bup vs Kopia

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?
FeaturebupKopia
CategoryBackup & RecoveryBackup & Recovery
LicenseLGPL-2.1Apache-2.0
LanguagePythonGo
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM128 MB256 MB
Deploymentbinarybinary, docker
GitHub stars★ 7,337★ 13,798
First released20102019
ReplacesTime MachineBackblaze, Carbonite

Why pick each one

Choose bup if…

  • Released under the LGPL-2.1 license
  • Mature project with 7.3k GitHub stars
  • Written in Python
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
bup details

Choose Kopia if…

  • GUI and CLI both available
  • Fast and efficient
  • Modern design
Kopia details

Frequently asked questions

Is bup or Kopia better?

Kopia is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider bup if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are bup and Kopia free and open-source?

Yes. bup is licensed under LGPL-2.1 and Kopia under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run bup and Kopia with Docker?

bup: check the project docs for container support. Kopia: yes.

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