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.
Not the right match-up?
Autorestic
Config-driven wrapper for Restic backups
VS
borgmatic
Simple configuration-driven frontend for BorgBackup
| Feature | Autorestic | borgmatic |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | ★ 1,855 | ★ 2,000 |
| First released | 2019 | 2013 |
| Replaces | Backblaze, CrashPlan | CrashPlan, Backblaze |
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.