Backrest vs Restic Cron
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Backrest
Web UI and orchestrator for Restic backups
VS
Restic Cron
Containerized scheduled restic backup runner
| Feature | Backrest | Restic Cron |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 91 · Excellent | 70 · Good |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Language | TypeScript | Shell |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7,389 | ★ 714 |
| First released | 2024 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Backblaze | Backblaze |
What are Backrest and Restic Cron?
Backrest
Backrest is a web-based backup orchestrator built on top of Restic, adding scheduling, monitoring, and a friendly interface. It targets users who want Restic's power with a GUI. It is deployed via Docker or a binary.
- Web UI for Restic
- Scheduling and retention policies
- Backup health monitoring
- Notifications
Restic Cron
A containerized scheduler that runs restic backups on a cron schedule and prunes old snapshots. It is designed to be a drop-in backup sidecar for self-hosted stacks.
- Cron-scheduled backups
- Automatic pruning
- restic backend
- Sidecar container
Backrest vs Restic Cron: key differences
Backrest is written in TypeScript, while Restic Cron is built with Shell. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Backrest versus BSD-2-Clause for Restic Cron. Restic Cron is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Backrest. Restic Cron is the more established project (first released 2019), while Backrest arrived in 2024. Backrest has the considerably larger community, at 7,389 GitHub stars versus 714.
Why pick each one
Choose Backrest if…
- Makes Restic approachable
- Good scheduling
- Lightweight
Watch out for
- Young project
- Depends on Restic underneath
Choose Restic Cron if…
- Released under the BSD-2-Clause license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Shell
Frequently asked questions
Is Backrest or Restic Cron better?
Neither is universally better. Backrest has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Backrest and Restic Cron free and open-source?
Yes. Backrest is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Restic Cron under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Backrest and Restic Cron with Docker?
Backrest: yes. Restic Cron: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Backrest or Restic Cron?
Restic Cron has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Backrest. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.