Autorestic vs Rustic
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Autorestic | Rustic |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 52 · Fair | 88 · Excellent |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,868 | ★ 3,273 |
| First released | 2019 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Backblaze, CrashPlan | Backblaze, CrashPlan |
What are Autorestic and Rustic?
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
Rustic
Rustic is a backup tool written in Rust that creates fast, encrypted, and deduplicated backups. It is fully compatible with Restic repositories while offering lower memory usage.
- Restic-compatible repositories
- Low memory footprint
- Cold storage support
Autorestic vs Rustic: key differences
Autorestic is written in Go, while Rustic is built with Rust. Autorestic is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Rustic. Autorestic is the more established project (first released 2019), while Rustic arrived in 2022. Autorestic lists first-class Docker deployment; Rustic 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 Rustic if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Active community (3.3k GitHub stars)
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Autorestic or Rustic better?
Neither is universally better. Rustic 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 Rustic free and open-source?
Yes. Autorestic is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Rustic under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Autorestic and Rustic with Docker?
Autorestic: yes. Rustic: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Autorestic or Rustic?
Autorestic has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Rustic. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.