Autorestic vs Kopia
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Kopia
Fast, encrypted backup with a clean interface
| Feature | Autorestic | Kopia |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 52 · Fair | 94 · Excellent |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,868 | ★ 14,188 |
| First released | 2019 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Backblaze, CrashPlan | Backblaze, Carbonite |
What are Autorestic and Kopia?
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
Kopia
Kopia is a fast and secure backup tool that creates encrypted, deduplicated snapshots and offers both a CLI and a desktop GUI. It targets users who want modern backups with a clean interface. It is deployed as a binary or via Docker.
- Encrypted deduplicated snapshots
- Both CLI and desktop GUI
- Many storage backends
- Compression and policies
Autorestic vs Kopia: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. Autorestic is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Kopia. Kopia has the considerably larger community, at 14,188 GitHub stars versus 1,868.
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 Kopia if…
- GUI and CLI both available
- Fast and efficient
- Modern design
Watch out for
- Younger than Restic
- Advanced options can confuse
Frequently asked questions
Is Autorestic or Kopia better?
Neither is universally better. Kopia has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Autorestic and Kopia free and open-source?
Yes. Autorestic is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Kopia under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Autorestic and Kopia with Docker?
Autorestic: yes. Kopia: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Autorestic or Kopia?
Autorestic has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Kopia. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.