Kanister vs Velero
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Velero
Backup and migrate Kubernetes cluster resources
| Feature | Kanister | Velero |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 80 · Excellent | 93 · Excellent |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | kubernetes, helm | kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 887 | ★ 10,310 |
| First released | 2018 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Kasten K10 | Kasten K10 |
What are Kanister and Velero?
Kanister
Kanister is a framework for application-level data management on Kubernetes. It allows domain experts to define backup and restore workflows for stateful applications as declarative blueprints.
- Application-aware backups
- Declarative blueprints
- Extensible workflow framework
Velero
Velero is a tool to back up and restore Kubernetes cluster resources and persistent volumes. It supports disaster recovery, cluster migration, and scheduled backups to object storage.
- Kubernetes resource backups
- Persistent volume snapshots
- Cluster migration support
Kanister vs Velero: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. Velero has the considerably larger community, at 10,310 GitHub stars versus 887.
Why pick each one
Choose Kanister if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Written in Go
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Choose Velero if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Mature project with 10.3k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Kanister or Velero better?
Neither is universally better. Velero has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Kanister and Velero free and open-source?
Yes. Kanister is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Velero under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Kanister and Velero with Docker?
Kanister: check the project docs for container support. Velero: check the project docs for container support.