Rclone vs Restic Mailer
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?
Rclone
Sync and copy files to dozens of cloud providers
VS
Restic Mailer
Notification wrapper for restic backup jobs
| Feature | Rclone | Restic Mailer |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Go | Shell |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, docker | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 58,995 | ★ 661 |
| First released | 2014 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Backblaze | Backblaze |
Why pick each one
Choose Restic Mailer if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Shell
Frequently asked questions
Is Rclone or Restic Mailer better?
Neither is universally better. Rclone has the larger community, while Restic Mailer is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Rclone and Restic Mailer free and open-source?
Yes. Rclone is licensed under MIT and Restic Mailer under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Rclone and Restic Mailer with Docker?
Rclone: yes. Restic Mailer: yes.