Data Sync on Mac is always a challenge when you have tons of different online accounts and other portable devices. We all need to stay on top with all the information being up to date. It doesn’t matter if its iCal, Music, Address books, or even photos. It’s good to have them everywhere and, most importantly, on all the devices that you own.
You can achieve this by using a mac sync solution. It helps you stay focused and keeps your data sync troubles at bay. Some of the sync apps use cloud services such as google drive or their own cloud storage to keep everything in order.
Well now, some of you may argue about having an external hard drive like a western digital or some other company, but it’s best only for file backups, and also, it isn’t practical to carry it around everywhere you go. So without further ado, let us introduce you to some of the best-handpicked synchronization tools for macOS.
Best Mac Sync Softwares
1. SyncMate
The first contender in sync battle is SyncMate, and it does stand by the name its been given. You can sync data between macOS and other devices and a lot of different online accounts. It removes the extra cost of purchasing other resources to sync between different devices or accounts. This all in one tool can handle a lot of stuff, right from getting your data to other Mac and iOS devices and even with Android, it works pretty well.
You even save more dollars by making it sync data to the cloud storage you already have in hand. It can do its job with google drive, dropbox, and iCloud. All your images, videos, music, and documents will be pushed to the drive you choose and sync them with all other devices. It not only syncs files and folders but goes beyond that as well.
Among other things, your calendar, contacts, call history, messages (SMS), reminders, bookmarks can be in one place if you wish to have them. It also supports Outlook and Office 365 sync. Plus, there’s an option to mount your cloud storage as an extra drive on your Mac, which is quite useful. It works similarly to having an SD Card on your smartphone.
Pricing:
It has a free version that you can give a go but has limited functionality. The paid one will cost you 40$ for two devices. It even comes with auto sync and import, export options for backup. Unlike most services you will see, we found this one to be of the best value at what it offers.
Get SyncMate from here.
2. GoodSync
GoodSync is a backup and sync solution for macOS. They use best in class cloud platforms such as Amazon S3, Azur, SkyDrive, WebDav, Google Drive, and even OneDrive. It happens to be an industry-grade sync software that focuses on the professional aspects under daily usage features.
Furthermore, you can even choose to have a backup via your portable drives or use FTP, SFTP to do the same. Plus, they offer cross-platform compatibility, which means all your devices to be it windows, iOS, or even Linux, will always stay in sync with your primary mac.
Now that we know about its awesomeness, it does have one small con, which can be a deal-breaker for some users.
So with GoodSync, you need to specify folders on two devices, and then that will be kept in sync. In short, you cannot directly connect it with photos, music, iTunes, and other such apps but instead, what you do is specify the source location where it is saved, and the rest will be taken care of. It is a great file sync software that helps you keep files in order on multiple devices.
Pricing:
Individual license sells at 30$ for five devices. Apart from this, if you choose to backup your personal data with good sync servers, it will incur an additional cost of 10$ per month. We won’t ever recommend using their servers as the pricing is completely outrageous. You can have more storage with google drive and OneDrive at any given time for free. So opt for a free trial and see if this tool fits your usage index.
Get GoodSync from here.
3. ChronoSync
ChronoSync is another great utility that you can use to keep all your data in order. It comes with a catch; you can only use it between apple devices. This simply means it won’t support any data sync with windows and Linux. If you are from an apple family, then this one might be your best investment ever.
It can do multiple things apart from just sync, including backup and restore data via local backup, remote backup, bootable, and remote bootable backup. Here you can sync multimedia files and folders. They offer good tech support and multiple options to customize.
There are options to schedule sync or backup at regular intervals, plus they offer cloud storage with Amazon S3 & Backblaze B2. It can also be synchronized with your own web servers via FTP. Backup options are quite reliable as an integrity check for files is done after backup or restore.
You can even export it to USB, hard disk, or SD cards. It also provides an interface to do all of these things at ease, but do expect a small learning curve if you are not tech-savvy.
Pricing:
As you get an exclusive apple sync and backup tool, it is very reliable. You can get a lifetime license for $50 that will serve your purpose just fine.
Get ChronoSync from here.
4. Synchronize! Pro X
Qdea offers two versions, which are X and X Plus of their Synchronize! Software. X variant has more services that may or may not be useful for regular users. Let’s explore a bit more on features that it has to offer.
Though this tool does a little of synchronization and more of backup-restore, it has some intuitive features that can help professionals keep their data throughout all the devices. You can make bootable system backups of MacOS X in USB sticks or hard drives. Furthermore, you can even keep replaced and deleted files in a separate folder which is maintained date wise. It automatically logs all the copied files with their paths.
Apart from all the regular features, it lets you control the copied content by setting a file lock or folder lock. Plus, the sync will also keep the locked state of files and folders unchanged. You can even set up one-way sync to just copy files and not delete or replace them.
Pricing:
To get hands-on this tool, you need to contact their sales team. Like we said earlier, it is more inclined to professional usage rather than regular daily sync. Also, it doesn’t support macOS Catalina and later versions. It’s best to avoid if you don’t want something that does more of backup and restore. It also misses out on some features that are not a requirement in a professional ecosystem.
Get Synchronize! Pro X from here.
5. Resilio Sync
This is another excellent mac sync solution that doesn’t rely on cloud servers to provide any facilities. It uses the power of the P2P file transmission protocol to sync and transfer files from Mac to other devices. Furthermore, you can even encrypt and decrypt the content that you sync. There’s also an option to manage access permission to keep files as read-only or editable.
So with cloud servers out of the picture, you transmit files directly from your device to another; hence it is more secure and reliable. It might even be faster, depending on your internet connection. It happens to provide you with a selective file sync feature that helps you select only the files you need instead of the complete folder.
Resilio takes its sync game a step ahead of its competition by providing an intelligent sync solution that only changes the different bits and not the complete file. So if you have a document of say 40MB, it won’t replace it entirely but just the bits that have changed, resulting in less data consumption and increasing sync efficiency to a whole new level.
Pricing:
So far, this tool is the most attractive one that we have come across in this category. You pay about $60 as a one-time payment, and with that, you get to link all your devices. It supports Mac, Android, iOS, Linux, and even NAS devices. There’s a limited free version to get hands-on experience with and an idea of how everything functions.
Get Resilio Sync from here.
6. FreeFileSync
Did you just read free? Exactly, FreeFileSync is an open-source files and folder sync solution. Since it is free, you can use this to sync multiple devices and even in a cross-platform environment. It uses MTP for Android and iOS devices, plus Windows, Mac, and Linux are also supported.
Some tools add adverts in their installer, but with FreeFileSync, it’s not the case. You can sync folders and files that are different over a local network or on shared drives. There are no limitations to the devices that can be used. Even sync with a server is possible via FTP and FTPS. It uses google drive to keep all the data in sync.
Version control is also available that keeps track of renamed, deleted, or replaced files. It will give you an email notification when the sync job is completed. Plus, you can also schedule batch syncs. It also bundles with an optimal sync sequence and fail-safe feature to prevent any data loss or corruption.
Being open-source expands the limit of this tool. It is genuinely made for regular users, and even for professionals. It can do almost everything that above paid syn solutions offer. One downside is that you don’t get on-demand support or assistance and would have to rely on the community if any problem occurs. Do expect a small learning curve if you plan to try this as the user interface is outdated and will take a minute for you to figure out how everything works.
Get FreeFileSync from here.
7. Syncovery
Syncovery is a great tool that can sync and backup all your data between cloud servers or any other devices. It does not support iOS and Android. You can real-time sync all your files and folders between Mac, Windows and Linux systems. Here, choose any folders that you want to sync and it will start its job.
There are options for one-way and two-way sync, data backup, and replication of complete devices is also possible with Syncovery. Apart from all this, you also get file encryption which makes your cloud sync or backup safer than any other regular tools that we saw earlier. User profiles can be generated in order to provide different access levels to the data.
It supports FTP, SSH, and sync with OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, WebDAV, Sharepoint, Microsoft Azure, Amazon S3, and other cloud services.
Pricing:
File system monitoring and remote sync solution is available with a premium edition that costs $100. If you go with the professional version, you get everything else except the features offered in premium for $60. We won’t recommend getting Standard edition as it just makes it a piece of costly backup only software with no FTP or server sync or cloud-sync for 35$.
They don’t even have a good user interface, just skip this one if you don’t want to get a Premium or Professional edition. Also, they offer a 30-day free trial so do check it out.
Get Syncovery from here.
8. SyncBack
SyncBack is among one of the few complete sync solutions that provide everything that you can ask for in mac apps for secure file and multimedia sync. It supports mobile devices (Android and iOS) as well as desktop (Mac, Windows and Linux). They offer three different versions that are SyncBackPro, SyncBackSE and SyncbackFree. You can go for any of these as per your requirements.
SyncBackFree lacks cloud storage support but you can easily do FTP server sync instead. For FTPS, and SFTP you have to upgrade to the SE or PRO version. Other features like file monitoring, version control, integrity check, faster cloud transfer, file encryption, drive failure detection and some other professional automation features are available for SE and PRO version only.
It also supports FTP scanning, Email backups, file compression, and even ransomware detection which you won’t get on any other File synchronization software for MacOS. Furthermore, detection of too many changes leading to the cancellation of backup is a prime feature that most of the tools don’t have in this price segment.
Pricing:
For it to work on smartphones, they offer a SyncBack touch app, which you won’t get in a free version. But, you can add unlimited Mac, Windows and Linux devices in the free version. Do give it a try. SyncBackPRO will cost you $69 and SyncBackSE comes for $50, both limiting its usage to five devices.
Get SyncBack from here.
Conclusion:
If you go out looking for a perfect sync solution then chances are that you might get influenced by every other tool that you encounter. But going a bit deep while selecting a perfect software that fulfils all you need, it is quintessential to look at past history and update frequency before commenting.
There are a lot of continuous changes that you see in this domain, many services get obsolete from a simple protocol change on MacOS as we saw earlier in the intro section. So choose one that completes all the background checks and meet your needs. Do let us know your thoughts in the comments section below regarding the best Mac Sync solution that you grabbed.