Restic Cron vs Velero
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
Velero
Backup and migrate Kubernetes cluster resources
| Feature | Restic Cron | Velero |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Shell | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker | kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 702 | ★ 10,187 |
| First released | 2019 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Backblaze | Kasten K10 |
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
Choose Velero if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Mature project with 10.2k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Restic Cron or Velero better?
Neither is universally better. Velero 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 Velero free and open-source?
Yes. Restic Cron is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and Velero under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Restic Cron and Velero with Docker?
Restic Cron: yes. Velero: check the project docs for container support.