Autorestic vs CKAN

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?
FeatureAutoresticCKAN
CategoryBackup & RecoveryBackup & Recovery
LicenseApache-2.0AGPL-3.0
LanguageGoPython
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM64 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, binarybare-metal
GitHub stars★ 1,855★ 5,088
First released20192026
ReplacesBackblaze, CrashPlan

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)
Autorestic details

Choose CKAN if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • Mature project with 5.1k GitHub stars
  • Written in Python
  • Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
CKAN details

Frequently asked questions

Is Autorestic or CKAN better?

Neither is universally better. CKAN 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 CKAN free and open-source?

Yes. Autorestic is licensed under Apache-2.0 and CKAN under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Autorestic and CKAN with Docker?

Autorestic: yes. CKAN: check the project docs for container support.

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