Backrest vs Magic Wormhole

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?
FeatureBackrestMagic Wormhole
CategoryBackup & RecoveryFile Sync & Storage
LicenseGPL-3.0MIT
LanguageTypeScriptPython
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM256 MB32 MB
Deploymentdocker, binarybinary
GitHub stars★ 7,071★ 22,792
First released20242016
ReplacesBackblazeWeTransfer, AirDrop

Why pick each one

Choose Backrest if…

  • Makes Restic approachable
  • Good scheduling
  • Lightweight
Backrest details

Choose Magic Wormhole if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Mature project with 22.8k GitHub stars
  • Written in Python
Magic Wormhole details

Frequently asked questions

Is Backrest or Magic Wormhole better?

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

Are Backrest and Magic Wormhole free and open-source?

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

Can I run Backrest and Magic Wormhole with Docker?

Backrest: yes. Magic Wormhole: check the project docs for container support.

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