SHSelfHostIndex

Backrest vs ElkarBackup alt Snapper

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 Backrest Web UI and orchestrator for Restic backups VS EL ElkarBackup alt Snapper Btrfs snapshot management tool with rollback
FeatureBackrestElkarBackup alt Snapper
CategoryBackup & RecoveryBackup & Recovery
LicenseGPL-3.0GPL-2.0
LanguageTypeScriptC++
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM256 MB64 MB
Deploymentdocker, binarybare-metal
GitHub stars★ 7,071★ 1,158
First released20242011
ReplacesBackblazeTime Machine

Why pick each one

Choose Backrest if…

  • Makes Restic approachable
  • Good scheduling
  • Lightweight
Backrest details

Choose ElkarBackup alt Snapper if…

  • Released under the GPL-2.0 license
  • Active community (1.2k GitHub stars)
  • Written in C++
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
ElkarBackup alt Snapper details

Frequently asked questions

Is Backrest or ElkarBackup alt Snapper better?

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

Are Backrest and ElkarBackup alt Snapper free and open-source?

Yes. Backrest is licensed under GPL-3.0 and ElkarBackup alt Snapper under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Backrest and ElkarBackup alt Snapper with Docker?

Backrest: yes. ElkarBackup alt Snapper: check the project docs for container support.

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