BorgBackup vs mail-archiver
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
mail-archiver
Web application for archiving, searching, and exporting emails from
| Feature | BorgBackup | mail-archiver |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Python | C# |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 13,588 | ★ 2,045 |
| First released | 2015 | 2026 |
| Replaces | Carbonite, Backblaze | — |
Why pick each one
Choose mail-archiver if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2k GitHub stars)
- Written in C#
Frequently asked questions
Is BorgBackup or mail-archiver 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 mail-archiver free and open-source?
Yes. BorgBackup is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and mail-archiver under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run BorgBackup and mail-archiver with Docker?
BorgBackup: check the project docs for container support. mail-archiver: yes.