SmartBackup For Mac

Backup utilities are plentiful, but they tend to get very complex once to get to the paid tier. However, there’s no reason why a simpler, free app can’t do the job.

SmartBackup is one of those free options, and it’s very capable. Its functionality is fairly limited, but it has everything you need to set up and run basic backup jobs, including automation.

It’s worth appreciating just how easy it is to set things up. You start by adding a backup destination, and then one or more sources. Each destination is essentially a separate backup job, and it can have any number of sources assigned to it.

Once the backup sources have been defined, you can start the job. By default, content will be synchronized, but you can also add subfolders to exclude them from the destination, or just skip certain sources if necessary.

If files that have been backed up need to be deleted or changed while synchronizing, the app can archive them to ensure important data is not lost. You also have the option to clear the archive folder after a certain number of days.

For a free and relatively simple app, it’s nice to see that automation is still available. Each job can be scheduled to run automatically every day, at a certain time, or on a specific day of the week. You can also tweak some advanced settings, such as whether to ignore tag changes or the number of copy threads to be used.

While it’s not as versatile and feature-packed as some paid solutions, SmartBackup has everything you need to set up simple backup jobs for personal use. The fact that automation is included is particularly helpful, especially since everything is done in the background.