Autorestic vs Velero
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
Velero
Backup and migrate Kubernetes cluster resources
| Feature | Autorestic | Velero |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,855 | ★ 10,187 |
| First released | 2019 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Backblaze, CrashPlan | Kasten K10 |
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 Velero if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Mature project with 10.2k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Autorestic or Velero better?
Neither is universally better. Velero 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 Velero free and open-source?
Yes. Autorestic is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Velero under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Autorestic and Velero with Docker?
Autorestic: yes. Velero: check the project docs for container support.