Barman vs pgmoneta
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Barman | pgmoneta |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 88 · Excellent | 75 · Good |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | Python | C |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | bare-metal, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,244 | ★ 317 |
| First released | 2012 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Veeam | Veeam |
What are Barman and pgmoneta?
Barman
Barman is a disaster recovery tool for PostgreSQL servers that manages backups and point-in-time recovery. It supports remote backups, retention policies, and WAL archiving.
- Point-in-time recovery
- Retention policy management
- Remote backup support
pgmoneta
pgmoneta is a backup and restore solution for PostgreSQL that focuses on efficiency and modern features. It supports incremental backups, compression, and encryption with minimal overhead.
- Incremental PostgreSQL backups
- Built-in compression
- Low-overhead design
Barman vs pgmoneta: key differences
Barman is written in Python, while pgmoneta is built with C. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Barman versus BSD-3-Clause for pgmoneta. Pgmoneta is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Barman. Barman is the more established project (first released 2012), while pgmoneta arrived in 2021. Barman has the considerably larger community, at 3,244 GitHub stars versus 317.
Why pick each one
Choose Barman if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Active community (3.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Choose pgmoneta if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Barman or pgmoneta better?
Neither is universally better. Barman has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Barman and pgmoneta free and open-source?
Yes. Barman is licensed under GPL-3.0 and pgmoneta under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Barman and pgmoneta with Docker?
Barman: check the project docs for container support. pgmoneta: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Barman or pgmoneta?
pgmoneta has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Barman. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.