Open Archiver vs WAL-G
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
WAL-G
Archival and restoration tool for databases
| Feature | Open Archiver | WAL-G |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,224 | ★ 4,215 |
| First released | 2026 | 2017 |
| Replaces | — | pgBackRest |
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 WAL-G if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (4.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Open Archiver or WAL-G better?
Neither is universally better. WAL-G 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 WAL-G free and open-source?
Yes. Open Archiver is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and WAL-G under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Open Archiver and WAL-G with Docker?
Open Archiver: yes. WAL-G: yes.