Conserve Backup vs Restic
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Conserve Backup | Restic |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 58 · Fair | 99 · Excellent |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | GPL-2.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Language | Rust | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 278 | ★ 36,213 |
| First released | 2015 | 2015 |
| Replaces | Backblaze | Backblaze, Carbonite |
What are Conserve Backup and Restic?
Conserve Backup
Conserve is a robust backup program written in Rust that creates deduplicated, versioned archives to local or remote storage. It emphasizes data safety and resumable operations.
- Deduplicated archives
- Versioned backups
- Resumable operations
- Data-safety focus
Restic
Restic is a fast and secure backup program that creates encrypted, deduplicated snapshots to many storage backends. It targets users and admins who want reliable command-line backups. It is deployed as a single binary.
- Encrypted deduplicated snapshots
- Many storage backends
- Fast incremental backups
- Single self-contained binary
Conserve Backup vs Restic: key differences
Conserve Backup is written in Rust, while Restic is built with Go. Licensing differs — GPL-2.0 for Conserve Backup versus BSD-2-Clause for Restic. Conserve Backup is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Restic. Restic has the considerably larger community, at 36,213 GitHub stars versus 278. Restic lists first-class Docker deployment; Conserve Backup does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Conserve Backup if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Choose Restic if…
- Strong encryption
- Efficient deduplication
- Wide backend support
Watch out for
- Command-line only
- No built-in scheduler
Frequently asked questions
Is Conserve Backup 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 Conserve Backup and Restic free and open-source?
Yes. Conserve Backup is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Restic under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Conserve Backup and Restic with Docker?
Conserve Backup: check the project docs for container support. Restic: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Conserve Backup or Restic?
Conserve Backup has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Restic. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.