Autorestic vs BackupPC
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
BackupPC
High-performance backup system for PCs and servers
| Feature | Autorestic | BackupPC |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 52 · Fair | 57 · Fair |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | Perl |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | bare-metal, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,868 | ★ 1,626 |
| First released | 2019 | 2001 |
| Replaces | Backblaze, CrashPlan | CrashPlan, Time Machine |
What are Autorestic and BackupPC?
Autorestic
Autorestic is a higher-level wrapper around Restic that makes it easy to manage multiple backups from a single declarative configuration file. It handles backends, locations, and scheduling.
- Declarative backup config
- Multiple backends and locations
- Cron-based scheduling
BackupPC
BackupPC is a high-performance system for backing up Linux, Windows, and macOS PCs to a server's disk. It uses pooling and compression to minimize disk usage, with a full web interface.
- File pooling deduplication
- Web management interface
- No client software required
Autorestic vs BackupPC: key differences
Autorestic is written in Go, while BackupPC is built with Perl. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Autorestic versus GPL-3.0 for BackupPC. Autorestic is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 512 MB for BackupPC. BackupPC is the more established project (first released 2001), while Autorestic arrived in 2019.
Why pick each one
Choose Autorestic if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.9k GitHub stars)
Choose BackupPC if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.6k GitHub stars)
- Written in Perl
Frequently asked questions
Is Autorestic or BackupPC better?
Autorestic is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider BackupPC if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Autorestic and BackupPC free and open-source?
Yes. Autorestic is licensed under Apache-2.0 and BackupPC under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Autorestic and BackupPC with Docker?
Autorestic: yes. BackupPC: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Autorestic or BackupPC?
Autorestic has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for BackupPC. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.