Amanda vs Backrest
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Amanda
Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver
VS
Backrest
Web UI and orchestrator for Restic backups
| Feature | Amanda | Backrest |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | C | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 267 | ★ 7,071 |
| First released | 1991 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Veeam, CommVault | Backblaze |
Why pick each one
Choose Amanda if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- Written in C
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Amanda or Backrest better?
Backrest is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Amanda if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Amanda and Backrest free and open-source?
Yes. Amanda is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Backrest under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Amanda and Backrest with Docker?
Amanda: check the project docs for container support. Backrest: yes.