Knoxite vs Restic Cron
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Knoxite | Restic Cron |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 13 · At risk | 70 · Good |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Language | Go | Shell |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 493 | ★ 715 |
| First released | 2016 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Backblaze | Backblaze |
What are Knoxite and Restic Cron?
Knoxite
Knoxite is a flexible data storage and backup tool that supports deduplication, encryption, and many storage backends. It can back up to local disk, SFTP, and S3-compatible targets.
- Deduplicated backups
- Encryption
- Multiple storage backends
- Cross-platform
Restic Cron
A containerized scheduler that runs restic backups on a cron schedule and prunes old snapshots. It is designed to be a drop-in backup sidecar for self-hosted stacks.
- Cron-scheduled backups
- Automatic pruning
- restic backend
- Sidecar container
Knoxite vs Restic Cron: key differences
Knoxite is written in Go, while Restic Cron is built with Shell. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Knoxite versus BSD-2-Clause for Restic Cron. Restic Cron is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Knoxite. Knoxite is the more established project (first released 2016), while Restic Cron arrived in 2019. Restic Cron lists first-class Docker deployment; Knoxite does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Knoxite if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Written in Go
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Choose Restic Cron if…
- Released under the BSD-2-Clause license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Shell
Frequently asked questions
Is Knoxite or Restic Cron better?
Restic Cron is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Knoxite if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Knoxite and Restic Cron free and open-source?
Yes. Knoxite is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Restic Cron under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Knoxite and Restic Cron with Docker?
Knoxite: check the project docs for container support. Restic Cron: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Knoxite or Restic Cron?
Restic Cron has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Knoxite. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.