borgmatic vs CKAN

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?
FeatureborgmaticCKAN
CategoryBackup & RecoveryBackup & Recovery
LicenseGPL-3.0AGPL-3.0
LanguagePythonPython
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM128 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, binarybare-metal
GitHub stars★ 2,000★ 5,088
First released20132026
ReplacesCrashPlan, Backblaze

Why pick each one

Choose borgmatic if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Active community (2k GitHub stars)
  • Written in Python
borgmatic details

Choose CKAN if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • Mature project with 5.1k GitHub stars
  • Written in Python
  • Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
CKAN details

Frequently asked questions

Is borgmatic or CKAN better?

Neither is universally better. CKAN has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are borgmatic and CKAN free and open-source?

Yes. borgmatic is licensed under GPL-3.0 and CKAN under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run borgmatic and CKAN with Docker?

borgmatic: yes. CKAN: check the project docs for container support.

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