DAR vs Rclone
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?
DAR
Disk Archive tool for full and incremental backups
VS
Rclone
Sync and copy files to dozens of cloud providers
| Feature | DAR | Rclone |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | GPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | C++ | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 201 | ★ 58,995 |
| First released | 2002 | 2014 |
| Replaces | tar | Backblaze |
Why pick each one
Choose DAR if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- Written in C++
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is DAR or Rclone better?
Neither is universally better. Rclone has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are DAR and Rclone free and open-source?
Yes. DAR is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Rclone under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run DAR and Rclone with Docker?
DAR: check the project docs for container support. Rclone: yes.