pgBackRest vs Rustic
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
Rustic
Fast encrypted deduplicated backup compatible with Restic
| Feature | pgBackRest | Rustic |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | C | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,296 | ★ 3,170 |
| First released | 2013 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Veeam | Backblaze, CrashPlan |
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 Rustic if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Active community (3.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is pgBackRest or Rustic better?
Neither is universally better. pgBackRest has the larger community, while Rustic is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are pgBackRest and Rustic free and open-source?
Yes. pgBackRest is licensed under MIT and Rustic under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run pgBackRest and Rustic with Docker?
pgBackRest: yes. Rustic: check the project docs for container support.