Barman vs zrepl
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Barman | zrepl |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 88 · Excellent | 70 · Good |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Python | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,244 | ★ 1,159 |
| First released | 2012 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Veeam | Veeam |
What are Barman and zrepl?
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
zrepl
zrepl is a one-stop solution for automated ZFS snapshot management and replication. It handles taking snapshots, pruning them per policy, and replicating datasets between machines with a simple daemon and configuration.
- Automatic ZFS snapshots
- Push and pull replication
- Flexible pruning policies
- Single daemon
Barman vs zrepl: key differences
Barman is written in Python, while zrepl is built with Go. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Barman versus MIT for zrepl. Zrepl 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 zrepl arrived in 2017. Barman has the considerably larger community, at 3,244 GitHub stars versus 1,159.
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 zrepl if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (1.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Watch out for
- ZFS required
- YAML configuration
Frequently asked questions
Is Barman or zrepl better?
Neither is universally better. Barman has the larger community, while zrepl is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Barman and zrepl free and open-source?
Yes. Barman is licensed under GPL-3.0 and zrepl under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Barman and zrepl with Docker?
Barman: check the project docs for container support. zrepl: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Barman or zrepl?
zrepl 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.