Alternatives to Timeshift
System restore for Linux: scheduled snapshots you can roll back to after an update goes wrong. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Timeshift
System restore for Linux: scheduled snapshots you can roll back to after an update goes wrong.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Timeshift.
Back In Time
Graphical front-end for incremental rsync backups on Linux.
Back In Time is also Linux-only and uses rsync with hard links, but adds a graphical front end with restores through a file manager and no BTRFS snapshot mode.
rsnapshot
Filesystem snapshot backups using rsync and hard links.
rsnapshot keeps rsync and hard-link snapshots as browsable directories and runs on macOS as well as Linux, but it is command-line driven and has no encryption or compression.
Rescuezilla
A bootable disk imaging and cloning tool that is Clonezilla with a graphical interface people can actually use.
Rescuezilla images the whole drive from a bootable USB stick with a point-and-click interface, so a restore brings back everything, but it cannot run scheduled snapshots from the desktop.
Clonezilla
A bootable disk cloner that images a whole drive or partition, including systems it cannot understand.
Clonezilla takes full drive images from a boot environment using text menus, with no scheduled or background operation and no single-file restore, unlike Timeshift's automatic snapshot levels.
Redo Rescue
Create and restore disk images from a bootable rescue environment.
Redo Rescue creates and restores disk images from a bootable rescue environment, which can recover a machine that no longer boots, but it needs bootable media and separate image storage.
Snapper
A Linux command-line tool for creating and managing filesystem snapshots so system changes can be undone.
Snapper is a free GPL-2.0 command-line tool that undoes system changes through Btrfs or LVM snapshots and integrates with zypper and PAM, with no graphical interface of its own.
Btrfs Assistant
A Linux GUI for managing Btrfs subvolumes, Snapper snapshots, and balance and scrub tasks.
Btrfs Assistant gives a graphical interface to Snapper snapshots plus subvolume, balance and scrub management, but only on Btrfs and after Snapper is set up.
Also worth comparing
These listings name Timeshift as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
btrbk
Backup tool for Btrfs that takes atomic snapshots and sends them incrementally to backup locations.
Timeshift schedules Btrfs or rsync snapshots with a graphical interface and automatic pruning. It is aimed at rolling back system files and needs an Ubuntu-style subvolume layout in Btrfs mode.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
restic
A single-executable backup program that makes encrypted, deduplicated snapshots and can send them almost anywhere.
BorgBackup
A deduplicating archiver for Linux, macOS and BSD that makes daily backups cost almost nothing beyond the day’s changes.
Kopia
An encrypted snapshot backup tool with both a command line and a proper desktop app, pointed at whatever storage you choose.
Déjà Dup
GNOME's backup app: pick folders and a destination, and it handles encryption, scheduling and versions for you.
Pika Backup
A GNOME front end for BorgBackup: plug in a USB drive, pick folders, and it handles the rest.
SystemRescue
A bootable Linux toolkit for repairing a broken machine: partitioning, filesystem repair, data recovery and network tools on one USB stick.
