bup vs Puter

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

Not the right match-up?
FeaturebupPuter
CategoryBackup & RecoveryFile Sync & Storage
LicenseLGPL-2.1AGPL-3.0
LanguagePythonTypeScript
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM128 MB512 MB
Deploymentbinarydocker
GitHub stars★ 7,337★ 43,003
First released20102026
ReplacesTime Machine

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 Puter if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 43k GitHub stars
  • Written in TypeScript
Puter details

Frequently asked questions

Is bup or Puter better?

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

Are bup and Puter free and open-source?

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

Can I run bup and Puter with Docker?

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

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