Backrest vs MinIO

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?
FeatureBackrestMinIO
CategoryBackup & RecoveryFile Sync & Storage
LicenseGPL-3.0AGPL-3.0
LanguageTypeScriptGo
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM256 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, binarydocker, kubernetes, binary
GitHub stars★ 7,071★ 61,387
First released20242015
ReplacesBackblazeAmazon S3

Why pick each one

Choose Backrest if…

  • Makes Restic approachable
  • Good scheduling
  • Lightweight
Backrest details

Choose MinIO if…

  • Excellent performance
  • Drop-in S3 replacement
  • Scales horizontally
MinIO details

Frequently asked questions

Is Backrest or MinIO better?

Neither is universally better. MinIO has the larger community, while Backrest is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Backrest and MinIO free and open-source?

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

Can I run Backrest and MinIO with Docker?

Backrest: yes. MinIO: yes.

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