btrbk vs Backblaze alt Kopia-UI Standalone
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | btrbk | Backblaze alt Kopia-UI Standalone |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Perl | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, binary | binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,155 | ★ 500 |
| First released | 2014 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Time Machine | Time Machine, Backblaze |
What are btrbk and Backblaze alt Kopia-UI Standalone?
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
Backblaze alt Kopia-UI Standalone
Pika Backup is a simple desktop backup application for GNOME built on BorgBackup. It focuses on protecting personal data with encrypted, deduplicated, and compressed backups.
- GNOME desktop backup app
- Encrypted Borg archives
- Simple scheduling
btrbk vs Backblaze alt Kopia-UI Standalone: key differences
Btrbk is written in Perl, while Backblaze alt Kopia-UI Standalone is built with Rust. Btrbk is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Backblaze alt Kopia-UI Standalone. Btrbk is the more established project (first released 2014), while Backblaze alt Kopia-UI Standalone arrived in 2020. Btrbk has the considerably larger community, at 2,155 GitHub stars versus 500.
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 Backblaze alt Kopia-UI Standalone if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is btrbk or Backblaze alt Kopia-UI Standalone better?
Neither is universally better. btrbk has the larger community, while Backblaze alt Kopia-UI Standalone is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are btrbk and Backblaze alt Kopia-UI Standalone free and open-source?
Yes. btrbk is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Backblaze alt Kopia-UI Standalone under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run btrbk and Backblaze alt Kopia-UI Standalone with Docker?
btrbk: check the project docs for container support. Backblaze alt Kopia-UI Standalone: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, btrbk or Backblaze alt Kopia-UI Standalone?
btrbk has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Backblaze alt Kopia-UI Standalone. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.