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.
Rclone
Sync and copy files to dozens of cloud providers
VS
Restic Mailer
Notification wrapper for restic backup jobs
| Feature | Rclone | Restic Mailer |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 100 · Excellent | 76 · Good |
| 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 | ★ 59,925 | ★ 663 |
| First released | 2014 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Backblaze | Backblaze |
What are Rclone and Restic Mailer?
Rclone
Rclone is a command-line program to manage, sync, and copy files across more than seventy cloud storage providers. It targets users moving or backing up data between storage systems. It is deployed as a single binary.
- Supports 70+ cloud providers
- Encryption and mount support
- Powerful sync and copy
- Single self-contained binary
Restic Mailer
A wrapper around restic that runs backups on schedule and emails detailed success or failure reports. It adds visibility to unattended restic deployments.
- Scheduled restic runs
- Email job reports
- systemd integration
- Unattended backups
Rclone vs Restic Mailer: key differences
Rclone is written in Go, while Restic Mailer is built with Shell. Restic Mailer is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Rclone. Rclone is the more established project (first released 2014), while Restic Mailer arrived in 2018. Rclone has the considerably larger community, at 59,925 GitHub stars versus 663.
Why pick each one
Choose Rclone if…
- Works with almost any cloud
- Extremely versatile
- Reliable
Watch out for
- Not a snapshot backup tool
- Command-line focused
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.
Which is lighter on resources, Rclone or Restic Mailer?
Restic Mailer has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Rclone. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.