Best Open Source Alternatives to Apple Time Machine

Compare the best free and open-source alternatives to Apple Time Machine — self-hosted and desktop replacements you fully control, ranked by GitHub stars, license and platform support.

Curated by open-source.store · Updated August 2026 · 6 alternatives

Apple Time Machine

Proprietary SaaS

PricingFree

Platformsdesktop, macos

WebsiteVisit site

Apple Time Machine alternatives compared

Open-source alternatives to Apple Time Machine, compared by stars, license and platform
Tool		License	Platforms	Self-hosted
Restic	35,278	BSD-2-Clause	LinuxmacOSWindows	No	Aug 2026	Visit
Duplicati	14,851	LGPL-2.1	LinuxmacOSWindowsDocker	Yes	Aug 2026	Visit
Kopia	13,767	Apache-2.0	LinuxmacOSWindows	No	Aug 2026	Visit
BorgBackup	13,565	BSD-3-Clause	LinuxmacOSWindows	No	Aug 2026	Visit
Timeshift	4,208	GPL-3.0	Linux	No	Apr 2026	Visit
Duplicity	0	GPL-2.0	LinuxmacOSWindows	No	—	Visit

Top open-source Apple Time Machine alternatives

Restic35,278BSD-2-Clause

A secure backup program written in Go that supports many backends.

LinuxmacOSWindows

vs Apple Time Machine: a free, open-source option you fully control, licensed BSD-2-Clause.

Visit Details

Duplicati14,851LGPL-2.1

A free backup client that securely stores encrypted, incremental, compressed backups on cloud storage services.

LinuxmacOSWindowsDockerWeb

vs Apple Time Machine: a free, open-source option you fully control, licensed LGPL-2.1.

Visit Details

Kopia13,767Apache-2.0

An open-source tool for secure, encrypted desktop and server backups with deduplication.

LinuxmacOSWindows

vs Apple Time Machine: a free, open-source option you fully control, licensed Apache-2.0.

Visit Details

BorgBackup13,565BSD-3-Clause

A deduplicating backup program written in Python and C.

LinuxmacOSWindows

vs Apple Time Machine: a free, open-source option you fully control, licensed BSD-3-Clause.

Visit Details

Timeshift4,208GPL-3.0

A system restore utility for Linux that takes incremental snapshots of the system files.

Linux

vs Apple Time Machine: a free, open-source option you fully control, licensed GPL-3.0.

Visit Details

Best Open Source Alternatives to Apple Time Machine

Apple Time Machine

Apple Time Machine alternatives compared

Top open-source Apple Time Machine alternatives

More alternatives to Apple Time Machine

Duplicity