pgBackRest vs zrepl
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | pgBackRest | zrepl |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 89 · Excellent | 70 · Good |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | C | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,402 | ★ 1,159 |
| First released | 2013 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Veeam | Veeam |
What are pgBackRest and zrepl?
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
zrepl
zrepl is a one-stop solution for automated ZFS snapshot management and replication. It handles taking snapshots, pruning them per policy, and replicating datasets between machines with a simple daemon and configuration.
- Automatic ZFS snapshots
- Push and pull replication
- Flexible pruning policies
- Single daemon
pgBackRest vs zrepl: key differences
PgBackRest is written in C, while zrepl is built with Go. Zrepl 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 zrepl arrived in 2017. PgBackRest has the considerably larger community, at 4,402 GitHub stars versus 1,159. PgBackRest lists first-class Docker deployment; zrepl 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 zrepl if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (1.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Watch out for
- ZFS required
- YAML configuration
Frequently asked questions
Is pgBackRest or zrepl better?
Neither is universally better. pgBackRest has the larger community, while zrepl is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are pgBackRest and zrepl free and open-source?
Yes. pgBackRest is licensed under MIT and zrepl under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run pgBackRest and zrepl with Docker?
pgBackRest: yes. zrepl: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, pgBackRest or zrepl?
zrepl 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.