Knoxite vs Restic
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 13 · At risk | 99 · Excellent |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 493 | ★ 36,213 |
| First released | 2016 | 2015 |
| Replaces | Backblaze | Backblaze, Carbonite |
What are Knoxite and Restic?
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
Restic is a fast and secure backup program that creates encrypted, deduplicated snapshots to many storage backends. It targets users and admins who want reliable command-line backups. It is deployed as a single binary.
- Encrypted deduplicated snapshots
- Many storage backends
- Fast incremental backups
- Single self-contained binary
Knoxite vs Restic: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Knoxite versus BSD-2-Clause for Restic. Knoxite is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Restic. Restic has the considerably larger community, at 36,213 GitHub stars versus 493. Restic 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 if…
- Strong encryption
- Efficient deduplication
- Wide backend support
Watch out for
- Command-line only
- No built-in scheduler
Frequently asked questions
Is Knoxite or Restic better?
Neither is universally better. Restic has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Knoxite and Restic free and open-source?
Yes. Knoxite is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Restic under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Knoxite and Restic with Docker?
Knoxite: check the project docs for container support. Restic: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Knoxite or Restic?
Knoxite has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Restic. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.