btrbk vs Velero
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
btrbk
Backup tool for Btrfs subvolume snapshots
VS
Velero
Backup and migrate Kubernetes cluster resources
| Feature | btrbk | Velero |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Perl | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, binary | kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,125 | ★ 10,187 |
| First released | 2014 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Time Machine | Kasten K10 |
Why pick each one
Choose btrbk if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Active community (2.1k GitHub stars)
- Written in Perl
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Choose Velero if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Mature project with 10.2k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is btrbk or Velero better?
Neither is universally better. Velero has the larger community, while btrbk is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are btrbk and Velero free and open-source?
Yes. btrbk is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Velero under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run btrbk and Velero with Docker?
btrbk: check the project docs for container support. Velero: check the project docs for container support.