SHSelfHostIndex

ElkarBackup alt Snapper vs Kup

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?
EL ElkarBackup alt Snapper Btrfs snapshot management tool with rollback VS KU Kup KDE backup scheduler for personal files
FeatureElkarBackup alt SnapperKup
CategoryBackup & RecoveryBackup & Recovery
LicenseGPL-2.0GPL-2.0
LanguageC++C++
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM64 MB128 MB
Deploymentbare-metalbinary
GitHub stars★ 1,158★ 100
First released20112012
ReplacesTime MachineTime Machine

Why pick each one

Choose ElkarBackup alt Snapper if…

  • Released under the GPL-2.0 license
  • Active community (1.2k GitHub stars)
  • Written in C++
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
ElkarBackup alt Snapper details

Choose Kup if…

  • Released under the GPL-2.0 license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Written in C++
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Kup details

Frequently asked questions

Is ElkarBackup alt Snapper or Kup better?

Neither is universally better. ElkarBackup alt Snapper has the larger community, while Kup is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are ElkarBackup alt Snapper and Kup free and open-source?

Yes. ElkarBackup alt Snapper is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Kup under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run ElkarBackup alt Snapper and Kup with Docker?

ElkarBackup alt Snapper: check the project docs for container support. Kup: check the project docs for container support.

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