Minarca Backup vs pgBackRest
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Minarca Backup | pgBackRest |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 31 · At risk | 89 · Excellent |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Python | C |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 263 | ★ 4,402 |
| First released | 2016 | 2013 |
| Replaces | CrashPlan, Veeam | Veeam |
What are Minarca Backup and pgBackRest?
Minarca Backup
Minarca is a centralized backup solution built on rdiff-backup that lets users back up multiple machines and restore their own files through a web interface. It is designed for organizations protecting many endpoints.
- Centralized endpoint backup
- Self-service restore
- rdiff-backup engine
- Web management
pgBackRest
pgBackRest is a robust backup and restore tool for PostgreSQL that supports full, differential, and incremental backups. It offers parallel processing, encryption, and cloud storage targets.
- Full and incremental backups
- Parallel compression
- S3 and Azure storage support
Minarca Backup vs pgBackRest: key differences
Minarca Backup is written in Python, while pgBackRest is built with C. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Minarca Backup versus MIT for pgBackRest. PgBackRest is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Minarca Backup. PgBackRest is the more established project (first released 2013), while Minarca Backup arrived in 2016. PgBackRest has the considerably larger community, at 4,402 GitHub stars versus 263.
Why pick each one
Choose Minarca Backup if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Python
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Choose pgBackRest if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (4.4k GitHub stars)
- Written in C
Frequently asked questions
Is Minarca Backup or pgBackRest better?
Neither is universally better. pgBackRest has the larger community, while Minarca Backup is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Minarca Backup and pgBackRest free and open-source?
Yes. Minarca Backup is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and pgBackRest under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Minarca Backup and pgBackRest with Docker?
Minarca Backup: yes. pgBackRest: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Minarca Backup or pgBackRest?
pgBackRest has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Minarca Backup. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.