Requires Mac OS X 10.10 ("Yosemite"), 10.9, 10.8 or 10.7
More info: Arq Release Notes Arq Manual
Arq 3.x available here
Back up your files automatically, to your own cloud account, with Arq.
Just connect Arq to your own Google Drive account, Amazon Web Services account, SFTP server, Greenqloud account, DreamObjects account, or any S3-compatible server.
Everything is encrypted before transfer, so your files are safe and secure.
Arq backs up your files automatically, every hour.
If you accidentally delete a file, you can go back in time and restore the file from your cloud backups.
Back up external hard drives, NAS files, whatever you want. Arq has no limits.
Try it for free for 30 days: Download
"After using Arq on flawlessly to back up two Macs over 2 to 3 years, I have never needed to restore files. Until today. Could be the Yosemite upgrade, who knows, but today I realized a folder of almost a GB of important writing and course resources had vanished. I simply found the Arq backup of last week, and promptly and easily restored the files, saving me weeks of literature searches. Arq works, as you have promised."
-- R. Navarro, University Professor
$39.99 per computer for Arq 4 (the app) Buy Now
Minor updates and bug fixes are free. Upgrade pricing is typically available after a major version upgrade, e.g. to Arq 5.
Backup to Google Drive:
15GB free storage with any Google account
1TB/user storage for $10/month with Google Drive for Work (1-4 users)
Unlimited storage for $10/month with Google Drive for Work (5+ users)
Backup to Amazon:
$.01/GB per month for backup to Amazon Glacier
Retrieving your files from Glacier takes 3-5 hours plus the download time.
Your initial backup will incur approximately $.05/GB in per-request fees. Subsequent backups will incur insignificant fees.
$.03/GB per month for backup to Amazon S3 (US East region)
No delay in retrieving files.
Per-request fees are typically insignificant.
Free Usage Tier: Up to 5GB free for 1 year
All recurring costs are billed to you by Amazon Web Services.
Arq backs up your Mac to your own Amazon account, or SFTP server, or GreenQloud, DreamHost, Google.
Encrypt your backups with a password only you know. Haystack Software employees have no access to your data.
All encryption is done before your data leave your computer.
Your backups are stored in an open, documented format. We've also delivered an open-source command-line utility called arq_restore that's hosted at github, so you can read your data anytime without depending on Haystack Software (although we're in this for the long haul, so we'll be around for a long, long time!)
We believe backup is a critical function, so we strive to fix critical issues in Arq quickly. If you have questions or feedback, please email us at support@haystacksoftware.com and we'll get back to you promptly. We strive to answer all emails within 1 business day.
Arq restores all your data and metadata correctly, unlike some other online backup offerings. Backup Bouncer is a test suite independently developed by Nathaniel Gray to verify the accuracy of backup products restoring Mac file data and metadata -- in his words, to "keep the ugly backup tools out of the club." We make sure Arq passes all Backup Bouncer tests.
Arq keeps multiple "versions" of your files — a backup history. So if you discover a file was corrupted or accidentally deleted, you can go back and get it.
Arq automatically backs up every hour or every day, depending on the schedule you choose. Only the changes are uploaded for each backup, minimizing network and storage usage.
Arq backs up everything you tell it to back up:
Time Machine works well and provides fast restore, but you have to remember to plug in your backup device (unless you have a Time Capsule), and it doesn't cover all scenarios:
Arq backs up whenever/wherever there's an Internet connection.
Arq can upload to S3 at maximum speed, or at a fixed transfer rate that you choose. Or choose automatic transfer rate to slow down uploads whenever you're using the Internet for other tasks.
I started thinking about Arq back in early 2009 because I wanted an easy-to-use backup program but couldn't find one that worked well. I liked Time Machine and even bought a Time Capsule so I wouldn't have to remember to plug in an external hard drive. But it still only backed up when I was at home near the Time Capsule, and if my house burned down or someone stole my computer and Time Capsule my stuff would be gone. I wanted online backup, at least for my most important documents and photos.
I tried Mozy, Carbonite and Backblaze. They all offered "unlimited" size backup for a fixed fee, but the "unlimited" service had limits. I couldn't back up a network drive, for example. I couldn't keep backups of external drives reliably -- Backblaze promised to delete backups of external drives that haven't been connected for 30 days. They were vague about durability and availability of my backups. And then there was the risk of the backup storage provider closing up shop and me losing all my backups. I'd seen that happen before (Upline, Xdrive, Omnidrive, Digital Railroad).
Amazon S3 seemed like a great place for my backup data. It's backed by the power of a large, profitable, public company. It offers clear durability and availability numbers and replication to multiple data centers. And it isn't an "unlimited" type of offering, so they don't add constraints to minimize the amount of backup data I have.
Backing up to S3 felt like real backup, but there wasn't any great software to do it.
I had been working on a project that used Amazon S3 for storage, and stored its stuff as a content-addressable storage (CAS) system, written in Java. I decided to rewrite those bits in Objective-C. Then I added logic to correctly back up all Mac-specific metadata, plus strong encryption, plus a simple but powerful Mac UI. Thus Arq was born.
It turns out lots of people were looking for something similar, and through word of mouth Arq has become very popular among Mac users. Now with the super-cheap Glacier storage option, Arq is set to grow even faster!
Hacker News comments: March 4, 2014
"a terrific addition to an already excellent tool" - TUAW
"near-perfect low-cost off-site backup solution" - Webmonkey | Wired.com
"I've read great things about Arq" - Marco Arment
"The deeper I dig, the more I wish I was a Mac user" - Steve Gibson , Security Now Episode 350
"einfach und genial die Datensicherung mit Amazon S3 über Arq" - Blog IT-Solutions
"Uploading and maintaining 50 gigabytes of data on Arq will cost about $5 a month" - New York Times
"My files get backed up to S3 using Arq" - Chris Wanstrath, GitHub co-founder
"I can vouch that it's a very effective system." - Brett Terpstra
"a better way to backup critical files online" - teratalks.com
"easiest to use, most flexible, and gives me the most control" - NoodleMac
"My favorite cloud backup tool" - Practically Efficient
"a fantastic backup utility" - AppStorm's Best Mac Software of 2010
"simple and elegant and works as expected" - Macgasm
"Arq makes it easy to retrieve your Mac's files." - Mac360
"If you’re serious about backups and like the idea (I do) of having your stuff on Amazon S3, go download Arq. It’s just great." - MacStories
"I love Dropbox for its elegance and simplicity, but actually those are exactly the qualities I like in Arq too." - AppStorm
"It’s exactly as simple as it can be, and it f***ing works perfectly." - Mason Mark
"...it kicks Jungledisk’s ass when it comes to speediness." - Snipe.Net
"powerful" - Full Creative
"I love it" - Trevor Turk
"Die technische Seite von Arq macht einen sehr sauberen und vielversprechenden Eindruck." - macfidelity
"Empfehlenswerte Mac-Datensicherung" - MacMacken
"phenomenal user experience" - OS X Attack