Restic Mailer vs Rustic
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
Rustic
Fast encrypted deduplicated backup compatible with Restic
| Feature | Restic Mailer | Rustic |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Shell | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 661 | ★ 3,170 |
| First released | 2018 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Backblaze | Backblaze, CrashPlan |
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 Rustic if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Active community (3.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Restic Mailer or Rustic better?
Neither is universally better. Rustic 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 Rustic free and open-source?
Yes. Restic Mailer is licensed under MIT and Rustic under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Restic Mailer and Rustic with Docker?
Restic Mailer: yes. Rustic: check the project docs for container support.