Restic Mailer vs Velero
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?
Restic Mailer
Notification wrapper for restic backup jobs
VS
Velero
Backup and migrate Kubernetes cluster resources
| Feature | Restic Mailer | Velero |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Shell | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | kubernetes, helm |
| GitHub stars | ★ 661 | ★ 10,187 |
| First released | 2018 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Backblaze | Kasten K10 |
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
Choose Velero if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Mature project with 10.2k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Restic Mailer or Velero better?
Neither is universally better. Velero 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 Restic Mailer and Velero free and open-source?
Yes. Restic Mailer is licensed under MIT and Velero under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Restic Mailer and Velero with Docker?
Restic Mailer: yes. Velero: check the project docs for container support.