Acronis True Image Review (2025): Powerful Backup Software Loaded With Extra Features

If you‘re looking for a comprehensive backup solution to protect your valuable data, Acronis True Image is one of the top choices available. With a long history in the backup and recovery space, Acronis has consistently delivered reliable products for home users and businesses. The latest version, now called Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office, offers an impressive set of features beyond just backup and restore.

In this in-depth review, we‘ll explore what makes Acronis True Image stand out, look at how well it performs its core backup duties, test out the extra security features, and help you decide if it‘s the right backup software for your needs.

Acronis True Image: Key Features

At its core, Acronis True Image is a feature-packed backup solution that makes it easy to keep your files and system safe from data loss. It allows you to make full disk image backups, back up individual files/folders, and automate your backup tasks on a schedule.

Some of the key features include:

• Full image and file-level backup
• Backup scheduling and automation
• Incremental and differential backup
• Backup to local disks, network drives, NAS, and Acronis Cloud
• AES-256 encryption for backup security
• Mobile backup of smartphone data
• Ransomware protection and antivirus
• Create bootable rescue media
• Clone disks and migrate your system

One of the best aspects of Acronis True Image is its flexibility. Power users can dive into the advanced options to customize backups exactly to their liking, while casual users can hit a few buttons and let the software handle everything automatically. Whether you just want a basic file backup or a full system image, it can do the job.

User Experience and Interface

Getting started with Acronis True Image is a very straightforward process. The installation wizard handles all the setup and provides a quick tour of the interface on first launch. Even with all its features, the main dashboard manages to feel uncluttered and easy to navigate.

Configuring your first backup is dead simple, with helpful tooltips that explain the important settings. Just choose what to back up, select a destination, set a schedule if you want, and you‘re good to go. More advanced users can dig into the many customization settings to fine-tune things like backup schemes, compression, and pre/post commands.

The software ran smooth and stable during my testing, with no crashes or glitches. Performance was excellent on my NVMe SSD system. Acronis True Image may not have the most exciting user interface compared to some rivals, but it‘s clean, functional, and gets out of your way.

Backup Performance

Of course, a backup tool is only as good as how reliably it protects your data, so I put Acronis True Image to the test. To start, I set up a full disk image backup of my primary 1TB NVMe drive to a secondary internal SSD. The initial full backup took just under an hour, which was quite speedy considering the large amount of data.

Acronis supports three main backup methods – full, incremental (only changed data since last backup), and differential (only changed data since last full backup). For my daily automatic backups, I went with the incremental mode. After the initial full backup, these incremental jobs completed in just 2-3 minutes each day. Restoring files from the backup was also fast and easy.

Next, I tested the Acronis Cloud backup functionality. I activated the 30-day trial of 500GB cloud storage and uploaded my 100GB Documents folder. Unfortunately, this was the one area that disappointed. Even on my fast 1Gbps internet connection, upload speeds to the Acronis Cloud peaked at a measly 25Mbps. The full backup took over 4 hours to complete. That‘s usable for documents and important individual folders, but impractical for backing up entire hard drives.

Local backup performance was stellar, but Acronis seriously needs to beef up the bandwidth and infrastructure powering their cloud services to match the competition.

Cybersecurity Features

Beyond backups, Acronis touts its "Cyber Protect" features as a major selling point of the True Image software. These include real-time protection against ransomware, cryptojacking, and other malware threats.

The ransomware protection worked well in my tests, successfully blocking a set of (harmless) simulated ransomware attacks. Acronis also prevented malicious website scripts from running cryptomining code, which could slow down your system.

A full antivirus scanner is included as well, powered by Bitdefender‘s engine. It can perform on-demand scans and monitor for malware in real-time. The scans were decently fast, completing a full scan of my 1TB drive in about 30 minutes. The antivirus successfully detected all common malware samples in my testing.

While it‘s convenient to have cybersecurity features built-in, I wouldn‘t necessarily choose Acronis True Image only for this functionality. It performs well, but dedicated antivirus and anti-malware tools are still the better choice. I see the Acronis security features as a nice bonus on top of the core backup capabilities.

Extra Tools

Acronis True Image comes with an impressive collection of extra tools for managing your drives and system. The most useful of these is the bootable rescue media builder. It allows you to create a bootable USB drive that you can use to restore your system in case of disaster, even if your main Windows installation becomes corrupt or unbootable.

Another handy tool is the drive cloning utility. If you want to upgrade to a new hard drive or SSD, Acronis can clone your entire system to the new disk while preserving all your applications and settings. The secure erase tool securely wipes sensitive data.

I wasn‘t as impressed with the "Try & Decide" feature which aims to create a temporary sandbox to test sketchy programs/websites, but in practice it just eats up disk space extremely quickly. It‘s a clever idea but the implementation is lacking.

Mobile Backup

With the Acronis Mobile app, you can back up the data from your smartphone or tablet to the Acronis Cloud. It supports photos, videos, contacts, calendars and reminders.

While it works decently, this feature feels a bit redundant. The built-in iCloud and Google backups are more tightly integrated, automatically backing up app data and various other settings. Acronis doesn‘t back up nearly as much.

Most users will probably stick to the built-in iOS/Android backup options, but if you want a secondary backup, the Acronis mobile app gets the job done.

Pricing

Acronis True Image follows a subscription model, with several editions available:

• Standard: $59.99/year – 1 PC/Mac, no cloud storage
• Advanced: $89.99/year – 3 devices, 500GB cloud storage (+$40/year for 1TB)
• Premium: $124.99/year – 5 devices, 1TB cloud storage

Those prices are a bit on the high end compared to some competing backup software. For comparison, Backblaze and iDrive both offer unlimited backup plans for around $60-70/year.

The Standard plan without cloud storage is a reasonable deal for its robust local backup features. But the Advanced and Premium plans get pricey considering the slow Acronis Cloud performance.

Support and Documentation

Acronis provides 24/7 support via phone, email, and live chat. The technicians I interacted with were knowledgeable and quick to assist with my questions.

There is also a very comprehensive online knowledge base with detailed articles and tutorials covering every aspect of the software. The documentation is clear and well-organized.

Additionally, the installer comes packaged with offline documentation, which is a thoughtful touch.

Overall, Acronis does an excellent job at providing support resources to users across a variety of channels.

Is Acronis True Image Right For You?

For most users seeking a reliable and full-featured backup solution, Acronis True Image is a compelling choice. The core backup and restore functionality is rock-solid, the interface is intuitive, and the wealth of customization options provide flexibility to meet almost any backup scenario.

Power users will appreciate extras like being able to boot a restored image as a virtual machine, while casual users can just let the software run on autopilot in the background.

The built-in anti-ransomware and cryptomining protection are a nice bonus, adding peace of mind. Though, the antivirus features are more of an afterthought compared to top antimalware suites.

Acronis falls a bit short when it comes to Cloud backup, with disappointingly slow upload speeds. For large cloud backups, you‘re better off with alternatives like Backblaze, iDrive, or Carbonite. But if you‘re more interested in local backup (which tends to be much faster), Acronis is a top choice.

Another downside is the relatively high subscription costs, especially if you need licenses for multiple PCs. You can find more affordable alternatives if you only need basic functionality.

Bottom Line

There‘s a lot to like about Acronis True Image. It‘s powerful, feature-rich, easy to use, and reliable for its main job of creating and restoring backups. The extras are a bit hit-and-miss and the cloud functionality needs work, but the core backup experience is top-notch. It‘s one of the most comprehensive solutions on the market.

For home users and small businesses looking to protect their valuable data with minimal hassle, Acronis True Image is an excellent choice. There may be more affordable options for basic needs, but few that match Acronis in terms of depth, customization, and features. Just keep the cloud performance caveats in mind.

If you want a tried-and-true backup workhorse from an established vendor, Acronis True Image should be on your shortlist to consider. Take advantage of the trial period to see if it meets your needs.