Restic Cron vs Rustic
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
Rustic
Fast encrypted deduplicated backup compatible with Restic
| Feature | Restic Cron | Rustic |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Shell | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker | binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 702 | ★ 3,170 |
| First released | 2019 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Backblaze | Backblaze, CrashPlan |
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 Rustic if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Active community (3.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Restic Cron or Rustic better?
Neither is universally better. Rustic 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 Rustic free and open-source?
Yes. Restic Cron is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and Rustic under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Restic Cron and Rustic with Docker?
Restic Cron: yes. Rustic: check the project docs for container support.