BackupPC vs Rclone

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?
FeatureBackupPCRclone
CategoryBackup & RecoveryBackup & Recovery
LicenseGPL-3.0MIT
LanguagePerlGo
Setup difficultyHardMedium
Min. RAM512 MB128 MB
Deploymentbare-metal, dockerbinary, docker
GitHub stars★ 1,621★ 58,995
First released20012014
ReplacesCrashPlan, Time MachineBackblaze

Why pick each one

Choose BackupPC if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Active community (1.6k GitHub stars)
  • Written in Perl
BackupPC details

Choose Rclone if…

  • Works with almost any cloud
  • Extremely versatile
  • Reliable
Rclone details

Frequently asked questions

Is BackupPC or Rclone better?

Rclone is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider BackupPC if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are BackupPC and Rclone free and open-source?

Yes. BackupPC is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Rclone under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run BackupPC and Rclone with Docker?

BackupPC: yes. Rclone: yes.

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