BorgBackup vs Velero

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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FeatureBorgBackupVelero
CategoryBackup & RecoveryBackup & Recovery
LicenseBSD-3-ClauseApache-2.0
LanguagePythonGo
Setup difficultyMediumHard
Min. RAM256 MB256 MB
Deploymentbinary, bare-metalkubernetes, helm
GitHub stars★ 13,588★ 10,187
First released20152017
ReplacesCarbonite, BackblazeKasten K10

Why pick each one

Choose BorgBackup if…

  • Excellent space efficiency
  • Strong security
  • Battle-tested
BorgBackup details

Choose Velero if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
  • Mature project with 10.2k GitHub stars
  • Written in Go
Velero details

Frequently asked questions

Is BorgBackup or Velero better?

BorgBackup is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Velero if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are BorgBackup and Velero free and open-source?

Yes. BorgBackup is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Velero under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run BorgBackup and Velero with Docker?

BorgBackup: check the project docs for container support. Velero: check the project docs for container support.

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