SHSelfHostIndex

Back In Time vs Kopia

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?
BA Back In Time Simple backup tool inspired by Apple Time Machine VS KO Kopia Fast, encrypted backup with a clean interface
FeatureBack In TimeKopia
CategoryBackup & RecoveryBackup & Recovery
LicenseGPL-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguagePythonGo
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM128 MB256 MB
Deploymentbinarybinary, docker
GitHub stars★ 2,641★ 13,798
First released20082019
ReplacesTime MachineBackblaze, Carbonite

Why pick each one

Choose Back In Time if…

  • Released under the GPL-2.0 license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Active community (2.6k GitHub stars)
  • Written in Python
Back In Time details

Choose Kopia if…

  • GUI and CLI both available
  • Fast and efficient
  • Modern design
Kopia details

Frequently asked questions

Is Back In Time 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 Back In Time and Kopia free and open-source?

Yes. Back In Time is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Kopia under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Back In Time and Kopia with Docker?

Back In Time: check the project docs for container support. Kopia: yes.

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