{"slug": "superduper", "name": "SuperDuper", "category": "files", "category_name": "Files, sync and backup", "description": "macOS backup utility that creates bootable clones and scheduled backups of Mac drives.", "recommenders": 5, "commenters": 6, "warners": 0, "score": 4.617, "rising": 1.02, "first": "2025-11-10", "latest": "2026-08-08", "why": "HN commenters like it for bootable backup clones of their Macs, years of dependable use, and one-time pricing without subscriptions or bloat.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 0, "compare": 1, "warn": 0}, "spark": [1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": ["Reliability", "Bootable backups"], "caveat": "No hourly backups", "short_quote": "SuperDuper! is one of those gems which I will happily pay to upgrade every release without a second thought.", "icon": true, "domain": "shirt-pocket.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/", "pricing": "freemium", "aliases": ["SuperDuper", "SuperDuper!"], "verdict": [{"text": "HN commenters like it for bootable backup clones of their Macs,", "cites": [{"id": 749588160, "item_id": 46849260, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46849260", "by": "maxkfranz", "date": "2026-02-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'm a big fan of SuperDuper", "excerpt": "I'm a big fan of SuperDuper [1]. I use it for daily differential backups to a secondary SSD. I don't get the hourly backups that TimeMachine has, but my SuperDuper backups are directly bootable in the event that my system disk dies. I'm sure you could do the same with cron and rsync, but I can't be bothered. [1] https://shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html", "context": "", "use_case": "daily bootable differential backups", "switched_from": "", "story": "TIL: Apple Broke Time Machine Again on Tahoe"}, {"id": 767723985, "item_id": 47982749, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47982749", "by": "k310", "date": "2026-05-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I back up the computer with the device backups with SuperDuper! (free) to do image/bootable backups", "excerpt": "I turned off \"iCloud Photos\". [0] I turned off \"Optimize Mac Storage\" on the mac. [1] I back up all devices to the mac and nothing else [2] [0] I found 10 being sent to iCloud on the mac, entirely by accident. [1] Who in their right mind sends their home directory to Apple? I used to put Sun user home directories on NFS for some 300 users, because it was necessary, and I guarded them like crazy. [2] I turned off iClo", "context": "", "use_case": "bootable image backups", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple Is Holding My Pictures Hostage Until I Accept Their New Terms of Service"}]}, {"text": " years of dependable use,", "cites": [{"id": 787516432, "item_id": 49219777, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49219777", "by": "jwr", "date": "2026-08-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have been using SuperDuper for the last 20 years.", "excerpt": "I have been using SuperDuper for the last 20 years. It works. It does its job. It doesn't pester me with popups. It didn't get bloated. It didn't get rewritten using Electron to support New Enterprise Features. It didn't get a built-in sync client for my pictures and videos so that I can share them with my team. It didn't get ads. It didn't get enshittified in any of the hundreds of possible ways that other apps did.", "context": "", "use_case": "backup / disk cloning", "switched_from": "", "story": "SupererDuperer"}, {"id": 734020993, "item_id": 45876312, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45876312", "by": "JSR_FDED", "date": "2025-11-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use SuperDuper which has also been solid for even longer.", "excerpt": "Time Machine has been rock solid for ten years for my wife, who is an ordinary user. I use SuperDuper which has also been solid for even longer.", "context": "", "use_case": "backup", "switched_from": "", "story": "A brief history of Time Machine (2024)"}]}, {"text": " and one-time pricing without subscriptions or bloat.", "cites": [{"id": 787516432, "item_id": 49219777, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49219777", "by": "jwr", "date": "2026-08-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have been using SuperDuper for the last 20 years.", "excerpt": "I have been using SuperDuper for the last 20 years. It works. It does its job. It doesn't pester me with popups. It didn't get bloated. It didn't get rewritten using Electron to support New Enterprise Features. It didn't get a built-in sync client for my pictures and videos so that I can share them with my team. It didn't get ads. It didn't get enshittified in any of the hundreds of possible ways that other apps did.", "context": "", "use_case": "backup / disk cloning", "switched_from": "", "story": "SupererDuperer"}, {"id": 787505792, "item_id": 49219112, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49219112", "by": "SanjayMehta", "date": "2026-08-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "SuperDuper! is one of those gems which I will happily pay to upgrade every release without a second thought.", "excerpt": "SuperDuper! is one of those gems which I will happily pay to upgrade every release without a second thought. 1Password used to be in that list, as was Parallels before it, but they both switched to a subscription model, which is an immediate nope. Pleasantly surprised that I qualified for a free upgrade here from 3 to 4. Good old shareware days come to mind, I miss those developers.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "SupererDuperer"}]}, {"text": " The one caveat raised is that it lacks the hourly backups Time Machine offers.", "cites": [{"id": 749588160, "item_id": 46849260, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46849260", "by": "maxkfranz", "date": "2026-02-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'm a big fan of SuperDuper", "excerpt": "I'm a big fan of SuperDuper [1]. I use it for daily differential backups to a secondary SSD. I don't get the hourly backups that TimeMachine has, but my SuperDuper backups are directly bootable in the event that my system disk dies. I'm sure you could do the same with cron and rsync, but I can't be bothered. [1] https://shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html", "context": "", "use_case": "daily bootable differential backups", "switched_from": "", "story": "TIL: Apple Broke Time Machine Again on Tahoe"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Reliability", "summary": "Long-time users say it has worked solidly for decades.", "quotes": [{"id": 787516432, "item_id": 49219777, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49219777", "by": "jwr", "date": "2026-08-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have been using SuperDuper for the last 20 years.", "excerpt": "I have been using SuperDuper for the last 20 years. It works. It does its job. It doesn't pester me with popups. It didn't get bloated. It didn't get rewritten using Electron to support New Enterprise Features. It didn't get a built-in sync client for my pictures and videos so that I can share them with my team. It didn't get ads. It didn't get enshittified in any of the hundreds of possible ways that other apps did.", "context": "", "use_case": "backup / disk cloning", "switched_from": "", "story": "SupererDuperer"}, {"id": 734020993, "item_id": 45876312, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45876312", "by": "JSR_FDED", "date": "2025-11-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use SuperDuper which has also been solid for even longer.", "excerpt": "Time Machine has been rock solid for ten years for my wife, who is an ordinary user. I use SuperDuper which has also been solid for even longer.", "context": "", "use_case": "backup", "switched_from": "", "story": "A brief history of Time Machine (2024)"}, {"id": 787551456, "item_id": 49221966, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49221966", "by": "Syzygies", "date": "2026-08-08", "stance": "compare", "quote": "One should evaluate SuperDuper! and Carbon Copy Cloner side by side, and make a choice.", "excerpt": "Backup is way too important to trust to Time Machine. One should evaluate SuperDuper! and Carbon Copy Cloner side by side, and make a choice. Buy them both, or use both trials. They both have decades of experience providing astounding support. I should know as an edge case that has tried to rip the wings off of both their programs (trying to migrate away from disastrous RAID software and ending up with duplicate UUID", "context": "", "use_case": "Mac backup", "switched_from": "Retrospect", "story": "SupererDuperer"}]}, {"label": "Bootable backups", "summary": "Backups are directly bootable if the system disk dies.", "quotes": [{"id": 749588160, "item_id": 46849260, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46849260", "by": "maxkfranz", "date": "2026-02-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'm a big fan of SuperDuper", "excerpt": "I'm a big fan of SuperDuper [1]. I use it for daily differential backups to a secondary SSD. I don't get the hourly backups that TimeMachine has, but my SuperDuper backups are directly bootable in the event that my system disk dies. I'm sure you could do the same with cron and rsync, but I can't be bothered. [1] https://shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html", "context": "", "use_case": "daily bootable differential backups", "switched_from": "", "story": "TIL: Apple Broke Time Machine Again on Tahoe"}, {"id": 767723985, "item_id": 47982749, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47982749", "by": "k310", "date": "2026-05-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I back up the computer with the device backups with SuperDuper! (free) to do image/bootable backups", "excerpt": "I turned off \"iCloud Photos\". [0] I turned off \"Optimize Mac Storage\" on the mac. [1] I back up all devices to the mac and nothing else [2] [0] I found 10 being sent to iCloud on the mac, entirely by accident. [1] Who in their right mind sends their home directory to Apple? I used to put Sun user home directories on NFS for some 300 users, because it was necessary, and I guarded them like crazy. [2] I turned off iClo", "context": "", "use_case": "bootable image backups", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple Is Holding My Pictures Hostage Until I Accept Their New Terms of Service"}]}, {"label": "Fair pricing", "summary": "Paid upgrades instead of a subscription, with a free 3-to-4 upgrade for some.", "quotes": [{"id": 787516432, "item_id": 49219777, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49219777", "by": "jwr", "date": "2026-08-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have been using SuperDuper for the last 20 years.", "excerpt": "I have been using SuperDuper for the last 20 years. It works. It does its job. It doesn't pester me with popups. It didn't get bloated. It didn't get rewritten using Electron to support New Enterprise Features. It didn't get a built-in sync client for my pictures and videos so that I can share them with my team. It didn't get ads. It didn't get enshittified in any of the hundreds of possible ways that other apps did.", "context": "", "use_case": "backup / disk cloning", "switched_from": "", "story": "SupererDuperer"}, {"id": 787505792, "item_id": 49219112, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49219112", "by": "SanjayMehta", "date": "2026-08-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "SuperDuper! is one of those gems which I will happily pay to upgrade every release without a second thought.", "excerpt": "SuperDuper! is one of those gems which I will happily pay to upgrade every release without a second thought. 1Password used to be in that list, as was Parallels before it, but they both switched to a subscription model, which is an immediate nope. Pleasantly surprised that I qualified for a free upgrade here from 3 to 4. Good old shareware days come to mind, I miss those developers.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "SupererDuperer"}]}, {"label": "No bloat", "summary": "It avoids popups, ads, Electron rewrites and feature creep.", "quotes": [{"id": 787516432, "item_id": 49219777, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49219777", "by": "jwr", "date": "2026-08-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have been using SuperDuper for the last 20 years.", "excerpt": "I have been using SuperDuper for the last 20 years. It works. It does its job. It doesn't pester me with popups. It didn't get bloated. It didn't get rewritten using Electron to support New Enterprise Features. It didn't get a built-in sync client for my pictures and videos so that I can share them with my team. It didn't get ads. It didn't get enshittified in any of the hundreds of possible ways that other apps did.", "context": "", "use_case": "backup / disk cloning", "switched_from": "", "story": "SupererDuperer"}]}, {"label": "Support", "summary": "The developer is credited with long experience providing strong support.", "quotes": [{"id": 787551456, "item_id": 49221966, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49221966", "by": "Syzygies", "date": "2026-08-08", "stance": "compare", "quote": "One should evaluate SuperDuper! and Carbon Copy Cloner side by side, and make a choice.", "excerpt": "Backup is way too important to trust to Time Machine. One should evaluate SuperDuper! and Carbon Copy Cloner side by side, and make a choice. Buy them both, or use both trials. They both have decades of experience providing astounding support. I should know as an edge case that has tried to rip the wings off of both their programs (trying to migrate away from disastrous RAID software and ending up with duplicate UUID", "context": "", "use_case": "Mac backup", "switched_from": "Retrospect", "story": "SupererDuperer"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "No hourly backups", "summary": "Unlike Time Machine, it does not provide hourly backups.", "quotes": [{"id": 749588160, "item_id": 46849260, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46849260", "by": "maxkfranz", "date": "2026-02-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'm a big fan of SuperDuper", "excerpt": "I'm a big fan of SuperDuper [1]. I use it for daily differential backups to a secondary SSD. I don't get the hourly backups that TimeMachine has, but my SuperDuper backups are directly bootable in the event that my system disk dies. I'm sure you could do the same with cron and rsync, but I can't be bothered. [1] https://shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html", "context": "", "use_case": "daily bootable differential backups", "switched_from": "", "story": "TIL: Apple Broke Time Machine Again on Tahoe"}]}], "who": [], "tags": ["for Mac users", "for bootable clones", "for daily backups"], "use_cases": ["mac backup", "backup / disk cloning", "bootable image backups", "daily bootable differential backups", "backup"], "compared": [{"slug": "time-machine", "name": "Time Machine", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "carbon-copy-cloner", "name": "Carbon Copy Cloner", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49135261", "title": "SupererDuperer", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47982327", "title": "Apple Is Holding My Pictures Hostage Until I Accept Their New Terms of Service", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46848699", "title": "TIL: Apple Broke Time Machine Again on Tahoe", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45804416", "title": "A brief history of Time Machine (2024)", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 2, "compare": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 787551456, "item_id": 49221966, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49221966", "by": "Syzygies", "date": "2026-08-08", "stance": "compare", "quote": "One should evaluate SuperDuper! and Carbon Copy Cloner side by side, and make a choice.", "excerpt": "Backup is way too important to trust to Time Machine. One should evaluate SuperDuper! and Carbon Copy Cloner side by side, and make a choice. Buy them both, or use both trials. They both have decades of experience providing astounding support. I should know as an edge case that has tried to rip the wings off of both their programs (trying to migrate away from disastrous RAID software and ending up with duplicate UUID", "context": "", "use_case": "Mac backup", "switched_from": "Retrospect", "story": "SupererDuperer"}, {"id": 787516432, "item_id": 49219777, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49219777", "by": "jwr", "date": "2026-08-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have been using SuperDuper for the last 20 years.", "excerpt": "I have been using SuperDuper for the last 20 years. It works. It does its job. It doesn't pester me with popups. It didn't get bloated. It didn't get rewritten using Electron to support New Enterprise Features. It didn't get a built-in sync client for my pictures and videos so that I can share them with my team. It didn't get ads. It didn't get enshittified in any of the hundreds of possible ways that other apps did.", "context": "", "use_case": "backup / disk cloning", "switched_from": "", "story": "SupererDuperer"}, {"id": 787505792, "item_id": 49219112, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49219112", "by": "SanjayMehta", "date": "2026-08-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "SuperDuper! is one of those gems which I will happily pay to upgrade every release without a second thought.", "excerpt": "SuperDuper! is one of those gems which I will happily pay to upgrade every release without a second thought. 1Password used to be in that list, as was Parallels before it, but they both switched to a subscription model, which is an immediate nope. Pleasantly surprised that I qualified for a free upgrade here from 3 to 4. Good old shareware days come to mind, I miss those developers.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "SupererDuperer"}, {"id": 767723985, "item_id": 47982749, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47982749", "by": "k310", "date": "2026-05-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I back up the computer with the device backups with SuperDuper! (free) to do image/bootable backups", "excerpt": "I turned off \"iCloud Photos\". [0] I turned off \"Optimize Mac Storage\" on the mac. [1] I back up all devices to the mac and nothing else [2] [0] I found 10 being sent to iCloud on the mac, entirely by accident. [1] Who in their right mind sends their home directory to Apple? I used to put Sun user home directories on NFS for some 300 users, because it was necessary, and I guarded them like crazy. [2] I turned off iClo", "context": "", "use_case": "bootable image backups", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple Is Holding My Pictures Hostage Until I Accept Their New Terms of Service"}, {"id": 749588160, "item_id": 46849260, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46849260", "by": "maxkfranz", "date": "2026-02-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'm a big fan of SuperDuper", "excerpt": "I'm a big fan of SuperDuper [1]. I use it for daily differential backups to a secondary SSD. I don't get the hourly backups that TimeMachine has, but my SuperDuper backups are directly bootable in the event that my system disk dies. I'm sure you could do the same with cron and rsync, but I can't be bothered. [1] https://shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html", "context": "", "use_case": "daily bootable differential backups", "switched_from": "", "story": "TIL: Apple Broke Time Machine Again on Tahoe"}, {"id": 734020993, "item_id": 45876312, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45876312", "by": "JSR_FDED", "date": "2025-11-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use SuperDuper which has also been solid for even longer.", "excerpt": "Time Machine has been rock solid for ten years for my wife, who is an ordinary user. I use SuperDuper which has also been solid for even longer.", "context": "", "use_case": "backup", "switched_from": "", "story": "A brief history of Time Machine (2024)"}]}