Autorestic vs HashBackup
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Autorestic | HashBackup |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 52 · Fair | 0 · At risk |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | Go | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,868 | ★ 1 |
| First released | 2019 | 2009 |
| Replaces | Backblaze, CrashPlan | CrashPlan |
What are Autorestic and HashBackup?
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
HashBackup
HashBackup is a command-line backup program for Unix-like systems that performs deduplicated, compressed, and encrypted backups to local or remote destinations. It supports retention policies, selective restore, and many storage targets.
- Deduplication and compression
- Encrypted backups
- Many remote destinations
- Flexible retention
Autorestic vs HashBackup: key differences
Autorestic is written in Go, while HashBackup is built with Python. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Autorestic versus MIT for HashBackup. Autorestic is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for HashBackup. HashBackup is the more established project (first released 2009), while Autorestic arrived in 2019. Autorestic has the considerably larger community, at 1,868 GitHub stars versus 1. Autorestic lists first-class Docker deployment; HashBackup 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 HashBackup if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Watch out for
- Command-line only
- Smaller community
Frequently asked questions
Is Autorestic or HashBackup better?
Autorestic is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider HashBackup if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Autorestic and HashBackup free and open-source?
Yes. Autorestic is licensed under Apache-2.0 and HashBackup under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Autorestic and HashBackup with Docker?
Autorestic: yes. HashBackup: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Autorestic or HashBackup?
Autorestic has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for HashBackup. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.