Bareos vs pgBackRest
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?
Bareos
Backup Archiving Recovery Open Sourced
VS
pgBackRest
Reliable backup and restore solution for PostgreSQL
| Feature | Bareos | pgBackRest |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | C++ | C |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,232 | ★ 4,296 |
| First released | 2010 | 2013 |
| Replaces | Veeam, CommVault | Veeam |
Why pick each one
Choose Bareos if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in C++
Choose pgBackRest if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (4.3k GitHub stars)
- Written in C
Frequently asked questions
Is Bareos or pgBackRest better?
Neither is universally better. pgBackRest has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Bareos and pgBackRest free and open-source?
Yes. Bareos is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and pgBackRest under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Bareos and pgBackRest with Docker?
Bareos: yes. pgBackRest: yes.