Knoxite vs Obnam2
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Knoxite | Obnam2 |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 493 | ★ 200 |
| First released | 2016 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Backblaze | Backblaze |
What are Knoxite and Obnam2?
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
Obnam2
Obnam2 is a backup program that splits files into chunks for deduplicated, encrypted storage to a backup server. It is built with a focus on simplicity and verifiable correctness.
- Chunk-based deduplication
- Encrypted storage
- Backup server model
- Simplicity focused
Knoxite vs Obnam2: key differences
Knoxite is written in Go, while Obnam2 is built with Rust. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Knoxite versus AGPL-3.0 for Obnam2. Knoxite is the more established project (first released 2016), while Obnam2 arrived in 2020. Knoxite has the considerably larger community, at 493 GitHub stars versus 200.
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 Obnam2 if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Knoxite or Obnam2 better?
Neither is universally better. Knoxite has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Knoxite and Obnam2 free and open-source?
Yes. Knoxite is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Obnam2 under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Knoxite and Obnam2 with Docker?
Knoxite: check the project docs for container support. Obnam2: check the project docs for container support.