Areca Backup

Areca Backup is a free, open-source (GPL-2.0) file backup program for Windows and Linux, written in Java. It is aimed at admins and power users who want incremental, differential or delta backups of chosen folders, with compression and encryption. One thing up front before any Areca Backup download: the original project has not released anything since version 7.5 in August 2015.

There is now an independent community fork maintained by “bugtamer”, with a Windows 64-bit build 8.2.6 released in June 2026. The original developer’s website domain has passed to an unrelated third party, so do not treat it as an official source. For new deployments, look at a maintained tool first. The rest of this page covers what Areca does, how to keep an existing setup working, and how to move off it.

Areca Backup at a glance

What it does

• Backs up selected files and folders (“targets”) as a plain copy of the files or as ZIP/ZIP64 archives.
• Supports full, incremental and differential backups, and delta backup that stores only the changed parts of large files.
• Encrypts archives with AES-128 or AES-256.
• Stores backups on local or network drives, USB disks, or FTP, FTPS and SFTP servers.
• Filters files by extension, folder, regular expression, size or date, with AND/OR/NOT logic.
• Browses archives and recovers a single file or a whole target as it was on a given date.
• Merges old archives to save space, and runs post-backup actions such as email reports or shell scripts.
• Includes a command-line tool (areca_cl) for scheduled runs.

How sysadmins use it

Run a scheduled backup from the command line

Areca has no built-in scheduler. You run areca_cl from Task Scheduler or cron against the XML configuration created in the GUI:

areca_cl backup -config C:arecaconfigmyconfig.xml
areca_cl backup -config C:arecaconfigmyconfig.xml -target 1 -d -c

-f forces a full backup, -d a differential one, and -c checks archive consistency afterwards. Without -f or -d, the backup is incremental.

Restore files as of a date

1. In the GUI, select the target, open the Physical view tab and double-click an archive to browse it.
2. Or restore from the command line and verify the result:

   areca_cl recover -config C:arecaconfigmyconfig.xml -target 1 -destination D:restore -date 2026-09-01 -c

Migrate off Areca safely

1. Check the latest archives with areca_cl check -config ... -target 1 -a.
2. Recover the most recent state of each target to a staging folder (see above) and spot-check the files.
3. Set up the replacement tool and run its first full backup from the live data.
4. Keep the old Areca archives, the XML configuration and a copy of Areca 7.5 until the retention period ends. Encrypted archives need the original password.

Install and first run

Windows. The final 7.5 release comes as an installer or zip with a bundled 64-bit or 32-bit Java runtime. The fork’s 8.2.6 build is a Windows x86-64 zip. Start the GUI with areca.exe and the CLI with areca_cl.exe.

Linux. Version 7.5 ships as GTK tarballs for 32-bit and 64-bit systems. It needs a Java runtime and the SWT/GTK libraries, and old SWT builds can misbehave on current desktops. Start it with areca.sh and areca_cl.sh.

Gotchas. Memory limits are set in areca.l4j.ini and areca_cl.l4j.ini (Xms/Xmx) on Windows, so raise them for very large targets. Old Java libraries in 7.5 may fail against modern SFTP servers or TLS settings. Test transfers before trusting a remote target. Run backups under an account that can read all source files.

Limitations

• The original project is abandoned: no fixes since 2015 and no support.
• The community fork is maintained by one person. At the time of writing, its latest build is Windows-only and it has no GitHub releases.
• File-level only: no disk images and no bare-metal restore. Areca itself does not use Volume Shadow Copy, so locked files such as open PST files need the separate third-party ArecaVSS plugin.
• No built-in scheduler or service; you rely on Task Scheduler or cron.
• Java and SWT dependencies make it fragile on new operating system versions.

Areca Backup vs alternatives

For Windows PCs that need full system images and rescue media, AOMEI Backupper Standard is an actively updated free edition, free for non-commercial use. FreeFileSync is free, cross-platform and maintained, and it can keep versions of deleted and overwritten files, which covers many simple folder-backup jobs. Cobian Backup offers a similar file-level feature set on Windows, but it is also at its final release. For deduplicated, encrypted backups to NAS or cloud storage, maintained open-source tools such as restic or Kopia are the modern equivalent.

FAQ

Is Areca Backup still maintained?

The original project is not: its last release is 7.5 from August 2015. A community fork by bugtamer released 8.2.6 for Windows in June 2026.

Is Areca Backup free?

Yes. It is free and open source under GPL-2.0, and so is the fork.

Does Areca Backup run on Linux?

Yes. Version 7.5 has Linux GTK builds and needs a Java runtime. The fork’s latest binary build is for Windows only.

Is there an Areca Backup portable version?

The Windows zip packages run without an installer, so you can keep Areca and its configuration on a USB drive.

Is Areca Backup on GitHub?

The fork’s source code is on GitHub (bugtamer/areca-backup). The original code and releases are on SourceForge.

What is a good Areca Backup alternative?

FreeFileSync for folder copies with versioning, AOMEI Backupper Standard for Windows system images, or restic/Kopia for deduplicated encrypted backups.

Can I still restore old Areca archives?

Yes. Areca 7.5 or the fork can open existing archives through the GUI or areca_cl recover. You need the configuration file and, for encrypted archives, the password.

Last checked against official sources: 30 September 2026 (developer website: sourceforge.net). Versions and licence terms change — confirm on the developer's site before deploying in production.