Restic vs Rustic
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Restic | Rustic |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 99 · Excellent | 88 · Excellent |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary, docker | binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 36,213 | ★ 3,273 |
| First released | 2015 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Backblaze, Carbonite | Backblaze, CrashPlan |
What are Restic and Rustic?
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
Rustic
Rustic is a backup tool written in Rust that creates fast, encrypted, and deduplicated backups. It is fully compatible with Restic repositories while offering lower memory usage.
- Restic-compatible repositories
- Low memory footprint
- Cold storage support
Restic vs Rustic: key differences
Restic is written in Go, while Rustic is built with Rust. Licensing differs — BSD-2-Clause for Restic versus Apache-2.0 for Rustic. Rustic is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Restic. Restic is the more established project (first released 2015), while Rustic arrived in 2022. Restic has the considerably larger community, at 36,213 GitHub stars versus 3,273. Restic lists first-class Docker deployment; Rustic does not.
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 Rustic if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Active community (3.3k GitHub stars)
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Restic or Rustic better?
Neither is universally better. Restic has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Restic and Rustic free and open-source?
Yes. Restic is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and Rustic under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Restic and Rustic with Docker?
Restic: yes. Rustic: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Restic or Rustic?
Rustic has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Restic. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.