Gickup 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?
Gickup
Mirror and back up Git repositories across hosts
VS
Rclone
Sync and copy files to dozens of cloud providers
| Feature | Gickup | Rclone |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,427 | ★ 58,995 |
| First released | 2020 | 2014 |
| Replaces | GitHub Backup | Backblaze |
Why pick each one
Choose Gickup if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.4k GitHub stars)
Frequently asked questions
Is Gickup or Rclone better?
Neither is universally better. Rclone has the larger community, while Gickup is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Gickup and Rclone free and open-source?
Yes. Gickup is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Rclone under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Gickup and Rclone with Docker?
Gickup: yes. Rclone: yes.