There’s a plethora of iPhone transfer programs available that can serve as iTunes alternatives for transferring data between an iPhone and a computer. However, these programs often offer additional features, such as the ability to view and extract files from iOS backup files, migrate content from an old device to a new iPhone, perform wireless backups of specific media files, and more.
In this post, we will introduce some of the best iPhone transfer/manager software options. We’ll highlight their innovative features, provide links to their trial versions, discuss their pricing, and share recent coupon codes. We hope you find this information helpful. (Please note that these apps are also compatible with iPad and iPod devices.)
- 1) iMazing – iPhone Manager
- 2) iMobie AnyTrans – iPhone Transfer
- 3) iExplorer – iPhone to Computer Transfer
- 4) MobileTrans – Best Phone to Phone Transfer
- 5) PhoneTrans – Phone Transfer
- 6) Tenorshare iCareFone – iOS Backup Tool
- 7) Wondershare TunesGo
- 8) Aiseesoft FoneTrans – Transfer 16+ FileTypes on iPhone
- 9) CopyTrans – Transfer Between iPhone and PC
- 10) WALTR 2 – Simplest Drop to iPhone Transfer Tool
- 11) iSkysoft iTransfer (TunesOver)
- 12) Xilisoft – DVD to iPhone Transfer
- 13) Leawo iTransfer – Small iPhone Transfer Tool
iMazing – iPhone Manager
iMazing is an iPhone transfer software created by DigiDNA, a Switzerland software developer. This program makes it easy to transfer, backup, print, and manage data on your iPhone and iPad. You can absolutely use it as a replacement for iTunes to manage your device. But actually, it could be better than iTunes for data transferring.
So what outstanding features you can get from iMazing? Let’s have a look
1-Click Transfer Data from/to iPhone
With iMazing, you can easily transfer photos, music, contacts, videos, ringtones, and more between your iPhone and computer (or another iOS device). And the Quick Transfer feature makes it easier to transfer within a simple ‘Drag and Drop’.
1-Click Export & Print Messages, Notes, and Contacts
With iMazing, you can export messages, notes, contacts, and other text-format data to PDF/Text/CSV with 1 click, through which you can easily view, read, and print this information.
Of course, the ‘Print’ button on the bottom-right corner helps you print text messages, iMessage, and WhatsApp messages in a faster way. This function would be very helpful if you need to back up your precious messages or print messages for court use.
Wireless iPhone Backup and more
iMazing added a Time-Machine-like feature to wirelessly backup your important data in a safe way, and the backup will be encrypted well to protect your private information. This would be different from the iTunes way, iMazing will allow you to browse and extract contents from the backup files as you like.
Besides, iMazing offers other convenience tools like checking iPhone battery health, migrating data from an old iOS device to the new one, managing apps, force restarting the device, supervising iOS devices and etc.
This software has a good design and follows closely with the development of Apple products and services so that people can easily handle it.
iMazing Free Trial, Price, and Coupon Codes
iMazing is fully compatible with the latest iOS 16 and iPhone 14, and it offers a free trial for people to try before purchasing. But, the trial version will restrict the amount that people can transfer and back up on an iPhone.
iMazing Free vs Paid
| Main Features | Free Trial (Download) | Full Version (25% Discount) |
| Quick Transfer | √ | √ |
| Unlimited Backups | √ | √ |
| Automatic Backups | √ | √ |
| Make Ringtones | √ | √ |
| Battery Diagnostics | √ | √ |
| Detect Spyware | √ | √ |
| Erase Devices | √ | √ |
| Photos | Transfer 50 Items | √ |
| Music | Transfer 50 items | √ |
| Messages | Transfer 25 items | √ |
| Transfer 25 items | √ | |
| Contacts | Transfer 10 items | √ |
| Notes | Transfer 5 items | √ |
| Call History | Transfer 5 items | √ |
| Books | Transfer 5 items | √ |
| Ringtones | Transfer 30 items within 3 days | √ |
| Podcasts | Transfer 30 items within 3 days | √ |
| Safari | Transfer 20 items | √ |
| Voice Memos | Transfer 3 items | √ |
| Calendar | Transfer 10 items | √ |
| Voice Mail | Transfer 1 items | √ |
| Files Transfer | Transfer 100 items | √ |
| Backup Export | Export 10 items | √ |
| Restore a Backup | × | √ |
| Transfer to Device | × | √ |
| Export All Data | × | √ |
| Install iOS | × | √ |
| Configurator | × | √ |
| Supervision | × | √ |
To use all the features, you can buy the iMazing license code. There are two types of licenses starting from $39.99 on its official website. The great news is that you can get a 25% iMazing discount with which you can get an iMazing lifetime license for no more than 30 US dollars.
iMobie AnyTrans – iPhone Transfer
iMobie Inc., released iOS transfer apps since 2012, including PodTrans, PhoneTrans, PhotoTrans, and AppTrans. And some of these apps did get a good reputation. For example, the PodTrans (iPod music transfer) got so many 5 stars ratings on CNET.
After several years, iMobie gathered all its previous transfer apps into a new brand – AnyTrans. And this brand keeps adding new features, and now the latest version of AnyTrans collected a bunch of features, including transferring iPhone data, accessing files on iPhone backups, downloading Youtube videos, making ringtones, mirroring iPhone screen to the computer, as well as migrating data from Android to iOS.
AnyTrans vs iMazing
Just like iMazing, AnyTrans is also equipped with features of transferring and backing up data on your iPhone. And it runs on the computer, too.
The difference is that AnyTrans does better than iMazing while moving data between two different mobile systems and downloading online videos (It has so many useful features to manage your iPhone data and files).
But the disadvantage of this software is that it got a little complicated interface and an unstable performance on data transferring. For me to choose an iTunes alternative, I choose iMazing because it is easy to use, and just like the built-in app on my computer.
AnyTrans Free vs Paid Version
AnyTrans iPhone transfer isn’t free but gives you a free trial version, with which you can transfer several items, download online videos, make ringtones, download apps, and mirror your iPhone screen to the computer.
| Main Features | Free Trial (Download) | Full Version (45% Discount) |
| Media Downloader | √ | √ |
| App Downloader | √ | √ |
| Ringtone Maker | √ | √ |
| Unlimited Backup | √ | √ |
| Screen Mirroring | √ | √ |
| iCloud Content Manager | √ | √ |
| Photo | Transfer 30 items within 3 days | √ |
| Music | Transfer 30 items within 3 days | √ |
| Videos | Transfer 30 items within 3 days | √ |
| Messages | Transfer 30 items within 3 days | √ |
| Apps | Transfer 30 items within 3 days | √ |
| Contacts | Transfer 30 items within 3 days | √ |
| Notes | Transfer 30 items within 3 days | √ |
| Call History | Transfer 30 items within 3 days | √ |
| Books | Transfer 30 items within 3 days | √ |
| Ringtones | Transfer 30 items within 3 days | √ |
| Podcasts | Transfer 30 items within 3 days | √ |
| Safari Bookmarks | Transfer 30 items within 3 days | √ |
| Voice Memos | Transfer 30 items within 3 days | √ |
| Safari History | Transfer 30 items within 3 days | √ |
| Calendar | Transfer 30 items within 3 days | √ |
| Reminders | Transfer 30 items within 3 days | √ |
| iTunes U | Transfer 30 items within 3 days | √ |
| Voice Mail | Transfer 30 items within 3 days | √ |
| Files System | Transfer 30 items within 3 days | √ |
| Transfer 30 items within 3 days | √ | |
| Line | Transfer 30 items within 3 days | √ |
| Viber | Transfer 30 items within 3 days | √ |
| Phone Switcher | × | √ |
| Unlimited Data Transfer | × | √ |
| Restore Backup | × | √ |
| Multi – iCloud Sync | × | √ |
| WhatsApp/Line/Viber Restore | × | √ |
| WhatsApp/Line/Viber to iPhone | × | √ |
For most of you who want to transfer or back up iPhone data, you have to buy a full version.
There are 3 kinds of licenses: 1 Year Single License ($39.99), LifeTime Single License (49.99$), and Family License for 5 computers ($69.99).
AnyTrans Discount
To get it at a cheap price, you can get the coupon code from coupon sites – AnyTrans 50% discount coupon (updated on Jan, 2022). To activate the exclusive coupon, you should go to this sale link. After clicking BUY NOW, you will add the coupon below the text “I have a discount coupon”.
iExplorer – iPhone to Computer Transfer
iExplorer by Macroplant is an old brand for iPhone data transferring. And it’s very popular with iOS users since it does a good job on iPhone transferring. With this tool, you can easily export music, photos, contacts, and other files from iPhone or iTunes backup to the desktop of your computer. And the whole process is safe. (We’ve scanned this iExplorer using Secure software, and it shows there is no virus hidden.)
iExplorer VS iMazing/AnyTrans
Just like AnyTrans and iMazing, iExplorer is also a computer-based iPhone data transfer program. And it is good at transferring large numbers of big data files, such as hundreds of pictures, videos, and songs. Certainly, you can play and preview those items before you export them to a computer.
But it is a pity that iExplorer doesn’t add some meaningful features and improve its interface for a long time. And most of its recent updates are bug fixes and iOS compatibility updates. Compared with the rivals, it has no advantage in price and features now. (The new version even didn’t support Wi-Fi connecting.)
iExplorer Free vs Paid
The latest version of iExplorer is 4.2.8. And you can download it here. And the trial version allows you to preview contents, but limit the number of files that you can transfer. Besides, it will keep showing a pop-up window requiring you to register and buy it. The price of the iExplorer is started from $39.99, and up to $69.99.
MobileTrans – Best Phone to Phone Transfer
Just as we said in my previous post – Best Android to iPhone Transfer, MobileTrans could be one of the most professional tools to transfer data between two phones, and also be able to backup data on your iPhone and restore data from backup to your device.
This desktop-based program is good for copying a huge amount of photos, music, contacts, and other app data including WhatsApp chats between two smartphones. If you would like to move all of your data to your new iPhone 14 from an old phone, this tool would be very helpful. And it also deals with many common problems you may meet, about data transfer, data backup, and data restore.
MobileTrans WhatsApp Transfer
WhatsApp data migration between Android and iOS is a hassle. And there is no official way people could find to achieve it. WhatsApp officially said it will support transferring from iOS to Android 10. But for people who want to transfer from Android to iOS, may have to choose a 3rd-part transfer tool like MobileTrans.
MobileTrans Price
MobileTrans is developed by Wondershare, one reliable company that designed Filmora and PDFelement. This tool is not free and you should buy the license on the official website to get all features activated. And the price is about $30-$40, similar to other similar tools.
PhoneTrans – Phone Transfer
Similar to Wondershare MobileTrans, iMobie PhoneTrans is another desktop program capable of transferring data between two smartphones, and compatible with both iOS or Android mobile systems. If you are going to transfer data from or to an iPhone, this tool would be a nice candidate.
It helps you transfer more than 32+ types of iOS data and 12+ types for Android. Besides transferring between phones, it can transfer mobile data from or to the computer, both Windows and Mac supported well.
PhoneTrans Free vs Paid
| Main Features | Free Trial | Full Version |
| Full Backup | √ | √ |
| Selective Backup | √ | √ |
| Full Restore from iTunes Backup | √ | √ |
| Restore from Google/iCloud Account | Transfer 5 items each type | √ |
| Restore iTunes Library to Phone | Transfer 5 items each type | √ |
| Selective Restore from Backup | Transfer 5 items each type | √ |
| Phone Clone | × | √ |
| Phone Merge | × | √ |
| Transfer WhatsApp/LINE/Viber to iPhone | × | √ |
| Full Restore PhoneTrans Backup to Phone | × | √ |
PhoneTrans Price
There are three subscription plans for PhoneTrans. The lowest price is $29.99 for a 3-month subscription. 1 Year Plan charges $35.99 and the LifeTime Plan is priced at $45.99. Click to buy PhoneTrans >
If you’ve already generated so many pictures, videos, and messages on your iPhone, data backup is quite necessary. Apple has offered you ways to backup your iPhone data. But these official ways are not flexible since you can’t back up some specific category, such as messages.
The good news is that Tenorshare developed iCareFone to do this job. Then, you can choose to transfer only some categories or backup all of your data to your computer. In addition, iCareFone also gives you the approach to preview backup contents.
iCareFone Free vs Paid
iCareFone Price
The price of iCareFone for Windows starts from $35.99 for 1 month (subscription). And the lowest price of the Mac version is 20 dollars higher, starting from $55.95 per 1 month, the subscription also. Compared with the features of iMazing and AnyTrans, iCareFone will be a little expensive, with fewer features supported.
Wondershare TunesGo also can do some things that iTunes can’t. For example, transferring iPhone contents to another device (computer, iOS, and Android) and converting media files to iOS supported files.
Compare with the above two apps, TunesGo only has some basic transfer features like moving data between iPhone and computer, and managing iPhone data by deleting, adding, exporting, etc. And recently Wondershare updated this iPhone transfer app to be compatible with iOS 16.
Aiseesoft FoneTrans – Transfer 16+ FileTypes on iPhone
Aiseesoft company developed various multimedia software for iPhone users. And FoneTrans could be one of its best works. This tool is specially designed to transfer data in a simple way, and it does do the job to transfer 16+ filetypes between iPhone and computer/iTunes.
Pros
- The interface is clean so that you can quickly access the page to see what you can transfer between your smartphone and your computer.
- It supports transferring more than 16 file types, including songs, videos, contacts, photos, books, ePub, etc.
- It is cheap and you can buy it with a 55% discount on MyCommerce, at a price of $18.
- The icon is so cute!
Cons
Before transferring iPhone contacts and messages, this software will take a long time to back up your iOS device and load the text messages and contacts.
CopyTrans – Transfer Between iPhone and PC
CopyTrans gives you a series of iPhone transfer tools (CopyTrans, CopyTrans Contacts, CopyTrans Photo, etc) to help you transfer iPhone data on PC (Supports Windows XP and later). Most CopyTrans tools have a price of &19.99. Below are the main features of each tool.
Cons
- Most of the tools are for Windows but have no Mac Version
- Some files that you can only transfer from iPhone to the computer but cannot from PC to iPhone
Price
- CopyTrans ($19.99) – Transfer music and videos from iPhone to iTunes/PC
- CopyTrans Contacts ($19.99) – Transfer contacts, messages, notes, calendar to PC.
- CopyTrans Photo ($19.99) – Transfer photos, videos, and albums to PC.
- CopyTrans TuneSwift ($19.99) – Rebuild the iTunes library on Mac/PC or transfer all iTunes library from iPhone to Computer.
WALTR 2 – Simplest Drop to iPhone Transfer Tool
Softorino Inc. developed one simple tool – WALTR, which helps people to easily transfer media files to iPhone without using iTunes. The latest version – WALTR 2, uses the wireless technique to transfer music, videos, TV shows, iBooks, Audiobooks from computer to any iPhone with one simple drop area, just like the below screenshot.
WALTR 2 is also not free and charges $49.99.
How WALTR 2 Work
You can download and install this WALTR 2 on Windows or Mac computer and then drag and drop files to its interface. This app uses its called “Smart Automatic Content Recognition”, to analyze the information of the files you drop to its interface on the computer, and then put them with all metadata into the right place on your connected Apple device.
Besides the iPhone, this app is also perfectly compatible with other Apple devices, even the original iPod from 2001.
iSkysoft iTransfer (TunesOver)
iSkysoft iTransfer or named “TunesOver” is one of the transfer tools that iSkysoft released for all iOS users. With iTransfer, you can back up selected songs and videos to a computer or iTunes, and this smart tool will filter out the existing items, so there is no worry about duplicates being transferred to your other device. More than this, it is able to import live photos from iPhone iPad as gif pictures and store them on your PC or Mac.
iSkysoft iTransfer is now compatible with the new iOS 16, and available to be downloaded on both Mac and Windows, supporting the new macOS Big Sur and Windows 10.
Xilisoft – DVD to iPhone Transfer
Xilisoft created so many DVD to iPhone transferring and converting tools. And its iPhone Software Suite contains multiple functions, including, DVD to iPhone transfer, iPhone ringtones maker, and iPhone data transfer. With this iPhone manager tool, you can easily convert and transfer songs and videos to your iPhone, or convert songs as your iPhone ringtones.
Leawo iTransfer – Small iPhone Transfer Tool
Leawo iTransfer could be a small tool to manage data on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, iTunes. You can use this tool to copy songs and videos among iOS devices, iTunes, and PC. Thus, you can backup iPhone data to the computer. Or add media files to your new iOS device without iTunes. This tool has two versions just like the tools we offer above. And the Window Version could be better than Mac, and now it isn’t compatible with the newest macOS Sierra. The good news is that the price of its upgrade license is cheaper than most of the transfer tools above.
AnyTrans is a joke. If you wisely backup your iOS device using encryption so that all your iPad and iPhone data can be retrieved in case of emergency, AnyTrans cannot communicate with that device. That means you’ll have to backup using non-encryption, do your AnyTrans thing, and then back up your devices again using encryption. Worse still, AnyTrans has been saying for years that you can either endure this clumsy workaround or “wait for an update.” I’m on perhaps the fourth update they’ve made and they’re still making the same, stale promise.
And never criticize these thin-skinned Chinese programmers who pretend they’re not by depicting Westerners in their online pages. They throw tantrums easily and will delete your user account and “lifetime” license if you do not express fawning, unqualified love at all times or raise an issue like the above. Broken English, broken promises. A must to avoid.
I’ve used this any trans before,it has some nice & free features like moving data from android to iphone. it did give some benefits for ios users.
But most features charges you 49.99 USD dollars! I’ve used it for accessing my data in iCloud, but failed.
Thanks for the insight on your experience. It’s helpful.
what a useless comment that was.
Well, I thought @michaellinder’s comment was VERY useful. User experience is important.
Unlike the OP, what a useless comment THAT was!
I bought WALTR 1. But after a month or two, they released WALTR 2 with said new features and ask me buy it again. I am so unhappy with this trick and never buy from them again.
I also bought iExplorer, but after two months, I found I have to buy a new iExplorer in order to support my new iPhone. What a joke. I will never buy iExplorer again.
I bought some software with life time update for many years, that’s what I like.
Thanks for sharing. BUT when I use dr foen to transfer iphone photos, it won’t connect my device, you may need remove it from this top transfer app list.
I got the similar issue using ANYTRANS on my pc, and I’ve been told to update the iTunes, or download driver for my device. I don’t know how to do…
Anyone know out of these apps or other apps which one would be the best on organizing your home screens on your iPhone? I have a lot of apps and I need to place them in folders and manage them all. iTunes won’t allow you to do it anymore. And it can be pretty time consuming to do it on the phone. Also if ever have to restore it’s all lost anyway.
All I want to do is MOVE photos from my iPhone to a Windows 10 PC.
I rarely check this site so if you have some simple softwware you know about, please email me at snicholoson@earthlink.net
Thanks
Steve
I find it interesting that this article starts out reviewing the two big names (CopyTrans and AnyTrans), and then compares some of the other programs to CT and AT but not all the others. Regardless, as a user of both, they both have problems. CT charges you every 2 years for a new license, and since Apple updates iOS every year, if you want to continue to use CopyTrans with the newest phones and iOS, you need to pony up the $19.95 for each component of the software (i.e. Transfer photos, transfer music, access the cloud, download contacts/messages/calendar events, etc.) There are discounts available but it can be expensive.
Both CT and AT have support personnel issues, neither is very fast about responding, I found that CT was very quick to tell me a problem I was having was user error, until I sent them a video showing the error happening, and that I wasn’t killing the process. Then they stopped responding at all.
AnyTrans has issues if you’ve opened iTunes before you open AnyTrans, it crashes. The workaround: re-boot and don’t open iTunes. (Sounds like a coding issue that could be fixed, but what do I know.) I lost my license key to AnyTrans when my SSD went belly up, and they were all on vacation. I got it about a week later, but really? Does everyone bail at the same time?
Both pieces of software are not very intuitive and have their quirks and bugs. For example: when you download all your SMS into PDFs under AnyTrans they look like they were drawn by a 3-year-old in crayon. CopyTrans wants to download ALL Messages: SMS, WhatsApp and any other messaging programs you may have. You can turn the other programs off, but why waste the time listing all the messages without asking if you want them 1st.
Trying to transfer music from my music library to my iPhone using AnyTrans was unsuccessful no matter what I tried. I could not get the one song I wanted to copy to my phone on my phone. CopyTrans tries to mimic the Itunes interface, being that they bill themselves as a replacement for iTunes, I would think they would have come up with a better interface than one that looks like iTunes. Also, if a song is not in your iTunes library due to Apple’s all knowing wisdom of what to download to your library and what to keep in the cloud, you cannot get it downloaded through the CopyTrans Manager. Back to iTunes you go to get it downloaded.
I had to downgrade my copy of CopyTrans Contacts to use it with my older license key (I’m not paying $19.95 for one of their 7 products.) It was slow, and takes quite a while to download all my SMS messages. But at least the PDF files are readable.
All in all, I find iTunes, CopyTrans, and AnyTrans to be AWFUL pieces of software. It almost is enough to make me want to go to Android.
So, I’m looking for a tool to copy my photos from my Windows PC BACK to my Camera Roll and maintain the original “creation date” of the photos so they order correctly in the album. I only need to do this once. However, if it works well, it might be a good tool to have around for any future, unexpected issues.