BorgBackup vs Obnam2
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
Obnam2
Simple, secure chunk-based backup program
| Feature | BorgBackup | Obnam2 |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Python | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 13,588 | ★ 200 |
| First released | 2015 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Carbonite, Backblaze | Backblaze |
Why pick each one
Choose Obnam2 if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is BorgBackup or Obnam2 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 Obnam2 free and open-source?
Yes. BorgBackup is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Obnam2 under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run BorgBackup and Obnam2 with Docker?
BorgBackup: check the project docs for container support. Obnam2: check the project docs for container support.