BorgBackup vs Duplicacy
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | BorgBackup | Duplicacy |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 94 · Excellent | 76 · Good |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | Proprietary |
| Language | Python | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 13,762 | ★ 5,683 |
| First released | 2015 | 2016 |
| Replaces | Carbonite, Backblaze | Backblaze, Carbonite |
What are BorgBackup and Duplicacy?
BorgBackup
BorgBackup is a deduplicating backup program with compression and authenticated encryption for efficient, secure archives. It targets technical users backing up to local or remote storage. It is deployed as a binary or package.
- Deduplication and compression
- Authenticated encryption
- Append-only repos for ransomware safety
- Efficient remote backups over SSH
Duplicacy
Duplicacy is a cross-platform cloud backup tool using a novel lock-free deduplication algorithm for efficient encrypted backups. It targets users backing up to cloud storage. It is deployed as a binary with an optional web UI.
- Lock-free deduplication
- Many cloud backends
- Cross-computer deduplication
- Optional web GUI
BorgBackup vs Duplicacy: key differences
BorgBackup is written in Python, while Duplicacy is built with Go. Licensing differs — BSD-3-Clause for BorgBackup versus Proprietary for Duplicacy. BorgBackup has the considerably larger community, at 13,762 GitHub stars versus 5,683. Duplicacy lists first-class Docker deployment; BorgBackup does not.
Why pick each one
Choose BorgBackup if…
- Excellent space efficiency
- Strong security
- Battle-tested
Watch out for
- Command-line oriented
- Repo not directly mountable everywhere
Choose Duplicacy if…
- Efficient deduplication
- Good cloud support
- Reliable
Watch out for
- Web edition is paid
- CLI is free but licensed
Frequently asked questions
Is BorgBackup or Duplicacy better?
Neither is universally better. BorgBackup has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are BorgBackup and Duplicacy free and open-source?
Yes. BorgBackup is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Duplicacy under Proprietary. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run BorgBackup and Duplicacy with Docker?
BorgBackup: check the project docs for container support. Duplicacy: yes.