SHSelfHostIndex

Rclone vs Sanoid

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?
RC Rclone Sync and copy files to dozens of cloud providers VS SA Sanoid Policy-driven ZFS snapshot management and replication
FeatureRcloneSanoid
CategoryBackup & RecoveryBackup & Recovery
LicenseMITGPL-3.0
LanguageGoPerl
Setup difficultyMediumHard
Min. RAM128 MB128 MB
Deploymentbinary, dockerbare-metal
GitHub stars★ 58,995★ 3,830
First released20142014
ReplacesBackblazeTime Machine

Why pick each one

Choose Rclone if…

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

Choose Sanoid if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • Active community (3.8k GitHub stars)
  • Written in Perl
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Sanoid details

Frequently asked questions

Is Rclone or Sanoid better?

Rclone is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Sanoid if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are Rclone and Sanoid free and open-source?

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

Can I run Rclone and Sanoid with Docker?

Rclone: yes. Sanoid: check the project docs for container support.

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