rsync Alternatives
For Unix-based operating systems (that's macOS, Linux, and BSD primarily), rsync is a great tool for users handling lots of files over multiple machines. Other alternative applications that sync directories and files between multiple machines often feature support for different collaborative aspects, such as WebDAV.
There are alternatives to rsync available on several platforms, including Windows, Android, and iOS. There are also several open source alternatives to rsync for those that wish to look over the code of an application used to manage the syncing of their important files across machines.
rsync is mainly a File Sync Tool but alternatives to it may also be Backup Clients or Disk Imaging Tools. Filter by these if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of rsync.- Syncthing replaces proprietary sync and cloud services with something open, trustworthy and decentralized. Your data is your data alone and you deserve to choose where it is stored.
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Android
- Android Tablet
- BSD
- Self-Hosted
- F-Droid
- Cloudron
- FreeFileSync is a folder comparison and synchronization software that creates and manages backup copies of all your important files.
- Freemium • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- openSUSE
- Linux Mint
- CentOS
- Ubuntu
- Debian
- Duplicati is a backup client that securely stores encrypted, incremental, compressed backups on local storage, cloud storage services and remote file servers. The Duplicati project was inspired by Duplicity and had similar functionality until 2008.
Duplicati vs rsync opinions
wildwestrom Duplicati is not discontinued anymore. There is a 2.0 version in beta.Duplicati does not transfer raw files, it only transfers zips of files - Rclone ("rsync for cloud storage") is a command-line program to sync files and directories to and from different cloud storage providers.
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
- Solaris
- FreeBSD
- NetBSD
- OpenBSD
Rclone vs rsync opinions
Supports a wide variety of cloud services, easy to set up with most I've tried.varian93 It works very well on many platforms. The only complaint is that, much like rsync, you have to familiarize yourself with a bunch of "command line" parameters to be able to use it. - restic is a program that does backups right. The design goals are: Easy, Fast, Verifiable, Secure, Efficient, Free.
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- BSD
- Arch Linux
- FreeBSD
- OpenBSD
- Déjà Dup is a simple backup tool. It hides the complexity of doing backups the Right Way (encrypted, off-site, and regularly) and uses Duplicity as the backend.
- Free • Open Source
- Linux
- SyncBack is a tool to backup, synchronize, and restore data files.
- Freemium • Proprietary
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Android
- Android Tablet
SyncBack vs rsync opinions
Only supports insecure remote backups, very irresponsible - Simple fast backup for Windows.
- Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office is a software product produced by Acronis that provides data protection including, backup, archive, access and recovery for Microsoft, macOS, iOS and Android operating systems.
- Unison is a file-synchronization tool for Unix and Windows.
- Free • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux