Backrest vs Bupstash

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?
FeatureBackrestBupstash
CategoryBackup & RecoveryBackup & Recovery
LicenseGPL-3.0MIT
LanguageTypeScriptRust
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM256 MB128 MB
Deploymentdocker, binarybinary
GitHub stars★ 7,071★ 924
First released20242020
ReplacesBackblazeBackblaze, CrashPlan

Why pick each one

Choose Backrest if…

  • Makes Restic approachable
  • Good scheduling
  • Lightweight
Backrest details

Choose Bupstash if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Written in Rust
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Bupstash details

Frequently asked questions

Is Backrest or Bupstash better?

Backrest is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Bupstash if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are Backrest and Bupstash free and open-source?

Yes. Backrest is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Bupstash under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Backrest and Bupstash with Docker?

Backrest: yes. Bupstash: check the project docs for container support.

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