btrbk vs bup
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | btrbk | bup |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 78 · Good | 89 · Excellent |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | GPL-3.0 | LGPL-2.1 |
| Language | Perl | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, binary | binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,155 | ★ 7,355 |
| First released | 2014 | 2010 |
| Replaces | Time Machine | Time Machine |
What are btrbk and bup?
btrbk
btrbk is a backup tool for creating and managing snapshots of Btrfs subvolumes and replicating them to local or remote targets. It is designed for incremental, atomic backups driven by a simple configuration file.
- Incremental Btrfs backups
- Remote replication over SSH
- Configurable retention
- Atomic snapshots
bup
bup is a backup tool that stores data using the git packfile format with rolling-checksum deduplication. It can back up enormous datasets efficiently and incrementally.
- Git-packfile storage format
- Rolling-checksum deduplication
- Handles very large datasets
btrbk vs bup: key differences
Btrbk is written in Perl, while bup is built with Python. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for btrbk versus LGPL-2.1 for bup. Btrbk is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for bup. Bup is the more established project (first released 2010), while btrbk arrived in 2014. Bup has the considerably larger community, at 7,355 GitHub stars versus 2,155.
Why pick each one
Choose btrbk if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Active community (2.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in Perl
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Watch out for
- Btrfs only
- No graphical interface
Choose bup if…
- Released under the LGPL-2.1 license
- Mature project with 7.4k GitHub stars
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is btrbk or bup better?
Neither is universally better. bup has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are btrbk and bup free and open-source?
Yes. btrbk is licensed under GPL-3.0 and bup under LGPL-2.1. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run btrbk and bup with Docker?
btrbk: check the project docs for container support. bup: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, btrbk or bup?
btrbk has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for bup. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.