SHSelfHostIndex

Minarca Backup vs ZFS Autobackup

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?
MI Minarca Backup Centralized rdiff-backup with self-service restore VS ZF ZFS Autobackup Automated ZFS snapshot and replication tool
FeatureMinarca BackupZFS Autobackup
CategoryBackup & RecoveryBackup & Recovery
LicenseAGPL-3.0GPL-2.0
LanguagePythonPython
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB128 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metalbare-metal, binary
GitHub stars★ 239★ 794
First released20162012
ReplacesCrashPlan, VeeamVeeam

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
Minarca Backup details

Choose ZFS Autobackup if…

  • Released under the GPL-2.0 license
  • Written in Python
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
ZFS Autobackup details

Frequently asked questions

Is Minarca Backup or ZFS Autobackup better?

Neither is universally better. ZFS Autobackup has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Minarca Backup and ZFS Autobackup free and open-source?

Yes. Minarca Backup is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and ZFS Autobackup under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Minarca Backup and ZFS Autobackup with Docker?

Minarca Backup: yes. ZFS Autobackup: check the project docs for container support.

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