DAR 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?
DAR
Disk Archive tool for full and incremental backups
VS
Restic
Fast, secure, efficient backup program
| Feature | DAR | Restic |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | GPL-2.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Language | C++ | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 201 | ★ 35,412 |
| First released | 2002 | 2015 |
| Replaces | tar | Backblaze, Carbonite |
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 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 DAR and Restic free and open-source?
Yes. DAR is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Restic under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run DAR and Restic with Docker?
DAR: check the project docs for container support. Restic: yes.