Collective Access - Providence vs Restic
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?
Collective Access - Providence
Highly configurable Web-based framework for management, description,
VS
Restic
Fast, secure, efficient backup program
| Feature | Collective Access - Providence | Restic |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Language | PHP | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 382 | ★ 35,412 |
| First released | 2026 | 2015 |
| Replaces | — | Backblaze, Carbonite |
Why pick each one
Choose Collective Access - Providence if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Written in PHP
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Collective Access - Providence or Restic better?
Neither is universally better. Restic has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Collective Access - Providence and Restic free and open-source?
Yes. Collective Access - Providence is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Restic under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Collective Access - Providence and Restic with Docker?
Collective Access - Providence: check the project docs for container support. Restic: yes.