pgBackRest vs Velero
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?
pgBackRest
Reliable backup and restore solution for PostgreSQL
VS
Velero
Backup and migrate Kubernetes cluster resources
| Feature | pgBackRest | Velero |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | C | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,296 | ★ 10,187 |
| First released | 2013 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Veeam | Kasten K10 |
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
Choose Velero if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Mature project with 10.2k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is pgBackRest or Velero better?
Neither is universally better. Velero has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are pgBackRest and Velero free and open-source?
Yes. pgBackRest is licensed under MIT and Velero under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run pgBackRest and Velero with Docker?
pgBackRest: yes. Velero: check the project docs for container support.