Duplicati vs Rclone
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Duplicati
Free backup software with a friendly web UI
VS
Rclone
Sync and copy files to dozens of cloud providers
| Feature | Duplicati | Rclone |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 95 · Excellent | 100 · Excellent |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | C# | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 15,020 | ★ 59,925 |
| First released | 2008 | 2014 |
| Replaces | Backblaze, Carbonite | Backblaze |
What are Duplicati and Rclone?
Duplicati
Duplicati is free backup software that stores encrypted, incremental backups to cloud and local destinations through a web interface. It targets users who want scheduled GUI-driven backups. It is deployed via Docker or installers.
- Web-based backup management
- Encrypted incremental backups
- Many cloud storage targets
- Scheduling built in
Rclone
Rclone is a command-line program to manage, sync, and copy files across more than seventy cloud storage providers. It targets users moving or backing up data between storage systems. It is deployed as a single binary.
- Supports 70+ cloud providers
- Encryption and mount support
- Powerful sync and copy
- Single self-contained binary
Duplicati vs Rclone: key differences
Duplicati is written in C#, while Rclone is built with Go. Rclone is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Duplicati. Duplicati is the more established project (first released 2008), while Rclone arrived in 2014. Rclone has the considerably larger community, at 59,925 GitHub stars versus 15,020.
Why pick each one
Choose Duplicati if…
- Friendly GUI
- Broad storage support
- Free
Watch out for
- Restores can be slow
- Long beta history
Choose Rclone if…
- Works with almost any cloud
- Extremely versatile
- Reliable
Watch out for
- Not a snapshot backup tool
- Command-line focused
Frequently asked questions
Is Duplicati or Rclone better?
Neither is universally better. Rclone has the larger community, while Duplicati is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Duplicati and Rclone free and open-source?
Yes. Duplicati is licensed under MIT and Rclone under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Duplicati and Rclone with Docker?
Duplicati: yes. Rclone: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Duplicati or Rclone?
Rclone has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Duplicati. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.