borgmatic vs Restic
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
Restic
Fast, secure, efficient backup program
| Feature | borgmatic | Restic |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Language | Python | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,000 | ★ 36,213 |
| First released | 2013 | 2015 |
| Replaces | CrashPlan, Backblaze | Backblaze, Carbonite |
What are borgmatic and Restic?
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
Restic
Restic is a fast and secure backup program that creates encrypted, deduplicated snapshots to many storage backends. It targets users and admins who want reliable command-line backups. It is deployed as a single binary.
- Encrypted deduplicated snapshots
- Many storage backends
- Fast incremental backups
- Single self-contained binary
borgmatic vs Restic: key differences
Borgmatic is written in Python, while Restic is built with Go. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for borgmatic versus BSD-2-Clause for Restic. Borgmatic is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Restic. Borgmatic is the more established project (first released 2013), while Restic arrived in 2015. Restic has the considerably larger community, at 36,213 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 Restic if…
- Strong encryption
- Efficient deduplication
- Wide backend support
Watch out for
- Command-line only
- No built-in scheduler
Frequently asked questions
Is borgmatic or Restic better?
Neither is universally better. Restic has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are borgmatic and Restic free and open-source?
Yes. borgmatic is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Restic under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run borgmatic and Restic with Docker?
borgmatic: yes. Restic: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, borgmatic or Restic?
borgmatic has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Restic. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.