Restic Cron vs Rclone
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Restic Cron
Containerized scheduled restic backup runner
VS
Rclone
Sync and copy files to dozens of cloud providers
| Feature | Restic Cron | Rclone |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Language | Shell | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 702 | ★ 58,995 |
| First released | 2019 | 2014 |
| Replaces | Backblaze | Backblaze |
Why pick each one
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 Restic Cron or Rclone better?
Neither is universally better. Rclone has the larger community, while Restic Cron is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Restic Cron and Rclone free and open-source?
Yes. Restic Cron is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and Rclone under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Restic Cron and Rclone with Docker?
Restic Cron: yes. Rclone: yes.