Disk Drill Alternatives for Mac: Data Recovery Apps Compared

You deleted a folder, emptied the Trash, or formatted the wrong SD card, and now you are searching for a way back. Disk Drill is usually the first name that comes up. It has been around since 2010, version 6.3 shipped in July 2026, and the free Basic edition lets you scan a drive and preview what it finds. Recovering those files takes Disk Drill PRO, which costs €139 for a lifetime license or €79 a year in Europe (prices vary by region).

That is a fair price if Disk Drill finds your files. Before you pay for any recovery app, though, it is worth knowing which other apps do the same job and what each lets you try for free. A free scan is also the only way to find out whether your lost files can still be recovered at all.

Quick Verdict

• Best all-rounder: Disk Drill. Clear interface, Mac and Windows on one license, and free extras like byte-to-byte backups and disk health checks.
• Best free trial to actually recover files: EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac, which recovers up to 2 GB free.
• Best for damaged photos and videos: Stellar Data Recovery for Mac Premium, which adds photo and video repair; its free version recovers 1 GB.
• Best for encrypted drives and Macs that won't start: iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac, with a 14-day money-back guarantee.
• Best free option: PhotoRec, open source and unlimited, if you are fine with a Terminal-style interface and files without their original names.
• Before any of them: check the Trash, Recently Deleted folders, iCloud.com and Time Machine. They cost nothing and are more reliable than any scan.

First, Check Whether You Need an App at All

Data recovery apps are a last resort, and on a modern Mac they often find less than people hope. Try these first:

• Trash and Recently Deleted. Photos, Notes and Mail keep deleted items for a while in their own Recently Deleted folders, separate from the Finder Trash.
• iCloud.com. Files deleted from iCloud Drive can be restored from iCloud.com for 30 days, under Data Recovery in your account settings.
• Time Machine. If you have a backup, restore the item from Time Machine. This brings back the file with its name, folder and contents intact, which a recovery scan often can't.
• Earlier versions. In apps like Pages, Numbers, Keynote and TextEdit, File > Revert To > Browse All Versions can bring back an older copy of a document you overwrote.

Know the limits of internal SSDs. Every recent Mac has an SSD, and macOS tells it to clear deleted blocks (TRIM) so it stays fast. On top of that, Apple silicon and T2 Macs encrypt the internal drive. Together, this means files deleted from the internal drive are often gone for good within a short time. Recovery apps have much better odds on external hard drives, USB sticks, SD cards and camera cards, especially if you stop using the drive right away.

Stop writing to the drive. Every file you save can overwrite what you want back. Don't install the recovery app on the drive you are recovering from, and save recovered files to a different drive.

Feature Comparison

Disk Drill

Disk Drill, made by CleverFiles, is the one to beat because it is easy to use. You pick a drive, run a scan and get a list of found files grouped by type, with previews so you can check a photo or document before you pay. It recovers from internal and external drives, memory cards, RAID arrays, and iPhones, iPads and Android devices. The Mac version supports Apple silicon and T2 Macs, and CleverFiles' system requirements list macOS 26 Tahoe and macOS 27 for Disk Drill 6.

The free tools are a real plus. Disk Drill includes a byte-to-byte backup of a failing drive (so you can scan the copy instead of the dying original), disk health monitoring, a duplicate finder, a disk space map and a bootable recovery drive maker. Its data protection feature keeps track of files before they are deleted, and recovering files it protected is free.

The PRO license covers Mac and Windows, personal and business use, on up to 3 devices. Note that CleverFiles says purchases are non-refundable except where the law requires otherwise, so use the free scan and preview to check that your files are there before you buy. Disk Drill also used to be part of Setapp, but its Setapp page now redirects to the catalog, so buy it directly.

Choose Disk Drill if you want the most approachable app with useful extras, and you may need it on both a Mac and a Windows PC.

Stellar Data Recovery for Mac

Stellar has been in the data recovery business since 1993, and it sells the widest range of editions here. The free version recovers up to 1 GB, enough for a handful of documents or photos. Professional adds unlimited recovery, partition recovery and recovery from a Mac that won't start. Premium adds repair of corrupted photos and videos, which helps when a recovered file opens broken. Technician adds NAS and RAID recovery.

Stellar lists support for macOS 27 and Apple silicon M1 through M6, plus Intel Macs with T1 and T2 chips. It shows files as the scan runs, so you can pause a long deep scan, preview and recover what you need. Prices on Stellar's site were in euros for us: Professional at €99 for a year on an offer running to November 16, 2026 (normally €119), and Premium and Technician cost more. Check your region's price on the buy page.

Choose Stellar if your recovered photos or videos come back damaged, or you need NAS or RAID recovery.

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac

EaseUS is one of the biggest names in recovery software, and on Mac it has the most generous free tier here: 2 GB of real recovery, plus scanning, filtering and preview. That makes it the best app to try first when you only need a few files back, because you may not have to pay at all.

The paid Pro edition recovers unlimited data. Its pricing is unusual: every license is a one-time payment without auto-renewal, and the difference is how long you get free upgrades (one month for $89.95, one year for $119.95, lifetime for $169.95). EaseUS lists support from OS X 10.9 to macOS 27 and offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. It can also save and import scan results, so you don't have to rescan a large drive.

Choose EaseUS if you hope to get a small amount of data back for free, or prefer a license that never renews.

iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac

iBoysoft is best known for Mac utilities (it also sells NTFS and BitLocker drivers for Mac), and its recovery app is built around Mac-specific problems. It recovers from encrypted APFS volumes, from drives that won't mount, and from a Mac that won't start by running from macOS Recovery Mode. It supports macOS 27 and Apple silicon and Intel Macs, T2 included.

The free version scans and previews files; recovery needs the Professional edition. It costs $89.95 for one month (no auto-renewal), $99.95 a year (auto-renewing) or $169.95 lifetime, for one Mac, with a 14-day money-back guarantee. A Technician edition covers 5 Macs for service providers.

Choose iBoysoft if your Mac won't boot, or the lost files are on an encrypted APFS drive.

PhotoRec

PhotoRec is the free, open-source option, from the same developer as TestDisk (a partition repair tool that comes with it). The current version is 7.2, and on a Mac you can install both with Homebrew (brew install testdisk). It has no recovery limit and handles hundreds of file formats on almost any file system, because it ignores the file system and searches the raw drive for known file signatures.

That approach is also its drawback. PhotoRec runs as a text-based app in Terminal, it can't preview files, and it recovers files with generated names in folders like recup_dir.1, so you sort through the results yourself. It works well for a formatted SD card full of photos, and less well when you need one specific document with its name and folder.

Choose PhotoRec if you're comfortable in Terminal and want to recover a lot of files without paying.

Which One Should You Use?

• You only need a few files back: try EaseUS first (2 GB free), then Stellar (1 GB free).
• You want the easiest app and you'll use it on Windows too: Disk Drill.
• Recovered photos or videos won't open: Stellar Premium.
• Your Mac won't start, or the drive is encrypted APFS: iBoysoft.
• You lost a whole card of photos and don't want to pay: PhotoRec.
• The drive clicks, isn't detected, or keeps disconnecting: stop using it and talk to a professional recovery service; scanning a physically failing drive can make things worse.

Whichever app you try, run the free scan first. Every app here shows you what it found before you pay, and if the files you need aren't in that list, buying the full version won't change that.

Final Verdict

Disk Drill remains the most pleasant recovery app on the Mac, and its free tools make it useful even when nothing is lost. It isn't the only good choice, though. EaseUS gives you the most free recovery, Stellar is the one to pick for damaged media and NAS drives, iBoysoft handles unbootable Macs and encrypted drives well, and PhotoRec is free with no limits for anyone comfortable in Terminal.

The best data recovery app is still a backup you never have to recover from. If this scare is your reminder, set up Time Machine or one of the apps in our Carbon Copy Cloner vs SuperDuper, ChronoSync and Time Machine comparison, and add an off-site copy with one of the Backblaze alternatives.

Catch these apps on sale: many paid Mac apps, including utilities like these, run discounts at least once a year, most often around Black Friday. Subscribe to the Apps.Deals newsletter to hear when the deals arrive.

Note: Features and prices are current as of November 2026. Prices on some vendor sites were shown in euros for our region and vary by country; check each developer's site before buying.