Deja Dup vs rsnapshot
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Deja Dup | rsnapshot |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | Vala | Perl |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary | binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 600 | ★ 3,683 |
| First released | 2008 | 2003 |
| Replaces | Time Machine, Backblaze | Time Machine |
What are Deja Dup and rsnapshot?
Deja Dup
Deja Dup is a simple backup tool that hides the complexity of doing backups properly. It supports local, network, and cloud storage with encryption and incremental backups powered by Restic.
- Beginner-friendly GUI
- Encrypted incremental backups
- Local and cloud targets
rsnapshot
rsnapshot is a filesystem snapshot utility built on rsync that makes incremental backups of local and remote machines. It uses hard links to keep multiple full backups while saving disk space.
- Hard-link snapshot rotation
- Local and remote backups
- Low storage overhead
Deja Dup vs rsnapshot: key differences
Deja Dup is written in Vala, while rsnapshot is built with Perl. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Deja Dup versus GPL-2.0 for rsnapshot. Rsnapshot is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Deja Dup. Rsnapshot is the more established project (first released 2003), while Deja Dup arrived in 2008. Rsnapshot has the considerably larger community, at 3,683 GitHub stars versus 600.
Why pick each one
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
Choose rsnapshot if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- Active community (3.7k GitHub stars)
- Written in Perl
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Deja Dup or rsnapshot better?
Neither is universally better. rsnapshot 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 Deja Dup and rsnapshot free and open-source?
Yes. Deja Dup is licensed under GPL-3.0 and rsnapshot under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Deja Dup and rsnapshot with Docker?
Deja Dup: check the project docs for container support. rsnapshot: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Deja Dup or rsnapshot?
rsnapshot has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Deja Dup. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.