HashBackup 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 | HashBackup | Rustic |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 0 · At risk | 88 · Excellent |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Python | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary | binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1 | ★ 3,273 |
| First released | 2009 | 2022 |
| Replaces | CrashPlan | Backblaze, CrashPlan |
What are HashBackup and Rustic?
HashBackup
HashBackup is a command-line backup program for Unix-like systems that performs deduplicated, compressed, and encrypted backups to local or remote destinations. It supports retention policies, selective restore, and many storage targets.
- Deduplication and compression
- Encrypted backups
- Many remote destinations
- Flexible retention
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
HashBackup vs Rustic: key differences
HashBackup is written in Python, while Rustic is built with Rust. Licensing differs — MIT for HashBackup versus Apache-2.0 for Rustic. Rustic is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for HashBackup. HashBackup is the more established project (first released 2009), while Rustic arrived in 2022. Rustic has the considerably larger community, at 3,273 GitHub stars versus 1.
Why pick each one
Choose HashBackup if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Watch out for
- Command-line only
- Smaller community
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 HashBackup or Rustic better?
Neither is universally better. Rustic has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are HashBackup and Rustic free and open-source?
Yes. HashBackup is licensed under MIT and Rustic under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run HashBackup and Rustic with Docker?
HashBackup: check the project docs for container support. Rustic: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, HashBackup or Rustic?
Rustic has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for HashBackup. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.