BorgBackup vs Restic Mailer
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
Restic Mailer
Notification wrapper for restic backup jobs
| Feature | BorgBackup | Restic Mailer |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Language | Python | Shell |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 13,588 | ★ 661 |
| First released | 2015 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Carbonite, Backblaze | Backblaze |
Why pick each one
Choose Restic Mailer if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Shell
Frequently asked questions
Is BorgBackup or Restic Mailer better?
Neither is universally better. BorgBackup has the larger community, while Restic Mailer is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are BorgBackup and Restic Mailer free and open-source?
Yes. BorgBackup is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Restic Mailer under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run BorgBackup and Restic Mailer with Docker?
BorgBackup: check the project docs for container support. Restic Mailer: yes.