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 Time Machine, each with its platforms, license and install commands.
Updated Oct 8, 2026
Open Source Data Recovery & Backup Software
Ventoy
ventoy/Ventoy
Ventoy is an open source tool to create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files.
OfficialData recovery & backupWindowsLinuxRufus
pbatard/rufus
The Reliable USB Formatting Utility.
Data recovery & backupWindowsRestic
restic/restic
Fast, secure, efficient backup program.
Data recovery & backupWindowsmacOSLinuxbalenaEtcher
balena-io/etcher
Flash OS images to SD cards & USB drives, safely and easily.
OfficialData recovery & backupWindowsmacOSLinuxDuplicati
duplicati/duplicati
Store securely encrypted backups in the cloud!
Data recovery & backupWindowsmacOSLinuxKopia
kopia/kopia
Cross-platform backup tool for Windows, macOS & Linux with fast, incremental backups, client-side end-to-end encryption, compression and data deduplication.
Data recovery & backupWindowsmacOSLinuxZerobyte
nicotsx/zerobyte
Backup automation for self-hosters. Built on top of restic.
Data recovery & backupWindowsmacOSLinuxAliyunpan
tickstep/aliyunpan
阿里云盘命令行客户端，支持JavaScript插件，支持同步备份功能。.
Data recovery & backupWindowsmacOSLinuxWinDiskWriter
TechUnRestricted/WinDiskWriter
Windows Bootable USB creator for macOS. Patches Windows 11 to bypass TPM and Secure Boot requirements.
Data recovery & backupWindowsmacOSTimeshift
linuxmint/timeshift
System restore tool for Linux. Creates filesystem snapshots using rsync+hardlinks, or BTRFS snapshots.
OfficialData recovery & backupLinuxWindirstat
windirstat/windirstat
Windows disk usage analyzer and cleanup tool with interactive treemaps, large-file discovery, duplicate detection, and file-system monitoring.
Data recovery & backupWindowsmacUSB
Kruszoneq/macUSB
The all-in-one bootable USB creator for Mac.
Data recovery & backupWindowsmacOSLinuxHomebridge Config UI X
homebridge/homebridge-config-ui-x
The Homebridge UI. Monitor, configure and backup Homebridge from a browser.
OfficialData recovery & backupWindowsmacOSLinuxRescuezilla
rescuezilla/rescuezilla
The Swiss Army Knife of System Recovery.
Data recovery & backupLinuxTestDisk & PhotoRec
cgsecurity/testdisk
TestDisk checks the partition and boot sectors of your disks.
OfficialData recovery & backupWindowsmacOSLinuxVorta
borgbase/vorta
Desktop Backup Client for Borg Backup.
Data recovery & backupWindowsmacOSLinuxESPConnect
thelastoutpostworkshop/ESPConnect
Zero-installation web application that lets you explore, back up, and manage your ESP32… right from your browser.
Data recovery & backupWindowsmacOSLinuxPlakar
PlakarKorp/plakar
plakar is a backup solution powered by Kloset and ptar.
OfficialData recovery & backupWindowsmacOSLinuxEvernote Backup
vzhd1701/evernote-backup
Backup & export all Evernote notes and notebooks.
Data recovery & backupWindowsmacOSLinuxDigler
ostafen/digler
Digler is a tool for forensic disk analysis and file recovery.
Data recovery & backupWindowsmacOSLinuxRdiff Backup
rdiff-backup/rdiff-backup
Reverse differential backup tool, over a network or locally.
Data recovery & backupWindowsClonezilla
stevenshiau/clonezilla
Clonezilla is a partition or disk clone tool similar to Norton Ghost.
Data recovery & backupLinuxPhosphene
kageroumado/phosphene
Custom video wallpapers for macOS — any video, on the desktop and the lock screen, picked directly from System Settings' Wallpaper pane.
Data recovery & backupmacOS
What are the best open-source data recovery and backup tools?
By GitHub stars, Ventoy is the most popular (79,776 stars), followed by Rufus and Restic. People often use these instead of Acronis True Image, Macrium Reflect and Time Machine. 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, 16 on macOS and 18 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.