borgmatic vs Rdiffweb
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
Rdiffweb
Web interface to browse and restore rdiff-backup repositories
| Feature | borgmatic | Rdiffweb |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Python | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,000 | ★ 200 |
| First released | 2013 | 2014 |
| Replaces | CrashPlan, Backblaze | CrashPlan |
What are borgmatic and Rdiffweb?
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
Rdiffweb
Rdiffweb is a web application used to browse and restore data from rdiff-backup repositories. It provides email notifications, quota management, and multi-user access.
- Browse rdiff-backup repos
- Email notifications
- Per-user quotas
borgmatic vs Rdiffweb: key differences
Both projects are written in Python. Borgmatic is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Rdiffweb. Borgmatic has the considerably larger community, at 2,000 GitHub stars versus 200.
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 Rdiffweb if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is borgmatic or Rdiffweb 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 Rdiffweb free and open-source?
Yes. borgmatic is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Rdiffweb under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run borgmatic and Rdiffweb with Docker?
borgmatic: yes. Rdiffweb: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, borgmatic or Rdiffweb?
borgmatic has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Rdiffweb. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.