Duplicacy vs Restic Mailer
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Duplicacy | Restic Mailer |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 76 · Good | 76 · Good |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | Proprietary | MIT |
| Language | Go | Shell |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, docker | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,683 | ★ 663 |
| First released | 2016 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Backblaze, Carbonite | Backblaze |
What are Duplicacy and Restic Mailer?
Duplicacy
Duplicacy is a cross-platform cloud backup tool using a novel lock-free deduplication algorithm for efficient encrypted backups. It targets users backing up to cloud storage. It is deployed as a binary with an optional web UI.
- Lock-free deduplication
- Many cloud backends
- Cross-computer deduplication
- Optional web GUI
Restic Mailer
A wrapper around restic that runs backups on schedule and emails detailed success or failure reports. It adds visibility to unattended restic deployments.
- Scheduled restic runs
- Email job reports
- systemd integration
- Unattended backups
Duplicacy vs Restic Mailer: key differences
Duplicacy is written in Go, while Restic Mailer is built with Shell. Licensing differs — Proprietary for Duplicacy versus MIT for Restic Mailer. Restic Mailer is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Duplicacy. Duplicacy is the more established project (first released 2016), while Restic Mailer arrived in 2018. Duplicacy has the considerably larger community, at 5,683 GitHub stars versus 663.
Why pick each one
Choose Duplicacy if…
- Efficient deduplication
- Good cloud support
- Reliable
Watch out for
- Web edition is paid
- CLI is free but licensed
Choose Restic Mailer if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Shell
Frequently asked questions
Is Duplicacy or Restic Mailer better?
Neither is universally better. Duplicacy has the larger community, while Restic Mailer is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Duplicacy and Restic Mailer free and open-source?
Yes. Duplicacy is licensed under Proprietary and Restic Mailer under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Duplicacy and Restic Mailer with Docker?
Duplicacy: yes. Restic Mailer: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Duplicacy or Restic Mailer?
Restic Mailer has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Duplicacy. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.