ThirdCopy vs. ChronoSync

ThirdCopy vs. ChronoSync: a simpler way to mirror your Mac to a NAS

ChronoSync is the 20-year veteran of Mac sync and backup — deep, powerful, and built to do far more than most people ever need. ThirdCopy does one job, one-way mirror backup, and gets you to a working setup in three steps.

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

Quick verdict

If you need bidirectional sync, bootable clones, or scripted multi-task automation across several Macs, ChronoSync's depth is hard to beat — that's what it's built for. If you just want a folder or two mirrored to a NAS, on a schedule or continuously, without learning what a "Document," "Task," or "Container" is, ThirdCopy does that one job for well under half ChronoSync's price.

	ThirdCopy	ChronoSync
Price	$19.99 once	$49.99 once (Express: ~$29.99)
Free trial	14 days, full-featured	15 days, full-featured
Ongoing cost	None, ever	None, ever
Setup model	3 steps: folders, destination, schedule	Documents, Tasks, Containers
One-way mirror backup	Yes — the only mode	Yes, via Mirror/Backup task types
Bidirectional sync	Not offered, by design	Yes
Bootable clone	Not offered, by design	Yes (full version only)
Continuous backup	Default for every backup	Opt-in per-task "Live Change" trigger
NAS / SMB share support	Yes	Yes
Mac App Store / sandboxed	Yes, full feature set	Express only, with features removed
Deleted-file handling	Optional holding period	Archive feature

What ChronoSync actually is

Econ Technologies sells a small family of related products: full ChronoSync ($49.99), a cut-down ChronoSync Express (roughly $29.99 on the Mac App Store), ChronoAgent ($19.99, turns a remote Mac into a faster backup target than plain SMB), and a Chrono Bundle of the first and third ($59.99). All are one-time purchases — Econ's own pitch is "pay once, play forever," same as ThirdCopy.

One correction worth making plainly: ChronoSync Express is sometimes remembered as a $9.99 app. That price belongs to Setapp, a subscription bundle that happens to include Express alongside dozens of unrelated apps for $9.99 a month — it isn't what Express costs on its own. Bought directly, Express runs closer to $29.99.

Where ChronoSync wins

ChronoSync is a genuinely capable tool, and it beats ThirdCopy outright on several fronts:

Bidirectional sync. ChronoSync can keep two locations in sync both ways. ThirdCopy deliberately can't — one-way-only is a safety choice, not a missing feature, but it does mean ChronoSync covers a job ThirdCopy was never built for.
Bootable clones. Full ChronoSync can build a bootable backup of your whole Mac. (Worth knowing: Apple Silicon's security model has made true bootable external clones unreliable across the entire category, not just for ChronoSync — this feature is fading industry-wide, not a ChronoSync-specific weak point.)
Filtering depth. Three explicit tiers — Simple, Intermediate, Advanced — with more than a dozen rule types you can combine into boolean expressions and save as templates. ThirdCopy's filtering is standard OS junk-file exclusion, full stop.
Multi-task automation. Containers chain jobs together with custom pre/post-task scripting. ThirdCopy has no scripting layer at all — it isn't trying to.
Two decades of NAS troubleshooting knowledge. Econ publishes deep technical notes on network performance quirks that a newer product like ThirdCopy hasn't accumulated yet.

Where ThirdCopy is simpler

One flow, not four concepts. ChronoSync asks you to understand Documents, Tasks, Organizers, and Containers before your first backup runs. ThirdCopy asks you to pick folders, pick a destination, and pick a schedule — that's the whole app.
Continuous by default. ThirdCopy watches your folders and backs up shortly after things change, out of the box. In ChronoSync, real-time behavior is a per-task setting ("Live Change") you have to find and turn on.
Full-featured and sandboxed. ThirdCopy ships its entire feature set through the Mac App Store's sandbox. ChronoSync only reaches the App Store as Express — and Express gets there by removing bootable backups, scripting, wake-on-schedule, and root file access.
Self-healing. ThirdCopy watches the backup destination itself; if a file there is deleted or altered outside a run, it's restored automatically, backed by a periodic integrity check. ChronoSync doesn't watch destinations this way.
Price. $19.99 once versus $49.99 for full ChronoSync — less than half — while still costing about $10 less than the stripped-down Express tier.

The honest tradeoff

ChronoSync's reviewers are candid about the cost of all that power: Macworld called it a tool with "a justified fan base," but independent reviews and ChronoSync's own G2 comments describe a real learning curve — "took me a long time to learn how to use it in a consistent way," "seems to be built for people who have a thorough understanding of computers." Tellingly, that complaint follows Express too, not just the full app: it's a smaller feature set wearing the same interface, not a redesigned simple one. ThirdCopy exists specifically for the person who reads that and thinks: I don't want any of that, I just want my folder mirrored to my NAS every night.

Questions

Is ChronoSync Express cheaper than ThirdCopy?

Not really. ChronoSync Express is priced at roughly $29.99 on the Mac App Store — the $9.99 figure some people remember is actually Setapp's monthly all-you-can-eat subscription price, which happens to include Express along with dozens of unrelated apps, not Express's own standalone price. ThirdCopy is $19.99 once, about $10 less than Express, and doesn't drop bootable backups, scripting, or wake-on-schedule to get there — because it never had them to begin with.

Can ChronoSync do one-way mirror backups?

Yes — ChronoSync's Mirror and Backup task types are one-way. The difference is setup: you configure them inside ChronoSync's Document/Task/Container model, which is built to also support bidirectional sync, bootable cloning, and multi-task automation. ThirdCopy only does one-way mirroring, so there's no mode to choose and no other concepts to learn first.

Does ChronoSync support continuous or real-time backup?

Yes, via an opt-in per-task "Live Change" trigger that has existed since 2017 and was refined in ChronoSync 12. It's a setting you turn on for a given task. ThirdCopy makes continuous, watch-and-mirror behavior the default for every backup, tuned to settle for 5 seconds and wait at least 30 seconds between runs so it never thrashes.

Is ChronoSync sandboxed or on the Mac App Store?

Full ChronoSync is sold directly from Econ Technologies and is not sandboxed. ChronoSync Express is the Mac App Store, sandboxed version — but to qualify for the sandbox it gives up bootable backups, scripting, waking a sleeping Mac for scheduled jobs, and root-level file access. ThirdCopy is sandboxed and on the Mac App Store without dropping any of its features to get there, because its feature set was scoped for that from day one.

Try ThirdCopy free for 14 days — no card required.

Then $19.99 once. No subscription.

ChronoSync, ChronoSync Express, and ChronoAgent are products of Econ Technologies, Inc. ThirdCopy is made by Embay, LLC and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Econ Technologies. Figures above reflect our research as of the "Updated" date; see Econ Technologies' site for current pricing.