K8up vs Restic

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?
FeatureK8upRestic
CategoryBackup & RecoveryBackup & Recovery
LicenseApache-2.0BSD-2-Clause
LanguageGoGo
Setup difficultyHardMedium
Min. RAM256 MB256 MB
Deploymentkubernetes, helmbinary, docker
GitHub stars★ 1,010★ 35,412
First released20182015
ReplacesKasten K10Backblaze, Carbonite

Why pick each one

Choose K8up if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
  • Active community (1k GitHub stars)
  • Written in Go
K8up details

Choose Restic if…

  • Strong encryption
  • Efficient deduplication
  • Wide backend support
Restic details

Frequently asked questions

Is K8up or Restic better?

Restic is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider K8up if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are K8up and Restic free and open-source?

Yes. K8up is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Restic under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run K8up and Restic with Docker?

K8up: check the project docs for container support. Restic: yes.

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