Autorestic vs borgmatic
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
borgmatic
Simple configuration-driven frontend for BorgBackup
| Feature | Autorestic | borgmatic |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,868 | ★ 2,000 |
| First released | 2019 | 2013 |
| Replaces | Backblaze, CrashPlan | CrashPlan, Backblaze |
What are Autorestic and borgmatic?
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
borgmatic
borgmatic is a command-line tool that wraps BorgBackup to make it easy to schedule and configure backups. It adds features like database dumps, monitoring hooks, and consistency checks.
- Declarative YAML configuration
- Database backup integration
- Monitoring service hooks
Autorestic vs borgmatic: key differences
Autorestic is written in Go, while borgmatic is built with Python. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Autorestic versus GPL-3.0 for borgmatic. Autorestic is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for borgmatic. Borgmatic is the more established project (first released 2013), 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 borgmatic if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2k GitHub stars)
- Written in Python
Frequently asked questions
Is Autorestic or borgmatic better?
Neither is universally better. borgmatic 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 borgmatic free and open-source?
Yes. Autorestic is licensed under Apache-2.0 and borgmatic under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Autorestic and borgmatic with Docker?
Autorestic: yes. borgmatic: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Autorestic or borgmatic?
Autorestic has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for borgmatic. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.