Duplicacy vs Rustic
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Duplicacy | Rustic |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 76 · Good | 88 · Excellent |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | Proprietary | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary, docker | binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,683 | ★ 3,273 |
| First released | 2016 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Backblaze, Carbonite | Backblaze, CrashPlan |
What are Duplicacy and Rustic?
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
Rustic
Rustic is a backup tool written in Rust that creates fast, encrypted, and deduplicated backups. It is fully compatible with Restic repositories while offering lower memory usage.
- Restic-compatible repositories
- Low memory footprint
- Cold storage support
Duplicacy vs Rustic: key differences
Duplicacy is written in Go, while Rustic is built with Rust. Licensing differs — Proprietary for Duplicacy versus Apache-2.0 for Rustic. Rustic is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Duplicacy. Duplicacy is the more established project (first released 2016), while Rustic arrived in 2022. Duplicacy lists first-class Docker deployment; Rustic does not.
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 Rustic if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Active community (3.3k GitHub stars)
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Duplicacy or Rustic better?
Neither is universally better. Duplicacy has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Duplicacy and Rustic free and open-source?
Yes. Duplicacy is licensed under Proprietary and Rustic under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Duplicacy and Rustic with Docker?
Duplicacy: yes. Rustic: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Duplicacy or Rustic?
Rustic has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Duplicacy. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.