bup vs Nextcloud

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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FeaturebupNextcloud
CategoryBackup & RecoveryFile Sync & Storage
LicenseLGPL-2.1AGPL-3.0
LanguagePythonPHP
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM128 MB512 MB
Deploymentbinarydocker, bare-metal, snap
GitHub stars★ 7,337★ 36,362
First released20102016
ReplacesTime MachineDropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft 365

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 Nextcloud if…

  • Feature-rich and extensible
  • Active development and large community
  • Integrates calendar, contacts and office
Nextcloud details

Frequently asked questions

Is bup or Nextcloud better?

Neither is universally better. Nextcloud has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are bup and Nextcloud free and open-source?

Yes. bup is licensed under LGPL-2.1 and Nextcloud under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run bup and Nextcloud with Docker?

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

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