btrbk vs rdiff-backup
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | btrbk | rdiff-backup |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 78 · Good | 65 · Good |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | Perl | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, binary | binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,155 | ★ 1,267 |
| First released | 2014 | 2001 |
| Replaces | Time Machine | Time Machine |
What are btrbk and rdiff-backup?
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
rdiff-backup
rdiff-backup backs up one directory to another, keeping the latest copy plus reverse diffs for older versions. It preserves permissions, ownership, and special files while working over SSH.
- Reverse-incremental storage
- Preserves file metadata
- Works over SSH
btrbk vs rdiff-backup: key differences
Btrbk is written in Perl, while rdiff-backup is built with Python. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for btrbk versus GPL-2.0 for rdiff-backup. Rdiff-backup is the more established project (first released 2001), while btrbk arrived in 2014.
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 rdiff-backup if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- Active community (1.3k GitHub stars)
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is btrbk or rdiff-backup better?
Neither is universally better. btrbk has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are btrbk and rdiff-backup free and open-source?
Yes. btrbk is licensed under GPL-3.0 and rdiff-backup under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run btrbk and rdiff-backup with Docker?
btrbk: check the project docs for container support. rdiff-backup: check the project docs for container support.