borgmatic vs Duplicity
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
Duplicity
Encrypted bandwidth-efficient backup using rsync
| Feature | borgmatic | Duplicity |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | Python | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,000 | ★ 300 |
| First released | 2013 | 2002 |
| Replaces | CrashPlan, Backblaze | CrashPlan, Backblaze |
What are borgmatic and Duplicity?
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
Duplicity
Duplicity backs up directories by producing encrypted, signed tar-format volumes and uploading them to a remote or local file server. It uses the rsync algorithm for incremental archives.
- GPG-encrypted archives
- Many remote storage backends
- Incremental rsync deltas
borgmatic vs Duplicity: key differences
Both projects are written in Python. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for borgmatic versus GPL-2.0 for Duplicity. Duplicity is the more established project (first released 2002), while borgmatic arrived in 2013. Borgmatic has the considerably larger community, at 2,000 GitHub stars versus 300. Borgmatic lists first-class Docker deployment; Duplicity does not.
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 Duplicity if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is borgmatic or Duplicity better?
Neither is universally better. borgmatic has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are borgmatic and Duplicity free and open-source?
Yes. borgmatic is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Duplicity under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run borgmatic and Duplicity with Docker?
borgmatic: yes. Duplicity: check the project docs for container support.