Kopia vs Restic
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Kopia
Fast, encrypted backup with a clean interface
VS
Restic
Fast, secure, efficient backup program
| Feature | Kopia | Restic |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 94 · Excellent | 99 · Excellent |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, docker | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 14,188 | ★ 36,213 |
| First released | 2019 | 2015 |
| Replaces | Backblaze, Carbonite | Backblaze, Carbonite |
What are Kopia and Restic?
Kopia
Kopia is a fast and secure backup tool that creates encrypted, deduplicated snapshots and offers both a CLI and a desktop GUI. It targets users who want modern backups with a clean interface. It is deployed as a binary or via Docker.
- Encrypted deduplicated snapshots
- Both CLI and desktop GUI
- Many storage backends
- Compression and policies
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
Kopia vs Restic: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Kopia versus BSD-2-Clause for Restic. Restic is the more established project (first released 2015), while Kopia arrived in 2019. Restic has the considerably larger community, at 36,213 GitHub stars versus 14,188.
Why pick each one
Choose Kopia if…
- GUI and CLI both available
- Fast and efficient
- Modern design
Watch out for
- Younger than Restic
- Advanced options can confuse
Choose Restic if…
- Strong encryption
- Efficient deduplication
- Wide backend support
Watch out for
- Command-line only
- No built-in scheduler
Frequently asked questions
Is Kopia or Restic better?
Neither is universally better. Restic has the larger community, while Kopia is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Kopia and Restic free and open-source?
Yes. Kopia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Restic under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Kopia and Restic with Docker?
Kopia: yes. Restic: yes.