Duplicati
Open Sourceby Duplicati Team
Encrypted, incremental backup to any cloud storage.
- AES-256 encryption before upload
- Works with most cloud storage providers
- Incremental deduplicated backups
3 Best Free Backup & Recovery Software for Linux in 2026
Disk imaging, encrypted cloud backup and file synchronisation so a failed drive is an inconvenience, not a disaster. Every program below runs on Linux.
- 3 Linux programs
- 3 open source
- ₹0 to download
Free backup & recovery programs for Linux
Clonezilla
Open Sourceby NCHC, Taiwan
Bare-metal disk and partition imaging.
- Full disk and partition imaging
- Boots from its own live USB or CD
- Mass deployment across many machines
Syncthing
Open Sourceby Syncthing Foundation
Continuous file sync between your devices, with no cloud in between.
- Direct peer-to-peer encrypted sync
- No third-party server stores your data
- File versioning
Choosing backup & recovery software on Linux
All 3 programs listed here have a native Linux build — this is not a list of software that merely "might work" through a compatibility layer. 3 are open source.
Since every option is free, testing two or three on your own files is usually faster and more reliable than reading further comparisons. Duplicati is the most widely adopted of these and a reasonable starting point.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free backup & recovery software for Linux?
Duplicati encrypted, incremental backup to any cloud storage. Clonezilla and Syncthing are the other most common picks.
Are these really free on Linux?
Yes. Each is labelled with its licence — open source, free, or free tier — so you know exactly what you are getting before you download.
Where do the downloads come from?
The publisher's own website, every time. We host no installers, which is the single most effective protection against the bundled adware that plagues software download portals.