Open Archiver vs pgBackRest
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?
Open Archiver
Email archiving solution with full-text search and eDiscovery search
VS
pgBackRest
Reliable backup and restore solution for PostgreSQL
| Feature | Open Archiver | pgBackRest |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | C |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,224 | ★ 4,296 |
| First released | 2026 | 2013 |
| Replaces | — | Veeam |
Why pick each one
Choose Open Archiver if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in TypeScript
Choose pgBackRest if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (4.3k GitHub stars)
- Written in C
Frequently asked questions
Is Open Archiver or pgBackRest better?
Neither is universally better. pgBackRest has the larger community, while Open Archiver is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Open Archiver and pgBackRest free and open-source?
Yes. Open Archiver is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and pgBackRest under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Open Archiver and pgBackRest with Docker?
Open Archiver: yes. pgBackRest: yes.