You can also clone using the Restore feature of Apple Disk Utility. "Restore" the disk you have to a blank disk.
But the advantage of Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper is that for subsequent backups they provide the option of only copying the changed files, saving a lot of time.
Also, there are many other backup utilities available for the Mac, because people have been backing up long before Time Machine existed.
To pick the right backup software, you need to say what kind of backup you want.
Bootable clone? Use Disk Utility, Carbon Copy Cloner, SuperDuper, etc.
Versioned but non-bootable backup? Use Time Machine, Retrospect, etc.
Internet cloud backup? Use Crashplan, Backblaze, etc.
and so on.
Like a lot of people, I use two types of backup, a combination of Time Machine and SuperDuper. Other people use a combination of onsite and offsite (cloud) backup. You should design a backup plan that fits your needs.