Backup tool nono Plakar vs Restic Mailer

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?
FeatureBackup tool nono PlakarRestic Mailer
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score86 · Excellent76 · Good
CategoryBackup & RecoveryBackup & Recovery
LicenseISCMIT
LanguageGoShell
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM256 MB64 MB
Deploymentdocker, binarydocker, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 2,068★ 663
First released20212018
ReplacesBackblaze, CrashPlanBackblaze

What are Backup tool nono Plakar and Restic Mailer?

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 Mailer

A wrapper around restic that runs backups on schedule and emails detailed success or failure reports. It adds visibility to unattended restic deployments.

  • Scheduled restic runs
  • Email job reports
  • systemd integration
  • Unattended backups

Backup tool nono Plakar vs Restic Mailer: key differences

Backup tool nono Plakar is written in Go, while Restic Mailer is built with Shell. Licensing differs — ISC for Backup tool nono Plakar versus MIT for Restic Mailer. Restic Mailer is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Backup tool nono Plakar. Restic Mailer is the more established project (first released 2018), while Backup tool nono Plakar arrived in 2021. Backup tool nono Plakar has the considerably larger community, at 2,068 GitHub stars versus 663.

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 Mailer if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Written in Shell
Restic Mailer details

Frequently asked questions

Is Backup tool nono Plakar or Restic Mailer better?

Neither is universally better. Backup tool nono Plakar has the larger community, while Restic Mailer 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 Mailer free and open-source?

Yes. Backup tool nono Plakar is licensed under ISC and Restic Mailer under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

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

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

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

Restic Mailer 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.

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