BorgBackup vs Kup
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
Kup
KDE backup scheduler for personal files
| Feature | BorgBackup | Kup |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | Python | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 13,588 | ★ 100 |
| First released | 2015 | 2012 |
| Replaces | Carbonite, Backblaze | Time Machine |
Why pick each one
Choose Kup if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Written in C++
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is BorgBackup or Kup better?
Neither is universally better. BorgBackup has the larger community, while Kup is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are BorgBackup and Kup free and open-source?
Yes. BorgBackup is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Kup under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run BorgBackup and Kup with Docker?
BorgBackup: check the project docs for container support. Kup: check the project docs for container support.