External USB3 1TB SSD, Carbon Copy Cloner to maintain bootable clones.

(Edit: dunno that I represent the "average" user, but this simple setup has served me well for years.)

There’s nothing particularly special about the Time Capsule. Time Machine works with almost any consumer NAS.

If they buy an iCloud storage plan, iCloud will be their “backup”. If the device fails, their data lives on. Get a new device and all their data is “restored”. Of course it’s a sync service, not a backup service, so you can’t role back. For the average user though I guess this doesn’t matter.

(macOS takes local snapshots if unused disk space permits. So you could revert back some files if the change is recent.)

> Remembering to plug into USB doesn't seem very reliable.

If it's been ~14+ days since your last backup, the computer will start displaying daily notifications reminding you to plug in the backup drive.

Most of my time on the computer takes place in the Browser, Office 365, and a few messaging apps. Everything else is in either one drive or iCloud. While I understand that not everyone feels comfortable with their stuff on 'the cloud', I have grown to appreciate the mobility this gives me as far as 'is my stuff backed up'

I use Arq [1]. Works with cloud storage and NASes.

https://www.arqbackup.com/

> With the Time Capsule being discontinued, how does the average MacBook user make a backup?

In my case, Carbon Copy Cloner plus Time Machine backups to a local NAS.[1]

[1] https://www.qnap.com/en-us/how-to/tutorial/article/time-mach...

While probably not for the average user, my father is using a mac pro and mbp quite heavily for photo and video, and he's using a synology nas with time machine enabled. It's been working for a few years now without problems.

I think you can plug a drive into an Airport over USB, though I'm not sure if this setup fully replicates TC functionality.

What’s wrong with having a cable at your desk? Just plug it in when you get home and eject when you leave.

A NAS setup or Backblaze. Personally I use both for redundancy.