CKAN vs Kup

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?
FeatureCKANKup
CategoryBackup & RecoveryBackup & Recovery
LicenseAGPL-3.0GPL-2.0
LanguagePythonC++
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM512 MB128 MB
Deploymentbare-metalbinary
GitHub stars★ 5,088★ 100
First released20262012
ReplacesTime Machine

Why pick each one

Choose CKAN if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • Mature project with 5.1k GitHub stars
  • Written in Python
  • Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
CKAN details

Choose Kup if…

  • Released under the GPL-2.0 license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Written in C++
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Kup details

Frequently asked questions

Is CKAN or Kup better?

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

Are CKAN and Kup free and open-source?

Yes. CKAN is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Kup under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run CKAN and Kup with Docker?

CKAN: check the project docs for container support. Kup: check the project docs for container support.

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