Rclone vs Deja Dup

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?
FeatureRcloneDeja Dup
CategoryBackup & RecoveryBackup & Recovery
LicenseMITGPL-3.0
LanguageGoVala
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM128 MB256 MB
Deploymentbinary, dockerbinary
GitHub stars★ 58,995★ 600
First released20142008
ReplacesBackblazeTime Machine, Backblaze

Why pick each one

Choose Rclone if…

  • Works with almost any cloud
  • Extremely versatile
  • Reliable
Rclone details

Choose Deja Dup if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Written in Vala
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Deja Dup details

Frequently asked questions

Is Rclone or Deja Dup better?

Neither is universally better. Rclone has the larger community, while Deja Dup is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Rclone and Deja Dup free and open-source?

Yes. Rclone is licensed under MIT and Deja Dup under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Rclone and Deja Dup with Docker?

Rclone: yes. Deja Dup: check the project docs for container support.

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