Amanda vs Barman
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Amanda | Barman |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 8 · At risk | 88 · Excellent |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | C | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 272 | ★ 3,244 |
| First released | 1991 | 2012 |
| Replaces | Veeam, CommVault | Veeam |
What are Amanda and Barman?
Amanda
Amanda is a mature backup solution that allows an administrator to set up a single backup server to back up multiple hosts to tape, disk, or cloud storage. It is widely used in enterprise environments.
- Centralized network backups
- Tape, disk, and cloud targets
- Mature enterprise tooling
Barman
Barman is a disaster recovery tool for PostgreSQL servers that manages backups and point-in-time recovery. It supports remote backups, retention policies, and WAL archiving.
- Point-in-time recovery
- Retention policy management
- Remote backup support
Amanda vs Barman: key differences
Amanda is written in C, while Barman is built with Python. Licensing differs — BSD-3-Clause for Amanda versus GPL-3.0 for Barman. Barman is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Amanda. Amanda is the more established project (first released 1991), while Barman arrived in 2012. Barman has the considerably larger community, at 3,244 GitHub stars versus 272.
Why pick each one
Choose Amanda if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- Written in C
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Choose Barman if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Active community (3.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Amanda or Barman better?
Neither is universally better. Barman has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Amanda and Barman free and open-source?
Yes. Amanda is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Barman under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Amanda and Barman with Docker?
Amanda: check the project docs for container support. Barman: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Amanda or Barman?
Barman has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Amanda. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.