ThirdCopy vs. Carbon Copy Cloner

ThirdCopy vs. Carbon Copy Cloner: a simpler way to mirror your Mac to a NAS

Carbon Copy Cloner is Bombich Software's veteran cloning tool — deep, capable, and built first for bootable backups. ThirdCopy does one job, continuous one-way mirroring to a NAS or drive, sandboxed and on the Mac App Store from day one.

Updated August 9, 2026. Pricing and features change — always confirm current details on Bombich Software's site before buying.

Quick verdict

If you want a bootable clone option, rsync-grade filtering, or a single license that covers every Mac you own, Carbon Copy Cloner's two decades of engineering are hard to match — that's what it's built for. If you just want a folder or two mirrored to a NAS, continuously, without a Full Disk Access prompt or a SafetyNet folder to remember to empty, ThirdCopy does that one job for well under half the price.

	ThirdCopy	Carbon Copy Cloner
Price	$19.99 once	$49.99 once (Personal/Household license covers every Mac you own)
Free trial	14 days, full-featured	30 days, full-featured
Ongoing cost	None, ever	None, ever
Setup model	3 steps: folders, destination, schedule	Tasks: source, destination, schedule, filters
One-way mirror backup	Yes — the only mode	Yes, via the "Backup - all files" task type
Bootable clone	Not offered, by design	Yes (Apple Silicon has made external boot unreliable industry-wide)
Continuous backup	Default for every backup	Not offered — schedules plus event triggers (reattach, wake, idle)
NAS / SMB share support	Yes	Yes (SMB, AFP, NFS)
Mac App Store / sandboxed	Yes, full feature set	No — direct download, needs Full Disk Access for a helper tool
Deleted-file handling	Optional holding period	SafetyNet folder (moved aside, needs manual pruning)
Minimum macOS	14 Sonoma	13.1 Ventura

What Carbon Copy Cloner actually is

Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) is Bombich Software's Mac backup and cloning tool, in active development since 2002. It's sold directly from bombich.com as a $49.99 one-time purchase — notably, a single Personal/Household license covers every Mac you personally own or control, not just one machine. CCC can run a straightforward one-way mirror through its "Backup - all files" task type, but it was built first as a bootable-clone tool, and that heritage still shows in its options and its Full Disk Access requirements.

Where Carbon Copy Cloner wins

CCC is a mature, capable tool, and it has real advantages over ThirdCopy:

Household licensing. One $49.99 purchase covers every Mac you personally own or control — a genuinely more generous term than a strict per-Mac license, and a real advantage if you're backing up more than one machine.
Longer free trial. 30 days, full-featured — twice ThirdCopy's 14 days.
Safer-by-default deletions. SafetyNet, on by default, moves superseded or orphaned destination files into a "_CCC SafetyNet" folder instead of deleting them outright, so you get an automatic undo window — though it's on you to check in occasionally so that folder doesn't quietly fill the destination disk.
Deeper filtering. Include/exclude rules use real rsync-style pattern syntax, with template-assist buttons for common cases like excluding every .mp3 file — more expressive than ThirdCopy's fixed junk-file exclusions.
Flexible triggers, including a path to multiple destinations. Beyond plain schedules, CCC can fire a task when a drive reattaches, when the Mac wakes, or when it's idle, and one task can trigger another on completion — a way to fan a single source out to more than one destination that ThirdCopy's single-job interface doesn't expose yet.
Two decades of track record. Actively developed since 2002 and referenced positively by Macworld, The Sweet Setup, and Six Colors as a trusted tool — reviewers note it was tricky at launch but has been polished for years since.

Where ThirdCopy is simpler

One flow, not a task library. ThirdCopy asks you to pick folders, a destination, and a schedule — that's the whole app. CCC's Task model adds source, destination, schedule, filters, and SafetyNet settings, each on its own screen.
Continuous by default. ThirdCopy watches your folders and mirrors changes automatically, usually within about two minutes, with no trigger to choose. CCC has no real-time watcher — you pick a schedule or an event trigger (reattach, wake, idle) instead.
No Full Disk Access, no helper tool. ThirdCopy runs entirely inside the App Sandbox using security-scoped bookmarks. CCC needs a privileged helper tool and a Full Disk Access grant to back up your whole Mac.
Nothing to prune. ThirdCopy's optional holding period expires files on its own. CCC's SafetyNet folder is safer than a hard delete by default, but it's your job to check in and clear it out before it fills the destination.
Self-healing destination. ThirdCopy watches the backup target itself and repairs local tampering within seconds, backed by a 6-hour integrity check for changes file events can't see, like NAS-side edits over SMB. CCC doesn't watch destinations this way.
Lower floor, lower price. ThirdCopy runs on macOS 14 Sonoma or later for $19.99. CCC requires macOS 13.1 Ventura or later and costs $49.99 — more than double, for a single Mac.

The honest tradeoff

Carbon Copy Cloner earns its two-plus decades in the market. If you want a bootable-clone option, rsync-grade filtering, or a license that follows you across every Mac you own, it's a legitimately strong choice, and Mac reviewers have trusted it for exactly that reason. What it isn't is simple: a Full Disk Access prompt, a privileged helper tool, a SafetyNet folder to remember to empty, and a Task model built to do far more than mirror one folder to a NAS. ThirdCopy exists for the person who wants just that last job done — reliably, continuously, safely — without the rest of it.

Questions

Is Carbon Copy Cloner cheaper than ThirdCopy?

No. Carbon Copy Cloner is $49.99 one-time, more than double ThirdCopy's $19.99. CCC's Personal/Household license is a genuine advantage if you own several Macs — it covers every Mac you personally use, not just one — but for a single Mac, ThirdCopy costs less than half as much.

Can Carbon Copy Cloner do one-way mirror backups?

Yes — CCC's "Backup - all files" task type is a one-way mirror: it copies everything from source to destination, and with SafetyNet enabled (the default) it moves anything no longer on the source into a "_CCC SafetyNet" folder instead of deleting it outright. ThirdCopy only does one-way mirroring, with a simpler deletion model: files removed from the source are optionally held for a set number of days, with no separate folder to manage or prune.

Does Carbon Copy Cloner back up continuously, in real time?

Not in the sense of watching for changes and mirroring within seconds. CCC runs on time-based schedules (hourly, daily, weekly, monthly) or triggers — when a source or destination reattaches, when the Mac wakes, or when it's idle — and one task can chain into another. ThirdCopy's continuous mode is the default for every backup: an FSEvents watcher notices changes, waits for things to settle, and mirrors automatically, usually within about two minutes.

Is Carbon Copy Cloner sandboxed or on the Mac App Store?

No. Carbon Copy Cloner is downloaded directly from Bombich Software's website and is not sandboxed — it installs a privileged helper tool and asks for Full Disk Access to do its job. ThirdCopy is sandboxed and distributed exclusively through the Mac App Store, using security-scoped bookmarks instead of broad disk access.

Try ThirdCopy free for 14 days — no card required.

Then $19.99 once. No subscription.

Carbon Copy Cloner is a product of Bombich Software, LLC. ThirdCopy is made by Embay, LLC and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Bombich Software. Figures above reflect our research as of the "Updated" date; see Bombich Software's site for current pricing.