Autorestic vs BorgBackup
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Autorestic | BorgBackup |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 52 · Fair | 94 · Excellent |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | Go | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,868 | ★ 13,762 |
| First released | 2019 | 2015 |
| Replaces | Backblaze, CrashPlan | Carbonite, Backblaze |
What are Autorestic and BorgBackup?
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
BorgBackup
BorgBackup is a deduplicating backup program with compression and authenticated encryption for efficient, secure archives. It targets technical users backing up to local or remote storage. It is deployed as a binary or package.
- Deduplication and compression
- Authenticated encryption
- Append-only repos for ransomware safety
- Efficient remote backups over SSH
Autorestic vs BorgBackup: key differences
Autorestic is written in Go, while BorgBackup is built with Python. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Autorestic versus BSD-3-Clause for BorgBackup. Autorestic is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for BorgBackup. BorgBackup is the more established project (first released 2015), while Autorestic arrived in 2019. BorgBackup has the considerably larger community, at 13,762 GitHub stars versus 1,868. Autorestic lists first-class Docker deployment; BorgBackup does not.
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 BorgBackup if…
- Excellent space efficiency
- Strong security
- Battle-tested
Watch out for
- Command-line oriented
- Repo not directly mountable everywhere
Frequently asked questions
Is Autorestic or BorgBackup better?
Neither is universally better. BorgBackup has the larger community, while Autorestic is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Autorestic and BorgBackup free and open-source?
Yes. Autorestic is licensed under Apache-2.0 and BorgBackup under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Autorestic and BorgBackup with Docker?
Autorestic: yes. BorgBackup: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Autorestic or BorgBackup?
Autorestic has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for BorgBackup. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.