Rdiffweb vs Restic

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?
FeatureRdiffwebRestic
CategoryBackup & RecoveryBackup & Recovery
LicenseGPL-3.0BSD-2-Clause
LanguagePythonGo
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM256 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metalbinary, docker
GitHub stars★ 200★ 35,412
First released20142015
ReplacesCrashPlanBackblaze, Carbonite

Why pick each one

Choose Rdiffweb if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Written in Python
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Rdiffweb details

Choose Restic if…

  • Strong encryption
  • Efficient deduplication
  • Wide backend support
Restic details

Frequently asked questions

Is Rdiffweb or Restic better?

Neither is universally better. Restic has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Rdiffweb and Restic free and open-source?

Yes. Rdiffweb is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Restic under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Rdiffweb and Restic with Docker?

Rdiffweb: yes. Restic: yes.

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