bitmagnet vs Restic

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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FeaturebitmagnetRestic
CategoryBackup & RecoveryBackup & Recovery
LicenseMITBSD-2-Clause
LanguageGoGo
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB256 MB
Deploymentdockerbinary, docker
GitHub stars★ 4,265★ 35,412
First released20262015
ReplacesBackblaze, Carbonite

Why pick each one

Choose bitmagnet if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Active community (4.3k GitHub stars)
  • Written in Go
bitmagnet details

Choose Restic if…

  • Strong encryption
  • Efficient deduplication
  • Wide backend support
Restic details

Frequently asked questions

Is bitmagnet or Restic better?

Neither is universally better. Restic has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are bitmagnet and Restic free and open-source?

Yes. bitmagnet is licensed under MIT and Restic under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run bitmagnet and Restic with Docker?

bitmagnet: yes. Restic: yes.

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