borgmatic vs Duplicacy
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
borgmatic
Simple configuration-driven frontend for BorgBackup
VS
Duplicacy
Lock-free deduplication cloud backup tool
| Feature | borgmatic | Duplicacy |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Proprietary |
| Language | Python | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,000 | ★ 5,683 |
| First released | 2013 | 2016 |
| Replaces | CrashPlan, Backblaze | Backblaze, Carbonite |
What are borgmatic and Duplicacy?
borgmatic
borgmatic is a command-line tool that wraps BorgBackup to make it easy to schedule and configure backups. It adds features like database dumps, monitoring hooks, and consistency checks.
- Declarative YAML configuration
- Database backup integration
- Monitoring service hooks
Duplicacy
Duplicacy is a cross-platform cloud backup tool using a novel lock-free deduplication algorithm for efficient encrypted backups. It targets users backing up to cloud storage. It is deployed as a binary with an optional web UI.
- Lock-free deduplication
- Many cloud backends
- Cross-computer deduplication
- Optional web GUI
borgmatic vs Duplicacy: key differences
Borgmatic is written in Python, while Duplicacy is built with Go. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for borgmatic versus Proprietary for Duplicacy. Borgmatic is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Duplicacy. Borgmatic is the more established project (first released 2013), while Duplicacy arrived in 2016. Duplicacy has the considerably larger community, at 5,683 GitHub stars versus 2,000.
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
Choose Duplicacy if…
- Efficient deduplication
- Good cloud support
- Reliable
Watch out for
- Web edition is paid
- CLI is free but licensed
Frequently asked questions
Is borgmatic or Duplicacy better?
Neither is universally better. Duplicacy has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are borgmatic and Duplicacy free and open-source?
Yes. borgmatic is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Duplicacy under Proprietary. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run borgmatic and Duplicacy with Docker?
borgmatic: yes. Duplicacy: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, borgmatic or Duplicacy?
borgmatic has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Duplicacy. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.