SHSelfHostIndex

bup vs MySQL Backup Container

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?
BU bup Efficient backup system based on the git packfile format VS MY MySQL Backup Container Scheduled MySQL and MariaDB dump container
FeaturebupMySQL Backup Container
CategoryBackup & RecoveryBackup & Recovery
LicenseLGPL-2.1MIT
LanguagePythonGo
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM128 MB64 MB
Deploymentbinarydocker
GitHub stars★ 7,337★ 758
First released20102016
ReplacesTime MachineAWS RDS Backups

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 MySQL Backup Container if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Written in Go
MySQL Backup Container details

Frequently asked questions

Is bup or MySQL Backup Container better?

Neither is universally better. bup has the larger community, while MySQL Backup Container is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are bup and MySQL Backup Container free and open-source?

Yes. bup is licensed under LGPL-2.1 and MySQL Backup Container under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run bup and MySQL Backup Container with Docker?

bup: check the project docs for container support. MySQL Backup Container: yes.

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