11 Best Backup and Recovery Software: Top Picks for Individuals, Medium-Sized Organizations, and Enterprises

Are you looking for the best data backup and recovery software to keep your files safe and recover them when needed? We’ve tried and compared a range of tools, from easy, beginner-friendly apps to more advanced options with features like cloud support and auto backups. You’ll get a clear look at what each one of them offers, so you can find the right match.

Parameters We Considered When Selecting Backup and Recovery Tools

First, we should mention that different backup & recovery software tools are meant to fulfill different needs. It’s not uncommon for two tools to offer unique sets of features. However, there are some core parameters that just about every backup tool should prioritize:

• Data backup capabilities was the first thing we checked. Reliable backup software should offer flexible backup options. Instead of full backups every time, you can use incremental or differential backups to save time and space. Some tools also support mirror, continuous, or synthetic backups for more specific backup needs.
• We couldn't overlook that backup storage affects both data safety and access. Some basic tools support only local backups, which limits flexibility. More advanced solutions offer server, NAS, or cloud backups, which improve retention, control, and availability, but also add cost and complexity.
• Vendor reputation was another important factor for us, as we don’t want to promote questionable or outright malicious software. We took the time to research each vendor on this list carefully. When it comes to your data, every precaution counts, especially with vendors that handle sensitive information.
• Price is always a factor. For a home user, an enterprise-grade backup solution might be overkill and not worth the money. At the same time, a business can’t afford to “go cheap” on backup software that fails when something goes wrong. That’s why we looked at tools across different price ranges. Too high a price wastes money, but too low a price can lead to much bigger losses when data is on the line.

With that out of the way, let's take a look at the best backup and recovery software available, along with which environments they’re best suited for.

Best Backup and Recovery Software for Individual Use

Most individuals won’t need all of the advanced features that are needed by SMEs or large enterprises. Therefore, let's start this list off with the best backup and recovery software tools for individual use.

1. EaseUS Todo Backup

EaseUS Todo Backup is a full-featured backup solution designed for ongoing data protection on personal computers. It supports disk, partition, system, and file backups, with restore workflows built entirely around previously created backups.

We found the backup logic familiar and easy to configure. Full, incremental, and differential backups work as expected, and scheduling options cover most common needs without extra complexity. Storage flexibility is solid: local drives, external disks, NAS, network locations, and cloud targets all work without friction. The included EaseUS cloud option, with a 30-day trial and 250 GB of storage, is convenient for quick off-site protection, though long-term cloud use adds recurring cost.

Bootable recovery media allows system image restores after OS failure, malware issues, or hardware replacement, and individual files remain accessible without a full restore. Overall, EaseUS Todo Backup fits users who want structured, scheduled backups and predictable restores, rather than low-level disk imaging or recovery from damaged media.

💰 Price: Pricing starts with a free version for basic backup needs. The Home edition costs $39.95/year or $59.95 for a lifetime license with higher tiers available for business and server environments.

2. AOMEI Backupper Standard

AOMEI Backupper Standard is a tool we’ve used mainly as a free, no-commitment backup option on Windows systems, especially for basic system and file protection. It covers the essentials well: system, disk, partition, and file backups work reliably, and scheduled jobs handle routine backups without much intervention. In our experience, it fits simple setups where users want automation but do not need advanced policies.

Scheduling options include daily, weekly, and monthly plans, and incremental and differential backups behave as expected. We’ve also used the one-way file sync feature for keeping folders up to date, and it works reliably but remains fairly basic in scope. Backups store without issue on local disks, external drives, network shares, or NAS devices.

For recovery, AOMEI Backupper Standard supports bootable media for system restores when Windows fails to load. One limitation we’ve run into is that creating reliable boot media sometimes requires an external tool such as Rufus, which adds an extra step. The free edition includes most core features, but advanced retention controls and real-time sync remain locked behind paid plans, and occasional upgrade prompts appear in the interface.

💰 Price: There is no license cost for Standard edition, optional upgrades start around $39.95 (29.95 on sale) for the Pro edition.

3. R-Drive Image

R-Drive Image is a Windows backup solution built specifically for system backups and disk imaging. It focuses on creating byte-by-byte images of disks and partitions, which makes it suitable for full system restores and disaster recovery after system failure.

From our experience, full, incremental, and differential backups behave reliably, and scheduling options cover standard backup routines without much setup. Image verification, compression, and encryption help keep backups manageable, while the option to replicate the same image to multiple destinations adds an extra layer of safety. Images can be stored locally, on NAS devices, or in supported cloud services such as Amazon S3, Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox.

Restores can be performed from a bootable recovery environment or by mounting image files as virtual drives to extract individual files. While newer versions introduced broader cloud and format support, the most reliable results still come from using R-Drive Image’s native image format, especially for system-level restores.

💰 Price: Licensing starts at $44.95 with a 30-day free trial, which makes it a practical option for users who prefer a one-time purchase over subscription-based backup tools.

Best Backup and Recovery Solutions for Medium-Sized Organizations

All of the backup and recovery tools we presented thus far are great for individuals, but they’re not exactly suited to the needs of a small or medium-sized business (SMB). An SMB often has multiple computers (and maybe servers) to protect, more complex data management needs, and stricter requirements for things like uptime and encryption.

For this tier, you’re going to need something more resilient and centralized. Here are our top picks for medium-sized organizations:

1. MSP360 Managed Backup

MSP360 Managed Backup is a flexible, cross-platform backup solution for the needs of small and medium-sized businesses. This tool provides an easy-to-manage, centralized console (accessible via a web interface) to deploy and monitor backups across multiple endpoints. Whether you have a handful of workstations or a mix of servers and PCs, MSP360 lets you manage all their backups.

What we like about MSP360 is its storage flexibility. It does not force you into a proprietary cloud, which makes a real difference in day-to-day use. You’re not locked into any proprietary cloud; instead, MSP360 integrates with a wide range of popular storage providers. You can back up data to local disks or NAS, or to cloud services like Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Backblaze B2, Wasabi, and more. This means you can take advantage of cost-effective cloud storage (or use existing cloud accounts) and even mix-and-match to avoid a single point of failure.

From a backup perspective, MSP360 covers both file-level and image-based backups, which gives enough flexibility for most business scenarios. File backups suit day-to-day data protection, while disk images work well for bare-metal recovery after hardware failure. We also see value in its support for Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace backups, as well as databases like MS SQL and Exchange, which makes it easier to protect both local and cloud workloads within the same ecosystem.

💰 Price: MSP360 offers a free plan for personal workstation backups and testing, along with a trial option. The Pro plan starts at $19.99 per year and supports up to five desktops or servers in on-premise setups. For MSPs and businesses with more than five devices, the Managed plan uses custom pricing with flexible monthly or annual billing.

2. NetBackup

NetBackup combines multiple technologies into a single solution. It’s hybrid cloud optimized, which means it will work in environments where you’re using a mixture of on-site and cloud-based storage.

With NetBackup, you can back up data from numerous sources: individual workstations, file servers, databases (SQL, Oracle, etc.), virtual environments (VMware, Hyper-V), and even applications like Exchange or SharePoint. These backups can be scheduled and can use full, incremental, or differential methods depending on your needs. NetBackup is known for its policy-based approach – you set policies that dictate what gets backed up when, and it automates the process across your environment.

The program is also very secure. All backup data is encrypted both in transit and at rest using enterprise-grade encryption (often AES-256) by default. It also employs role-based access control (RBAC) and multi-factor authentication, so you can tightly control who can access or restore data, which is important for compliance. To further protect backups, NetBackup uses AI-powered anomaly detection to spot unusual patterns (like a sudden encryption of many files, which might indicate ransomware) and can alert or even lock down backups if something’s amiss.

💰 Price: NetBackup pricing is based on a capacity-based subscription model, calculated per front-end terabyte (TB) and the length of the license term. Entry pricing often starts at around $500–$600 per TB per year, with discounts available for multi-year contracts (3–5 years).

3. Acronis Cyber Protect

Acronis Cyber Protect is marketed as a complete cyber protection solution with some great backup and recovery capabilities. It’s a cloud-supported solution that gives you complete control over how your data is backed up and protected.

Your backups are securely stored in one of Acronis’ many data centers around the world. You can also choose which server stores your backups to reduce wait times during download or upload. If your business uses Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, Acronis Cyber Protect offers direct cloud-to-cloud backups for maximum data retention.

For recovery, Acronis offers features like bare-metal restore (so you can take a backup of one machine and restore it to new hardware if needed) and even a cloud failover option. The “disaster recovery” add-on allows you to spin up your backed-up systems in the Acronis Cloud as virtual machines in case your primary site goes down. This can enable quick failover to a cloud environment to keep your business running until you can restore locally. However, note that both cloud storage and disaster recovery failover are add-ons, they’re not included by default and will raise the cost.

💰 Price: For businesses, the price starts at $85 per year for the Standard plan and goes up to $129 per year for the Advanced plan.

The base price depends on two main factors: the type of workload being protected (for example, physical machines, virtual machines, or Microsoft 365 accounts) and the licensing term, with noticeable discounts available for 3-year and 5-year commitments.

Best Enterprise Backup and Recovery Software

A large-scale enterprise comprising thousands of employees and workstations can be very tough to manage. You need top-of-the-line backup and recovery software to meet the demands of your business, so we’ve found what we believe to be the best.

1. Veeam Backup & Replication

Veeam Backup & Replication is one of the best tools in the enterprise backup world, known for its reliability and advanced data protection features. It originally made its name protecting virtualized environments (like VMware and Hyper-V) but has since expanded to cover physical servers, cloud VMs, and more. Large organizations trust Veeam for its flexibility and great feature set.

A major strength is backup immutability, which protects data from ransomware and tampering across supported storage types. Another standout feature is Instant Recovery, which lets you run VMs or databases directly from backups and restore them in the background, cutting downtime to a minimum.

Veeam scales well across complex environments and centralizes management under one console. It also verifies backups automatically through restore testing, so recovery points remain usable when needed. Higher tiers add advanced monitoring, analytics, and disaster recovery orchestration, though these come at a higher cost.

💰 Pricing:

• Veeam Data Platform Essentials, $446/year, 1 pack covers 5 instances; aimed at small businesses with core backup automation and hybrid support.
• Veeam Data Platform Foundation, $1,470/year, 1 pack covers 10 instances; adds stronger recovery objectives and ransomware protection.
• Veeam Data Platform Advanced, $1,815/year, 1 pack covers 10 instances; includes malware detection, observability, and compliance checks.
• Veeam Data Platform Premium, $2,185/year, 1 pack covers 10 instances; provides full ransomware response, governance support, and orchestrated recovery.

2. Rubrik Security Cloud

Rubrik Security Cloud is a security-first enterprise backup platform built around a zero-trust model. Every action requires verification, which limits damage even if an admin account gets compromised. It protects virtual machines, physical servers, databases, NAS, and cloud workloads through a clean, policy-based setup that scales well across large environments.

Fast recovery is a major strength. Rubrik supports instant VM and database mounts, which keeps downtime close to zero during outages. It also includes built-in ransomware detection that analyzes backup changes and helps identify clean recovery points before an attack.

Long-term retention relies heavily on cloud storage, with append-only, immutable backups and logical air-gapping. These layers make backups difficult to alter or delete, even during major security incidents.

💰 Pricing: For exact numbers, you will need to contact Sales.

3. NAKIVO

NAKIVO is a lightweight and cost-efficient backup solution that covers VMware, Hyper-V, Nutanix AHV, physical servers, and Microsoft 365. It focuses on strong core features while keeping system requirements low, which makes it a good fit for mid-size companies and distributed offices.

Deployment is very flexible. NAKIVO can run on Windows, Linux, as a virtual appliance, or directly on NAS devices, which reduces infrastructure costs. Despite its small footprint, it includes instant VM recovery, replication, deduplication, compression, and cloud backups.

Security features include immutable backups, offsite copies for air-gap protection, and optional virus scans before recovery.

💰 Price:

• Core (PRO Essentials) starts at $1.95 per workload per month with a 1-year subscription. It covers core backup, replication, flexible recovery, and anti-ransomware features across virtual, cloud, physical systems, and NAS. A 3-year subscription saves 20%.
• Enterprise Essentials starts at $2.55 per workload per month with a 1-year subscription. It includes all Core features plus cloud and tape targets, site recovery, policy-based administration, and BaaS/DRaaS support. A 3-year subscription saves 20%.
• Enterprise Plus offers custom pricing via sales contact and includes the full feature set with advanced integrations, storage snapshot backups, Oracle support, extended administration, and API access.

NAKIVO also provides a pricing calculator on its website, which allows you to estimate the total cost based on your needs.

Best Byte-to-Byte & Disk Imaging Tools for Data Recovery

Lastly, we want to recommend a few byte-to-byte backup options. These tools create a full disk image and copy every sector on the drive: used space, free space, deleted file remnants, and even areas marked as inaccessible. They are used mainly for recovery, investigation, and damage control, not routine backups. They are important when you are working with disks that show signs of logical corruption or early physical issues.

1. Disk Drill

Disk Drill is a tool we’ve used many times in real recovery work, especially for byte-to-byte imaging of unstable or failing drives. Its disk imaging feature has repeatedly helped us secure data from problematic HDDs, SSDs, and memory cards before recovery. We almost always image first and run scans on the copy, not the original device.

The backup process includes Smart Multi-Pass Backup, automatic block size adjustment, and better handling of bad sectors, which allows images to complete even when parts of a drive are unreadable. Once the image is created, all recovery operations run safely on it using file-system or signature-based scans.

2. R-Studio

R-Studio is a long-standing enterprise-grade recovery platform known for its deep technical control. Its disk imaging capabilities are designed specifically for professional recovery scenarios. R-Studio supports advanced imaging with customizable parameters, including retry counts, skip logic for bad sectors, and partial imaging for damaged drives.

In our experience, R-Studio shows its strength after the image is created. It allows detailed reconstruction work such as RAID recovery, virtual RAID assembly, and manual file system analysis, which is especially important when working with RAID arrays, disks from NAS devices, or non-standard storage layouts. Imaging first and recovering later is the foundation of a safe workflow where mistakes or retries are expected.

Honorable Mentions: Open-Source Backup and Recovery Software

Open-source software is quite often the go-to because it’s free and trustworthy. But, given that it rarely has any dedicated technical support and can be troublesome to troubleshoot on your own, it’s often outshined by more professional solutions.

Regardless, there are still some excellent options out there that we feel deserve a mention. Here’s some of the best backup and recovery software that’s open-source.

1. Bacula

Bacula is a suite of open-source programs that together provide a complete network backup solution. Bacula can handle different environments from a single laptop to hundreds of servers across different locations. It follows a client-server model: you have Directors (servers coordinating backups), Storage daemons (where data goes), and Clients (the machines being backed up), plus a catalog database to keep track of everything.

One thing to be aware of is that Bacula has a steep learning curve. It’s very powerful and flexible, but that comes at the cost of complexity. We also must note that Bacula is not an all-in-one disaster recovery solution out of the box. In fact, its own documentation explicitly states it is “not a complete disaster recovery system in itself”. For example, if your whole site goes down, Bacula can restore data, but bare-metal recovery or server rebuilds might require additional tools or manual steps.

On the upside, Bacula is free and open-source, which means you can deploy enterprise-grade backup capabilities without licensing costs. It also has many features found in paid tools: scheduling, multiplexing, encryption, dedup etc. There are paid variants (Bacula Enterprise) and services if you need professional support. But the community edition itself is fully functional.

2. Duplicati

Duplicati is a fantastic open-source backup tool especially suited for handling cloud backups and encrypted backups. It’s designed from the ground up to work with online services and remote file servers. Duplicati has a modern web-based UI that makes it relatively easy to configure and use (unlike many open-source tools that are CLI-only). You can run the Duplicati server on your machine and access it via browser to set up backup jobs.

All backups use AES-256 encryption with a user-defined passphrase, and data is compressed and deduplicated to save space. Duplicati supports a wide range of storage targets, including local drives, FTP/WebDAV, and major cloud services like Amazon S3, Azure, Google Drive, OneDrive, and Backblaze B2. Scheduling is built in, and interrupted backups can usually resume instead of restarting.

That said, Duplicati is file-level only. It does not create full disk images or support bare-metal recovery. Large backup sets can restore slowly, and troubleshooting may require checking logs or community resources, especially on unstable networks.

3. BorgBackup

BorgBackup (often called Borg) is an open-source, command-line backup tool focused on secure incremental backups. It creates deduplicated, compressed, and encrypted archives using chunk-based deduplication, which helps save significant storage space when backing up similar or unchanged data.

Backups are encrypted client-side with AES-256, and Borg performs well for local, NAS, and SSH-based remote backups, especially on Linux and other Unix-like systems. It’s widely used for regular home directory and server backups.

However, Borg is not Windows-native (it runs via WSL or similar), lacks built-in scheduling and a GUI, and relies on scripts or tools like cron for automation. Compression and deduplication are single-threaded, which can slow large backups, and integrity checks must be run manually.

Conclusion

Modern drives may seem reliable day to day, but failures are far more common than most people expect. According to Backblaze’s Q3 2025 drive stats, the overall annualized failure rate (AFR) across their vast fleet of drives was 1.54%, with some models reaching over 4%. Our own survey found that while 78% of users claim to back up, only 33% do it regularly, and 63% confuse syncing with real backups. That’s why consistent backups are so important.

Backup software creates copies of your files, systems, and applications so you can restore them quickly when something goes wrong. Built-in tools cover basic needs, but dedicated backup solutions we recommended offer more control with scheduling, versioning, incremental backups, cloud storage, and automation.

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