BorgBackup vs Gickup
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
Gickup
Mirror and back up Git repositories across hosts
| Feature | BorgBackup | Gickup |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Python | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 13,588 | ★ 1,427 |
| First released | 2015 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Carbonite, Backblaze | GitHub Backup |
Why pick each one
Choose Gickup if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.4k GitHub stars)
Frequently asked questions
Is BorgBackup or Gickup better?
Neither is universally better. BorgBackup has the larger community, while Gickup is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are BorgBackup and Gickup free and open-source?
Yes. BorgBackup is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Gickup under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run BorgBackup and Gickup with Docker?
BorgBackup: check the project docs for container support. Gickup: yes.