File Sync Services and Software for Mac OSX

Format

The format for most of the items below are in the form: Name (#a/#b/#c) [cost, notes] Other notes.

The triplet of numbers are:

#a = number of people who suggested the item
#b = number of google pages referring to the product or service (very rough measure of popularity)
#c = number of google links to the home pages (ditto)

If you have further comments, personal reviews of the software, or pointers to relevant pages, please send them to me

1. Commercial, Cloud-based Backup and Restore Services

Google Trends measure for DropBox, CrashPlan, SugarSync.

1.1. DropBox

DropBox (4/7M/1370) [Free 2GB account, more storage for more $] Cloud Backup, restore, sync with any other internet-connected device. Cross-platform clients, Simplicity of operation, reliability. If you also add a MobileMe subscription ($100/yr), it addresses most of the Mac items that you might want to keep sync’ed. (see also iBackup below.

1.2. Crashplan

Crashplan (1/157K/97) [Free version with limited storage, $3.50/mo for unlimited storage for 1 computer $5/mo for family, can buy onsite, offsite server (but no easy access to cost for those services)] Cloud Backup and restore Encrypted data, continuous backup for $ version.

1.3. SugarSync

SugarSync (1/1M/277) Cloud sync utility. [30GB for $5/mo to 250GB for $25/mo]. Simplicity of operation, but reporting user had repeated problems with data reliability.

1.4. User Notes

With DropBox (not sure about CrashPlan) you have to alter your file structure to do a sync. Not so with SugarSync which adapts to your existing hierarchy. Some people have experimented with symlinks, but I don’t quite understand how that works (with Drop Box): possibly by putting their synced folders in the DB folder and sym linking out to their normal working directories. If you don’t want to mess with your file structure, DB is not a good option.

2. Native Mac Applications

Google Trends measure for ChronoSync, FileSync, Synchronize X, Super Flexible File Synchronizer.

2.1. Proprietary

2.1.1. ChronoSync

ChronoSync (1/71K/93) [$40 (but you’ll need to buy 2 copies to sync between them), volume discounts] Native Mac file sync utility. Can make bootable backups. Can’t operate with non-mounted disk tho. Looks very shiny, but it takes up 40MB(!) vs <1MB for Unison. However, it does work very well and it has a number of nice features (detected that the source and target differed in Cap-sensitivity, logging, rollbacks, etc.). Easy to set up. But, the demo is highly restricted, so I can’t tell if it works completely as advertised.

2.1.2. FileSync

FileSync (1/13.6K/2) [Free, not OSS] Fair number of feature and UI limitations. Not as flexible as unison. Did not test further.

2.1.3. SuperDuper

SuperDuper (2/184K/330) [Free restricted version, $28 for extended version] It’s a backup and restore utility rather than a file sync utility. can generate bootable backups. Very simple to use and quite reliable. Never had a dropped file or a crash.

2.1.4. Synchronize X

Synchronize X (1/13K/1) [$30] Didn’t have time to test.

2.1.5. Super Flexible File Synchronizer

Super Flexible File Synchronizer (1/251K/35) [$60, volume discounts] Cross platform, many awards, lots of options, site-licensed by UCSC for $1200. Looks very spiffy, but didn’t have time to download to test yet.

2.1.6. iBackup

iBackup not to be confused with IBackup, a DropBox-like service (1/9.3K/72) [Free for Personal Use, $ for Commercial use, from $25/user @5pack to $10/user @50pack] Very nice interface and mac-specific touches. Not as nearly as many options, buttons as Chronosync, but good for a local sync to a connected device. Unlike many others, it has a number of notifiers - a running log, a progress bar, a time-remaining estimator. It appears to be a GUI front end to a combination of ditto and rsync. It is primarily a backup rather than a sync’ing application, and the restore operation is not nearly as obvious as the backup. There is a remote server option for it, but it only supports WebDAV, SMB, or AFP servers, not a remote rsync (the backup volume has to be mounted). You can insert pre-and post-execution commands and change the actual ditto and rsync commandline options, which makes it quite flexible. Its special sauce is a set of plug-ins that can back up all your Mac preferences as well as prefs for a selected set of popular Applications.

2.2. Open Source

2.2.1. arRsync

arRsync (1/16K/18) [OSS] See also this page. Actively developed Mac OSX Aqua UI to rsync; successor to old RsyncX, now idled. Very simple, clean UI, with logging, variety of rsync options, but not the complete set of options yet. However, my user found that it missed some files ( which had spaces in file names or leading pathnames) that the commandline rsync picked up, so he won’t use it anymore. Will sync to external drives but current version will not sync across a network, a major lack of functionality.

2.2.2. rsync

rsync (1/674K/190) [OSS; included with all recent versions of OSX] The mother of all syncing apps. Remarkable program, and remarkably robust, but can be tricky to use. Easy to nest a directory one extra level deep, delete files, etc. If can be scripted, would be very nice. Can sync local dirs on same device, across devices, across networks, ssh encryption, compression, or both.

2.2.3. Unison

Unison. (1/164K/173) [OSS]. Cross platform, designed explicitly for directory synchronizing. Supports local and remote file systems, supports merging as well as versioning (merge changes in 2 versions of a file, like CVS/SVN), will detect conflicts. Native Aqua interface similar to GTK interface. Simple to set up and use. Can configure lots of save sets. Unison is fink-installable on OSX < 10.6 (Snow Leopard). However, on 10.6, it needs to be recompiled, and I have no access to a 10.6 machine.