pgBackRest vs Rclone

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?
FeaturepgBackRestRclone
CategoryBackup & RecoveryBackup & Recovery
LicenseMITMIT
LanguageCGo
Setup difficultyHardMedium
Min. RAM256 MB128 MB
Deploymentdocker, binarybinary, docker
GitHub stars★ 4,296★ 58,995
First released20132014
ReplacesVeeamBackblaze

Why pick each one

Choose pgBackRest if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Active community (4.3k GitHub stars)
  • Written in C
pgBackRest details

Choose Rclone if…

  • Works with almost any cloud
  • Extremely versatile
  • Reliable
Rclone details

Frequently asked questions

Is pgBackRest or Rclone better?

Rclone is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider pgBackRest if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are pgBackRest and Rclone free and open-source?

Yes. pgBackRest is licensed under MIT and Rclone under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run pgBackRest and Rclone with Docker?

pgBackRest: yes. Rclone: yes.

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