Restic Exporter vs Rclone
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?
Restic Exporter
Prometheus exporter for restic repository status
VS
Rclone
Sync and copy files to dozens of cloud providers
| Feature | Restic Exporter | Rclone |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Python | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 158 | ★ 58,995 |
| First released | 2022 | 2014 |
| Replaces | Datadog | Backblaze |
Why pick each one
Choose Restic Exporter if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Python
Frequently asked questions
Is Restic Exporter or Rclone better?
Neither is universally better. Rclone has the larger community, while Restic Exporter is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Restic Exporter and Rclone free and open-source?
Yes. Restic Exporter is licensed under MIT and Rclone under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Restic Exporter and Rclone with Docker?
Restic Exporter: yes. Rclone: yes.