pgBackRest vs pgmoneta
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | pgBackRest | pgmoneta |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 89 · Excellent | 75 · Good |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | MIT | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | C | C |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | bare-metal, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,402 | ★ 317 |
| First released | 2013 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Veeam | Veeam |
What are pgBackRest and pgmoneta?
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
pgmoneta
pgmoneta is a backup and restore solution for PostgreSQL that focuses on efficiency and modern features. It supports incremental backups, compression, and encryption with minimal overhead.
- Incremental PostgreSQL backups
- Built-in compression
- Low-overhead design
pgBackRest vs pgmoneta: key differences
Both projects are written in C. Licensing differs — MIT for pgBackRest versus BSD-3-Clause for pgmoneta. Pgmoneta is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for pgBackRest. PgBackRest is the more established project (first released 2013), while pgmoneta arrived in 2021. PgBackRest has the considerably larger community, at 4,402 GitHub stars versus 317. PgBackRest lists first-class Docker deployment; pgmoneta does not.
Why pick each one
Choose pgBackRest if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (4.4k GitHub stars)
- Written in C
Choose pgmoneta if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is pgBackRest or pgmoneta better?
Neither is universally better. pgBackRest has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are pgBackRest and pgmoneta free and open-source?
Yes. pgBackRest is licensed under MIT and pgmoneta under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run pgBackRest and pgmoneta with Docker?
pgBackRest: yes. pgmoneta: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, pgBackRest or pgmoneta?
pgmoneta has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for pgBackRest. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.