pgBackRest 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?
FeaturepgBackRestRestic
CategoryBackup & RecoveryBackup & Recovery
LicenseMITBSD-2-Clause
LanguageCGo
Setup difficultyHardMedium
Min. RAM256 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, binarybinary, docker
GitHub stars★ 4,296★ 35,412
First released20132015
ReplacesVeeamBackblaze, Carbonite

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 Restic if…

  • Strong encryption
  • Efficient deduplication
  • Wide backend support
Restic details

Frequently asked questions

Is pgBackRest or Restic better?

Restic 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 Restic free and open-source?

Yes. pgBackRest is licensed under MIT and Restic under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run pgBackRest and Restic with Docker?

pgBackRest: yes. Restic: yes.

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