BorgBackup vs pgBackRest
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
pgBackRest
Reliable backup and restore solution for PostgreSQL
| Feature | BorgBackup | pgBackRest |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Language | Python | C |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 13,588 | ★ 4,296 |
| First released | 2015 | 2013 |
| Replaces | Carbonite, Backblaze | Veeam |
Why pick each one
Choose pgBackRest if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (4.3k GitHub stars)
- Written in C
Frequently asked questions
Is BorgBackup or pgBackRest better?
BorgBackup is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider pgBackRest if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are BorgBackup and pgBackRest free and open-source?
Yes. BorgBackup is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and pgBackRest under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run BorgBackup and pgBackRest with Docker?
BorgBackup: check the project docs for container support. pgBackRest: yes.