Duplicati vs Rustic
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
Rustic
Fast encrypted deduplicated backup compatible with Restic
| Feature | Duplicati | Rustic |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 95 · Excellent | 88 · Excellent |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | C# | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 15,020 | ★ 3,273 |
| First released | 2008 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Backblaze, Carbonite | Backblaze, CrashPlan |
What are Duplicati and Rustic?
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
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
Duplicati vs Rustic: key differences
Duplicati is written in C#, while Rustic is built with Rust. Licensing differs — MIT for Duplicati versus Apache-2.0 for Rustic. Rustic 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 Rustic arrived in 2022. Duplicati has the considerably larger community, at 15,020 GitHub stars versus 3,273. Duplicati lists first-class Docker deployment; Rustic does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Duplicati if…
- Friendly GUI
- Broad storage support
- Free
Watch out for
- Restores can be slow
- Long beta history
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 Duplicati or Rustic better?
Duplicati is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Rustic if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Duplicati and Rustic free and open-source?
Yes. Duplicati is licensed under MIT and Rustic under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Duplicati and Rustic with Docker?
Duplicati: yes. Rustic: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Duplicati or Rustic?
Rustic 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.