Acronis True Image review: Unique, do-it-all PC security and backup
At a Glance
Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Imaging, backup, and disaster recovery
- Actively protects against viruses and ransomware
- Integrated cloud storage available
Cons
- Subscription-only makes it expensive over time
- Heavy installation footprint and lots of telemetry
- No more folder sync
Our Verdict
Acronis True Image is a comprehensive security solution without peer thanks to integrated anti-malware, backup, and disaster recovery features. However, it has a heavy system footprint, there’s lots of telemetry, and it’s subscription-only.
Price When Reviewed
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Price When Reviewed
69,95 Euro
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Acronis True Image (2026) is without question the most comprehensive suite of utilities for keeping your computer secure and backed up. As far as breadth of features is concerned, it’s not even particularly close.
True Image is still a very good backup program, and extremely good at security. But since our last look in 2024, all the new features are “security” related and it actually lost the ability to sync folders so it’s not the tightest fit for the backup category. (Norton 360 anyone?)
We’re still on board with the program, but being subscription-only, it’s also teetering on the edge of pricey overkill for the average user.
Read on to learn more, then see our roundup of the best Windows backup software for comparison.
What are Acronis True Image’s features?
There’s a lot to cover in a program as comprehensive as True Image. I’ll get to the anti-malware and security features in a bit, but as the program started life as a fantastic and reliable backup program — let’s talk about that first.
True Image creates image files (container files created from data sectors) from drives or partitions, as well as selected files and folders. These can be full (everything), incremental (everything since the last backup), or differential (everything since the initial backup).
There are different “schemes” you can employ using the backup types described above, which describe how to mix and cull them — e.g., the “Version chain scheme” shown below periodically creates full backups, creates incremental backups in between, and deletes everything over a month old.
Note that I’d only use the “Version chain scheme” alongside a full backup that is never culled.
A host of other options are provided such as granular scheduling (to the hour), notifications, running programs pre- and post- backup, image-splitting, verification, and even a reserve copy of the backup.
I particularly appreciate the “Reserve copy” as it partially ameliorates one of my pet peeves — having to recreate the same job over and over just to backup the same data set to different locations. In light of that, why not multiple reserve copies? Acronis?
Additionally, the program backs up to and from nearly any type of media or location: local drives, network destinations, the 250GB/1TB of cloud storage provided by Acronis with some subscriptions, and even optical — remember CDs and DVDs? They’re still in use! If you’re super old-school, sorry, tape is not supported.
True Image will optionally place a version of the program on removable media for use during restore (Acronis calls it “recovery”) operations — i.e. create a disaster recovery boot disk.
My favorite feature of the recovery disk, other than being able to make additional emergency backups (some recovery disks, such as Ashampoo Backup Pro’s don’t), is the system report facility.
Once again, I’m sorry to inform you (once again) that the True Image clients no longer let you create folder sync relationships. There’s still a “Sync” option in the menu column to the left. Click on it, however, and you’re presented with the message shown at the bottom of the image below.
I suppose the Sync option was left in so that Acronis could assure users that their synced data on Acronis Cloud had not disappeared. But the upshot is that Acronis is selling subscription software that’s actually ditching features. Say it ain’t so, Joe.
The Acronis Mobile app (shown below) is also available to back up files from your phone or other mobile device to the Acronis Cloud or local computers.
Other related and tangential backup features include disk cloning, an OEM-like recovery partition (boot time restore of your original OS state from your internal drive) creator, a system cleanup tool (think CCleaner), and a secure-erase utility.
Acronis True Image sports a clean, attractive interface, and is easy to use — once you’re accustomed to it. It’s not amazingly intuitive when it comes to organization and operation and I have several complaints about terminology (Network Locations, not NAS) and display (always a closed tree). But a half-hour kicking the tires and you should be good to go. Assuming you’re familiar with basic backup concepts, of course.
Note that True Image uses proprietary image formats — .tib up to 2019, and .tibx starting in 2020. The new format is not backwards compatible, but the latest version was able to mount some .tib archives I had from 2005/6. I could’ve sword this was not possible during my last look in 2024, forcing me to retreat to the 2019 version. However, it might also have been user error.
Acronis offers a “Convert to VHD” feature, but this didn’t seem to work on older .tib files. Neither did mounting them, which appeared successful but failed when I tried to copy the files off. Download the 2019 version (run it as a 30-day trial if you no longer have a valid serial) and use it for restoring data from older .tbi files to VHDs created with Disk Manager.
Caveat: Be careful when opening old .tib files. Work with copies as it’s easy to accidentally erase the old one if you delete the job you create using “Add existing backup” and select “Delete Entirely,” which is the first option. Don’t ask.
Now for the promised discussion of the system protection/security features.
How effective are Acronis True Image’s protection and security features?
A few years ago Acronis spotted an opening in the market created by a spate of ransomware attacks. It rapidly added some rather clever protection to its flagship backup software’s bag of tricks. (And changed the name for a while to Cyber Protect, which still adorns business versions)
Don’t pooh-pooh ransomware as something that happens to someone else. It happened to me on a NAS box hosting my website. Without backups, I would’ve been royally hosed.
Acronis subsequently expanded anti-malware capabilities to protect against general threats, malicious websites, and bad behavior such as code injection into apps. This obviously requires real-time intervention — a big addition back in 2021.
Originally, True Image would fire off a new backup upon detecting malware, but now it deals with the malware and repairs damaged files. You can choose to protect backups from malware, but that option doesn’t prevent accidental user deletion as does Easeus ToDo Backup.
Relatively new to the game (late 2025) is patch management, found under the Vulnerabilities section. Basically True Image checks the status of your Windows installations and tells you what patches are available.
Alas, it sends you online for the info about them. I’m not sure why this info couldn’t be downloaded and presented within the program. After all, True Image is in constant contact with the company’s servers. This type of information changes, but so do the AV definitions. I did mention there’s an AV scan, right? There is.
New to me also, is an identity protection service which is implemented from the Acronis website. Of course, one might question the wisdom of providing the amount of information that this requires. But I’m a paranoid type.
That comes down to your trust in the company. I lend exactly zero credence to any Wikipedia page covering a possibly contentious subject (log on as an editor some time and look at the edits), but this one seems like a relatively accurate and unbiased history of Acronis.
To test True Image’s bad-guys-on-the-web abilities I ran the tests on the WICAR.ORG site and surfed some known bad areas of the web. True Image caught everything. As effective as it proved, real-time protection is optional and may be turned off.
On macOS, I found True Image’s malware protection a bit over-zealous, forcing me to restore almost 80 programs that I knew to be safe. On that platform, I’ll stick with the occasional Malwarebytes scan.
How much does Acronis True Image cost?
Acronis provides a 30-day trial that you can use to test out the program. Beyond that, it’s $50 for a one-year subscription sans online storage (Essentials); $73 per year for Advanced with 250GB of storage; and $125 a year for Premium with 1TB of storage. A full comparison is a available here (scroll down a bit on the linked page).
You’re basically paying $75 per year for the 1TB of storage with True Image, which isn’t outrageously expensive but certainly not cheap. For instance, Easeus ToDo Backup’s 1TB of online storage is only $20 a year on top of the subscription.
Note that if the True Image subscription lapses, you’ll be limited to restoring data from the recovery disk after 30 days. You’ll also need to grab your existing online data within that period.
Which brings me to cloud storage managers such as CloudMounter and Mountain Duck, which will integrate any number of different online storage services into Windows Explorer as pseudo/virtual local drives. This could let you use the $50 tier for an initial savings.
$50 a year adds up quickly over time, and purely as a backup program that isn’t adding any significant features (it’s lost one, remember?) — that’s a lousy deal. Especially when there are competent freebies from Easeus and Aomei, as well as the no-longer-supported-but-still-highly effective free version of Macrium Reflect.
Adding online storage makes True Image an “okay” deal, but it’s the security features that make the yearly fees palatable and/or worthwhile. These work very well, and need to be updated continually, so a subscription for that is understandable.
Put in more simple terms, don’t buy True Image solely for backup, but buy it as a unique and effective total security solution.
If you’re looking for a comprehensive, set-it-and-forget-it data-safety solution, I know of nothing better than True Image.
How does Acronis True Image perform?
Generally speaking, True Image is as quick as it gets. I ran backup jobs to external and internal SSDs, a NAS box (2.5Gbps), wrote folders to optical (single BD-R/M-Disc), and to Acronis Cloud. All proceeded as quickly as you could ask given their particular bandwidth, and without incident. I hate incidents and tend not to trust backup software that suffers them.
The issues I experienced in 2024 with the Linux boot disc, were nowhere in sight. Yay, Acronis!
Alas, I did experience the following error when trying to restore some data from Acronis Cloud. Stuff happens, but this does point out the advantage of local backup as well as not relying solely on the cloud.
My only real performance gripe is that the main interface is rather slow to launch. No doubt due the large number of processes spawned by the various components, not to mention connecting to Acronis Cloud. The program is doing a lot.
As to processes, True Image has a sprawling system footprint that spawns a whopping 13 of them (shown above). I noticed no impact on overall system performance, and modern PCs should be able to handle it with ease — if you don’t pile on a lot of other stuff. For older legacy hardware it might be a strain. True Image also takes up somewhere around 1.6GB of disk space.
In my 2024 look, Google analytics report sender was running alongside True Image (see above). No bueno. This is no longer the case; however, while comprehensive, True Image is also singularly intrusive and loves to send you to the web portal without asking — less than perfectly polite.
Should you buy Acronis True Image?
If you’re looking for a comprehensive, set-it-and-forget-it data-safety solution, I know of nothing better than True Image. Or comparable for that matter, though Retrospect seems headed down this path as well. Anyone who works in a high-threat environment should likely sign up. This is source of the 4.5 star rating.
That said, True Image is likely pricey overkill for the average user, there’s a ton of telemetry going on (privacy anyone?), and it’s subscription software is losing instead of gaining backup features.
I have a proposal for Acronis. Along with baking in legacy format support, take a hike back in time, and offer the clean, efficient, small footprint utility that simply images disks and partitions reliably that we all loved. Sell it with a perpetual license and recovery disk for $30 or less. Oh, and use a non-proprietary format such as VHD.
Editor’s note: Because online services are often iterative, gaining new features and performance improvements over time, this review is subject to change in order to accurately reflect the current state of the service. Any changes to text will be noted above this notice and changed conclusions at the top.
