BorgBackup vs Vorta
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?
BorgBackup
Deduplicating archiver with compression and encryption
VS
Vorta
Desktop backup client built on BorgBackup
| Feature | BorgBackup | Vorta |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Python | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 13,588 | ★ 2,490 |
| First released | 2015 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Carbonite, Backblaze | Time Machine, CrashPlan |
Why pick each one
Choose Vorta if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Active community (2.5k GitHub stars)
- Written in Python
Frequently asked questions
Is BorgBackup or Vorta better?
Neither is universally better. BorgBackup has the larger community, while Vorta is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are BorgBackup and Vorta free and open-source?
Yes. BorgBackup is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Vorta under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run BorgBackup and Vorta with Docker?
BorgBackup: check the project docs for container support. Vorta: check the project docs for container support.