Open Archiver vs Restic
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
Restic
Fast, secure, efficient backup program
| Feature | Open Archiver | Restic |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Language | TypeScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,224 | ★ 35,412 |
| First released | 2026 | 2015 |
| Replaces | — | Backblaze, Carbonite |
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
Frequently asked questions
Is Open Archiver or Restic better?
Neither is universally better. Restic has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Open Archiver and Restic free and open-source?
Yes. Open Archiver is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Restic under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Open Archiver and Restic with Docker?
Open Archiver: yes. Restic: yes.