BorgBackup vs SeaweedFS

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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FeatureBorgBackupSeaweedFS
CategoryBackup & RecoveryFile Sync & Storage
LicenseBSD-3-ClauseApache-2.0
LanguagePythonGo
Setup difficultyMediumHard
Min. RAM256 MB512 MB
Deploymentbinary, bare-metaldocker, kubernetes, binary
GitHub stars★ 13,588★ 33,952
First released20152015
ReplacesCarbonite, BackblazeAmazon S3

Why pick each one

Choose BorgBackup if…

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

Choose SeaweedFS if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
  • Mature project with 34k GitHub stars
SeaweedFS details

Frequently asked questions

Is BorgBackup or SeaweedFS better?

Neither is universally better. SeaweedFS has the larger community, while BorgBackup is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are BorgBackup and SeaweedFS free and open-source?

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

Can I run BorgBackup and SeaweedFS with Docker?

BorgBackup: check the project docs for container support. SeaweedFS: yes.

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