Backup tool nono Plakar 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.

Not the right match-up? Compare Backup tool nono Plakar with Compare Restic Cron with

BA Backup tool nono Plakar Effortless backup with built-in verification and UI VS RE Restic Cron Containerized scheduled restic backup runner

Feature	Backup tool nono Plakar	Restic Cron
Deploy effort	Under-an-hour setup	Under-an-hour setup
Health score	86 · Excellent	70 · Good
Category	Backup & Recovery	Backup & Recovery
License	ISC	BSD-2-Clause
Language	Go	Shell
Setup difficulty	Medium	Easy
Min. RAM	256 MB	64 MB
Deployment	docker, binary	docker
GitHub stars	★ 2,068	★ 715
First released	2021	2019
Replaces	Backblaze, CrashPlan	Backblaze

What are Backup tool nono Plakar and Restic Cron?

Backup tool nono Plakar

Plakar is a modern open-source backup solution that creates encrypted, deduplicated snapshots with built-in integrity verification. It includes a web UI for browsing and restoring data.

Encrypted deduplicated snapshots
Integrity verification
Web UI for restores

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

Backup tool nono Plakar vs Restic Cron: key differences

Backup tool nono Plakar is written in Go, while Restic Cron is built with Shell. Licensing differs — ISC for Backup tool nono Plakar versus BSD-2-Clause for Restic Cron. Restic Cron is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Backup tool nono Plakar. Restic Cron is the more established project (first released 2019), while Backup tool nono Plakar arrived in 2021. Backup tool nono Plakar has the considerably larger community, at 2,068 GitHub stars versus 715.

Why pick each one

Choose Backup tool nono Plakar if…

Released under the ISC license
First-class Docker support for quick deployment
Active community (2.1k GitHub stars)
Written in Go

Backup tool nono Plakar details

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

Restic Cron details

Frequently asked questions

Is Backup tool nono Plakar or Restic Cron better?

Neither is universally better. Backup tool nono Plakar has the larger community, while Restic Cron is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Backup tool nono Plakar and Restic Cron free and open-source?

Yes. Backup tool nono Plakar is licensed under ISC and Restic Cron under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Backup tool nono Plakar and Restic Cron with Docker?

Backup tool nono Plakar: yes. Restic Cron: yes.

Which is lighter on resources, Backup tool nono Plakar or Restic Cron?

Restic Cron has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Backup tool nono Plakar. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.