SHSelfHostIndex

Deja Dup vs Tarsnap GUI

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?
DE Deja Dup Simple backup tool for the GNOME desktop VS TA Tarsnap GUI Cross-platform desktop front end for Tarsnap backups
FeatureDeja DupTarsnap GUI
CategoryBackup & RecoveryBackup & Recovery
LicenseGPL-3.0BSD-2-Clause
LanguageValaC++
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM256 MB128 MB
Deploymentbinarybinary, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 600★ 250
First released20082016
ReplacesTime Machine, BackblazeBackblaze

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
Deja Dup details

Choose Tarsnap GUI if…

  • Released under the BSD-2-Clause license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Written in C++
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Tarsnap GUI details

Frequently asked questions

Is Deja Dup or Tarsnap GUI better?

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

Are Deja Dup and Tarsnap GUI free and open-source?

Yes. Deja Dup is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Tarsnap GUI under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Deja Dup and Tarsnap GUI with Docker?

Deja Dup: check the project docs for container support. Tarsnap GUI: check the project docs for container support.

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