Bupstash vs Duplicity
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Bupstash | Duplicity |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | Rust | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary | binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 924 | ★ 300 |
| First released | 2020 | 2002 |
| Replaces | Backblaze, CrashPlan | CrashPlan, Backblaze |
What are Bupstash and Duplicity?
Bupstash
Bupstash is a tool for encrypted, deduplicated, and compressed backups. It is designed to be simple, secure, and efficient, storing backups locally or over SSH.
- Encrypted deduplicated backups
- Works over SSH
- Simple command-line interface
Duplicity
Duplicity backs up directories by producing encrypted, signed tar-format volumes and uploading them to a remote or local file server. It uses the rsync algorithm for incremental archives.
- GPG-encrypted archives
- Many remote storage backends
- Incremental rsync deltas
Bupstash vs Duplicity: key differences
Bupstash is written in Rust, while Duplicity is built with Python. Licensing differs — MIT for Bupstash versus GPL-2.0 for Duplicity. Duplicity is the more established project (first released 2002), while Bupstash arrived in 2020. Bupstash has the considerably larger community, at 924 GitHub stars versus 300.
Why pick each one
Choose Bupstash if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Choose Duplicity if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Bupstash or Duplicity better?
Neither is universally better. Bupstash has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Bupstash and Duplicity free and open-source?
Yes. Bupstash is licensed under MIT and Duplicity under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Bupstash and Duplicity with Docker?
Bupstash: check the project docs for container support. Duplicity: check the project docs for container support.