# SuperDuper

12 Hacker News commenters recommended SuperDuper and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 12 years (3 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Reliable Mac backup app that makes bootable clones and runs quietly across many macOS updates. Critics mainly point to a website and docs they suspect were LLM-generated.

## Why people recommend it

- Reliable across many macOS versions (3 comments): "it's just been working for countless updates and across many Mac devices and OS versions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49219073)) "It works. It does its job. It doesn't pester me with popups." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49219777)) "SuperDuper which has also been solid for even longer" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45876312))
- Makes clones and device backups (2 comments): "back up the computer with the device backups with SuperDuper! (free)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47982749)) "clone it onto another machine with SuperDuper" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48367552))
- Worth paying to upgrade (2 comments): "one of those gems which I will happily pay to upgrade every release without a second thought" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49219112)) "While I agree that SuperDuper! is worth buying" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46954805))
- Part of trusted backup strategies (2 comments): "SuperDuper is part of John Siracusa's backup strategy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49220663)) "I'm a big fan of SuperDuper" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46849260))

## What people warn about

- Website and docs look LLM-generated (2 comments): "the website is broken and appears to have been generated with an LLM" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49220445)) "The site looks like every other Claudesite, the docs are Claudemade" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49219093))
- Broke on macOS internals and AppleScript (2 comments): "probably more to come if the super-smart LLM took shortcuts around arcane MacOS esoterica in the name of "optimization"" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49219426)) "it stopped working, and upon investigating, I discovered it used AppleScript under the covers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49219333))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Time Machine](https://hackerapproved.com/p/time-machine.md): 70 recommend
- [Carbon Copy Cloner](https://hackerapproved.com/p/carbon-copy-cloner.md): 15 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.shirt-pocket.com/classic.php)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "SuperDuper", https://hackerapproved.com/p/superduper/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).