Restic vs Restic Mailer
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Restic | Restic Mailer |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 99 · Excellent | 76 · Good |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Language | Go | Shell |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, docker | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 36,213 | ★ 663 |
| First released | 2015 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Backblaze, Carbonite | Backblaze |
What are Restic and Restic Mailer?
Restic
Restic is a fast and secure backup program that creates encrypted, deduplicated snapshots to many storage backends. It targets users and admins who want reliable command-line backups. It is deployed as a single binary.
- Encrypted deduplicated snapshots
- Many storage backends
- Fast incremental backups
- Single self-contained binary
Restic Mailer
A wrapper around restic that runs backups on schedule and emails detailed success or failure reports. It adds visibility to unattended restic deployments.
- Scheduled restic runs
- Email job reports
- systemd integration
- Unattended backups
Restic vs Restic Mailer: key differences
Restic is written in Go, while Restic Mailer is built with Shell. Licensing differs — BSD-2-Clause for Restic versus MIT for Restic Mailer. Restic Mailer is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Restic. Restic is the more established project (first released 2015), while Restic Mailer arrived in 2018. Restic has the considerably larger community, at 36,213 GitHub stars versus 663.
Why pick each one
Choose Restic if…
- Strong encryption
- Efficient deduplication
- Wide backend support
Watch out for
- Command-line only
- No built-in scheduler
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
Frequently asked questions
Is Restic or Restic Mailer better?
Neither is universally better. Restic 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 and Restic Mailer free and open-source?
Yes. Restic is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and Restic Mailer under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Restic and Restic Mailer with Docker?
Restic: yes. Restic Mailer: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Restic or Restic Mailer?
Restic Mailer has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Restic. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.