At the price charged, plus bi-annual renewal costs, I have always, over the years, compared Sync Pro's features to alternative software to see if it’s worth it and over the last 7 years, I found it to be indispensible as it could do a whole load of things other backup software couldn’t. As its now time for another comparison (another bi-annual cost is looming), I thought I'd post how, for me, Sync Pro currently compares:

1) Bootable Backup - One of the reasons I bought Sync Pro X years ago was because of its ability to take advantage of FSEvents technology in OS X which initially resulted in me being able to do a bootable backup on my MBP in seconds. However, FSEvents has proved to be a bit flakey, resulting in Sync Pro being unable to properly commence, let alone finish a bootable backup. The workaround is to turn off FSEvents, which reduces Sync Pro to the same speed as the considerably cheaper and even free alternatives out there. In fact, those same alternatives actually produce a better quality clone, if Backup Bouncer is your guide. The developer has also suggested that I should fix permissions on my drive/ completely re-install my system, just to make Sync Pro work properly. Despite the fact that I haven’t needed to do this with other backup software, I went along with these suggestions, but the issues still persist.

2) Syncing - No problems here but again, the syncing abilities are easily replicated by cheaper alternative software.

3) Archiving - There’ still nothing that can better Sync Pro’s archiving options. By this, I mean the ability to distinguish exactly what files and folders get archived, where the archives are saved (ie, a different disk to your backup destination drive), and the ability to group archive folders into DVD sized chunks. Well, DVDs are on the way out, so there’s not much need for me to burn archives to DVD and to be honest, I can’t think of a reason for me to save archives to a different disk (your experience may vary). Personally, I am happy to archive files and folders in a folder structure to the same destination backup disk and this can also be done with cheaper alternative software.

4) Ability to open and close disks - Again, this can be one with cheaper alternative software.

5) Ability to open and close other programs - Still (I think) a unique feature of Sync Pro if it’s what you need.

6) Bugs and support - In my experience, Sync Pro has always had bugs of some sort, which is ok, considering how complex it is and the developer will always strive to provide a fix. My current issue is that it won’t complete a backup on just my home folder then, after a special copy of Sync Pro had been provided by the developer to try and fix the issue, files and folders which it was supposed to backup were completely missed. I'm sure, the developer would have eventually found a fix or workaround for all of these issues and he does reply within a day, provides suggestions to problems and provides specific copies of the software to try work around your problem. But for the price paid, I'd hoped that these kind of issues didn't arise in the first place, they don't seem to with the alternative software available. The developer's suggested solutions (fixing permissions/ reinstalling the system which as I say, aren't necessary with alternative software) haven’t always worked.

Sync Pro does provide extra very good features such as folder watching and being able to log in without being the root user but for the price paid, what I really wanted/needed was for this to work first time a lot more than what it did without having to find fixes. So for my needs, I settled on separate cloning software and syncing/ archiving software to complete those specific tasks. I find that works out far more reliably and cheaper than Sync Pro.

No set agenda here, and the software has worked more often than not - just my experience.

Been a long time user and very happy with this softare. Absolutely no need for me to use the alternatives. I use it to virus check my entire hard drive, but it’s also handy just to check a particular folder. Thank you developer.

I’ve used Quicksilver and Launchbar to do things for me for years but still see the Finder as integral to OS X. And for me, Total Finder, with all that it enables, is THE Finder, not the one that comes with OS X, which is cumbersome by comparison.

There initially seemed to be some issues with stability but I can honestly say I haven’t had any issues with crashing or TF not working for what must be over a year.

Easily recomended.

At last, I was hoping someone would develop this kind of app. Neither iCal or Address Book are much good in their recent incarnations. As far as iCal’s concerned, that’s ok, as we have Busycal and Fantastical which take us away from iCal but keep us within the Apple ‘ecosystem’. We never really had the same sort of simple alternative with the Lion version of Address Book. Until now. At last, I can instantly access and edit my contacts from the Menu Bar in a similar way to Fantastical and start forgetting about the Address Book app.

It’s just Beta at the moment and there are some things that need to be ironed out (the most obvious ones being the ability to group your contacts and better viewing options) but that’s ok for the time being, and if it stops working for some reason, your data will still be there as it automatically syncs with Address Book.

Recommended, for sure.

This is perfect (and I mean perfect) for amending/ changing wording within PDF files.

This outfit have taken my money, supplied a serial, only for me to be told that "Registration Failed!". An email to support has also been returned by the recipient domain. I appear to have thrown my money down the toilet. In the name of fairness, I shall update Macupdate immediately if this matter is resolved. Until then...

DO *NOT* BUY THIS PRODUCT.