Acronis True Image Alternatives 2026: 5 Free Options
Acronis True Image alternatives: Duplicati, restic, Clonezilla, UrBackup and 1 more. Prices and licenses checked October 23, 2026.
•2 min read•Cloud Storage & Backup
Verdict:Check Acronis's pricing page for current plans; it does offer a free trial. Leave Acronis if you pay mainly for backup and imaging and are comfortable setting up open-source tools. Duplicati is the easiest to start with for file backups, because it has a desktop interface and sends encrypted copies to storage you choose. Restic and BorgBackup are command-line tools favoured by people who script their backups, with Restic supporting many storage backends and Borg known for deduplication, though Borg2 is described as beta. Clonezilla covers the disk-imaging side, which is what many Acronis True Image users buy it for, and works from a bootable USB stick. UrBackup suits a home or small office that wants a server managing several computers. The trade-off is convenience: Acronis bundles imaging, cloud storage and a single interface, while these tools split the jobs and you pay for storage separately. Test a restore before you cancel, because a backup you cannot restore is worth nothing. If you need support and a managed cloud, keep Acronis.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duplicati | Free (free client; proprietary folder under separate license) | Windows, macOS, Linux | Backup to cloud storage | Docs only |
| restic | Free (free, open source) | Linux, macOS, Windows, FreeBSD, OpenBSD | Command-line backups | Docs only |
| Clonezilla | Free (Free and open source disk imaging and cloning) | Bootable live media (x86/x86-64) | Disk images and cloning | Docs only |
| UrBackup | Free (free and open source) | Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, macOS (client) | Self-hosted network backup | Docs only |
| BorgBackup | Free (Free and open source; no paid plan listed) | Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, Windows (experimental) | Deduplicated backups on Linux | Docs only |
Independent comparison. Paid placements are labelled separately; editorial links earn no affiliate commissions. Learn more.
Good fit if
- You want simple file backups to cloud storage (Duplicati is the pick)
- You prefer scripting backups (restic is the pick)
- You need to image a whole disk (Clonezilla is the pick)
- You manage several computers at home (UrBackup is the pick)
Not ideal if
- You rely on Acronis True Image features or integrations that these tools do not replicate
Acronis True Image today: See pricing page (Acronis True Image pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Why people look for Acronis True Image alternatives
Acronis True Image is sold as a one-year subscription in three plans, Essentials, Advanced and Premium, each covering up to 5 PCs or Macs; the purchasing page mentions no perpetual license. Updates and new versions arrive only during the active subscription period. Cloud backup space depends on the tier: Essentials includes 50GB, Advanced up to 500GB and Premium up to 10TB according to the FAQ, so large backups mean a higher plan. Prices load only through page scripts.
Duplicati
Compared with Acronis True Image: MIT-licensed core, free, encrypted incremental backups to cloud storage on Windows, macOS and Linux. It does not offer Acronis's disk imaging or built-in cloud, so you bring storage.
Price: Free (free client; proprietary folder under separate license) (Duplicati pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Windows, macOS, Linux. MIT (core) (open source).
Project activity: 15.2k GitHub stars · latest release v2.4.0.1_stable_2026-10-07 (Oct 7, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Backup to cloud storage.
Worth knowing: Encrypted incremental backups to cloud and file servers.
restic
Compared with Acronis True Image: BSD 2-Clause command-line backup with snapshots and many storage backends. Fast and secure, but no graphical interface like Acronis.
Price: Free (free, open source) (restic pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Linux, macOS, Windows, FreeBSD, OpenBSD. BSD-2-Clause (open source).
Project activity: 36.8k GitHub stars · latest release v0.19.1 (Jul 5, 2026) · last commit Oct 18, 2026
Best for: Command-line backups.
Worth knowing: Command-line, encrypted, deduplicated backups to local, SFTP, S3 and other storage.
Clonezilla
Compared with Acronis True Image: GPL-2.0 disk imaging and cloning from bootable media. It replaces Acronis's disk-image and bare-metal restore, not scheduled file backup.
Price: Free (Free and open source disk imaging and cloning) (Clonezilla pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Bootable live media (x86/x86-64). GPL-2.0 (open source).
Best for: Disk images and cloning.
Worth knowing: Site names GNU General Public License version 2. Boots from USB, CD/DVD or PXE; images disks and partitions rather than running scheduled file backups.
UrBackup
Compared with Acronis True Image: AGPL-3.0 client/server backup for Windows, macOS and Linux. Self-hosted, so you run the server Acronis would otherwise handle.
Price: Free (free and open source) (UrBackup pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, macOS (client). AGPL-3.0+ (open source).
Best for: Self-hosted network backup.
Worth knowing: File and image backups with a web interface; bare-metal restore from a USB stick.
BorgBackup
Compared with Acronis True Image: BSD-3-Clause deduplicating backup. The Borg2 branch is described as beta, so check your release before relying on it.
Price: Free (Free and open source; no paid plan listed) (BorgBackup pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, Windows (experimental). BSD-3-Clause (open source).
Project activity: 13.9k GitHub stars · latest release 1.4.5 (Jul 18, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Deduplicated backups on Linux.
Which one to pick
- You want simple file backups to cloud storage: Duplicati
- You prefer scripting backups: restic
- You need to image a whole disk: Clonezilla
- You manage several computers at home: UrBackup
Limits of this review
Docs-only for Duplicati, restic, Clonezilla, UrBackup, BorgBackup: we did not install or run them, so feature claims come from vendor pages and we did not test import from Acronis True Image. Vendor prices and free limits change; confirm on the linked pricing page before you buy or migrate.
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Kevin Fan
Kevin Fan is a SaaS founder. He runs Free Instead Of, which tracks free and open-source alternatives to paid software and checks each price and free-plan limit against the vendor's own pages.
Methodology
Based on official pricing and product pages checked between 2026-10-22 and 2026-10-23: Acronis True Image, Duplicati, restic, Clonezilla, UrBackup, BorgBackup. Prices, free limits and licenses are the figures shown on those pages on those dates. No tool on this page was installed or run. No accounts were created.