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23 open-source data recovery and backup tools

Open Source Data Recovery & Backup Software

The most popular open-source data recovery and backup tools for Windows, macOS and Linux on GitHub are Ventoy, Rufus and Restic. appsgit lists 23, including free alternatives to Acronis True Image, Macrium Reflect and TreeSize, each with its platforms, license and install commands.

Updated Oct 28, 2026

Open Source Data Recovery & Backup Software

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What are the best open-source data recovery and backup tools?

By GitHub stars, Ventoy is the most popular (80,412 stars), followed by Rufus and Restic. People often use these instead of Acronis True Image, Macrium Reflect and TreeSize. Each page lists the platforms, license and last commit.

Which of these run on Windows, Mac and Linux?

19 of the 23 open-source data recovery and backup tools listed here run on Windows, 15 on macOS and 19 on Linux; on a Mac, the most starred is Restic. 8 can be installed with a package manager such as Flathub, Homebrew, winget or Chocolatey.

Are these open-source data recovery and backup tools free?

Yes. All 23 use an open-source license (OSI-approved or FSF-free), so you can use, copy and change them for free.

How are these open-source data recovery and backup tools chosen?

Apps come from desktop awesome lists (Awesome Linux Software, awesome-mac, awesome-windows, awesome-electron and the media and file sections of awesome-cli-apps), more than 70 GitHub topics such as desktop-app, electron-app, tauri-app, gtk, qt, macos-app, pdf-editor, cad and remote-desktop, and a hand-picked list of flagship apps. An app is listed only if it has a license (one GitHub detects, or one appsgit checked by hand), a README and a commit in the last six months, is not archived or a fork, and has 1000+ GitHub stars (topics), 500+ (awesome lists) or 100+ (hand-picked). It must also be an end-user application with a desktop signal: installers in its releases, install instructions for Windows, macOS or Linux, or a Flathub, Homebrew, winget, Chocolatey, Snap or AUR package. Libraries, frameworks, themes, plugins and servers are left out, and source-available apps are labelled as such.