borgmatic vs Knoxite
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
Knoxite
Data storage and backup with deduplication and encryption
| Feature | borgmatic | Knoxite |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Python | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,000 | ★ 493 |
| First released | 2013 | 2016 |
| Replaces | CrashPlan, Backblaze | Backblaze |
What are borgmatic and Knoxite?
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
Knoxite
Knoxite is a flexible data storage and backup tool that supports deduplication, encryption, and many storage backends. It can back up to local disk, SFTP, and S3-compatible targets.
- Deduplicated backups
- Encryption
- Multiple storage backends
- Cross-platform
borgmatic vs Knoxite: key differences
Borgmatic is written in Python, while Knoxite is built with Go. Borgmatic is the more established project (first released 2013), while Knoxite arrived in 2016. Borgmatic has the considerably larger community, at 2,000 GitHub stars versus 493. Borgmatic lists first-class Docker deployment; Knoxite 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 Knoxite if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Written in Go
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is borgmatic or Knoxite 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 Knoxite free and open-source?
Yes. borgmatic is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Knoxite under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run borgmatic and Knoxite with Docker?
borgmatic: yes. Knoxite: check the project docs for container support.