Apple Time Machinevs
Backupify
Backupify: Automated cloud-to-cloud backup
Apple Time Machine
Built-in backup for every Mac
As of 30 August 2026, Apple Time Machine is free to use. Apple Time Machine is the built-in backup feature of macOS that automatically backs up your entire Mac. Softwr lists it under Backup. Apple Time Machine is made by Apple Inc., launched in 1976, available on macOS.
Overview
What Apple Time Machine does
Apple Time Machine is the built-in backup feature of macOS that automatically backs up your entire Mac. It creates hourly, daily, and weekly backups with easy file restoration through an intuitive visual interface.
What people use it for
- Automatic versioned local backups of a Mac to an external drive
- Restoring a Mac or migrating to a new one from a local backup history
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Apple Time Machine.
- Apple states the Time Machine backup disk should be used only for Time Machine backups and not for storing other files, unless you split it into a separate APFS volume
- Apple recommends the Time Machine volume be twice the storage capacity of the Mac being backed up
- It requires an attached external storage device or network disk; there is no built-in cloud destination
- It backs up Macs only
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Apple Time Machine
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- Apple Time MachinevsAcronis Cyber Protect
Acronis Cyber Protect: Integrated backup and cybersecurity protection
- Apple Time MachinevsSpanning Backup
Spanning Backup: SaaS backup for Google Workspace and Microsoft 365
- Apple Time MachinevsCloudAlly
CloudAlly: Enterprise SaaS backup made simple
Pricing
What Apple Time Machine costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Built-in
Free
- Automatic backup
- Visual restore
- Network backup
Capabilities
Features
Automatic backup
Hourly snapshots
Visual restore interface
Network backup
Encryption
System restore
macOS
Integration with macOS
AirPort Time Capsule
Integration with AirPort Time Capsule
NAS devices
Integration with NAS devices
Mac support
Available on mac
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Does Time Machine charge a subscription or licensing fee?
No. Time Machine is a built-in feature of macOS with no subscription or licensing costs.
SourceWhat storage capacity do I need for Time Machine backups?
Apple recommends using a storage device with at least twice the storage capacity of your Mac. For example, if your Mac has 1TB of storage, your backup disk should ideally have at least 2TB.
SourceHow long does Time Machine keep my backups?
Time Machine automatically maintains hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for all previous months. The oldest backups are deleted when your backup disk is full.
SourceBehind it
Who makes Apple Time Machine
- Company
- Apple Inc.
- Based in
- Cupertino, California
Keep looking
Where to go from Apple Time Machine
- Apple Time Machine alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Apple Time Machine pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Apple Time Machine badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Backup softwareThe full category
- Best Backup softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Backup software for
Compare Apple Time Machine with
- Backupify
- Spanning Backup
- CloudAlly
- Acronis Cyber Protect
- Windows Backup
- Borg Backup
- Restic
- Clonezilla
- UrBackup
- Datto SIRIS
- Comet Backup
- HPE StoreOnce
- Portworx Backup
- Rewind
- Velero
- CloudCasa
- Cohesity DataProtect
- Datto Backup
Other Backup software
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Open source11 researched notesSaaS Kubernetes backup and migration with published per-node pricing
Free, then $69/mo11 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Apple Time Machine, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Apple Time Machine
Apple Time Machine alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Apple Time Machine pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Apple Time Machine
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Apple Time Machine badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
Best Backup software alternatives
Microsoft 365, Dynamics and Salesforce backup from a long-standing Microsoft partner
quote
Serverless AWS backup with published per-gigabyte rates and explicit restore charges
Per GiB-month protected
