlyBack
    

    Apple's Time Machine is a great feature in their OS, and Linux has almost all of the required technology already built in to recreate it. This is a simple GUI to make it easy to use.

    
    


12. Kleo Bare Metal Backup
    

    With Kleo, you can now create all inclusive backups of your customers servers. Saves 100s of hours tracking down original CD’s or obsolete device drives. Kleo enables you to recover from server failure without the need of any other software.Comes with the Carroll-Net Server Recovery Kit. It includes hundreds of specialized server recovery tools. With it you can rescue failed servers, recover lost passwords and troubleshoot boot up problems.

    
    


13. Zmanda
    

    Zmanda Recovery Manager is a perl-based utility used to automate backup and recovery of MySQL databases. It is released under the GNU General Public License.