Backrest vs File Browser

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureBackrestFile Browser
CategoryBackup & RecoveryFile Sync & Storage
LicenseGPL-3.0Apache-2.0
LanguageTypeScriptGo
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM256 MB64 MB
Deploymentdocker, binarydocker, binary
GitHub stars★ 7,071★ 35,800
First released20242017
ReplacesBackblazeDropbox

Why pick each one

Choose Backrest if…

  • Makes Restic approachable
  • Good scheduling
  • Lightweight
Backrest details

Choose File Browser if…

  • Extremely lightweight
  • Trivial to deploy
  • Good for quick file access
File Browser details

Frequently asked questions

Is Backrest or File Browser better?

Neither is universally better. File Browser has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Backrest and File Browser free and open-source?

Yes. Backrest is licensed under GPL-3.0 and File Browser under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Backrest and File Browser with Docker?

Backrest: yes. File Browser: yes.

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