SHSelfHostIndex

Restic vs Sanoid

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?
RE Restic Fast, secure, efficient backup program VS SA Sanoid Policy-driven ZFS snapshot management and replication
FeatureResticSanoid
CategoryBackup & RecoveryBackup & Recovery
LicenseBSD-2-ClauseGPL-3.0
LanguageGoPerl
Setup difficultyMediumHard
Min. RAM256 MB128 MB
Deploymentbinary, dockerbare-metal
GitHub stars★ 35,412★ 3,830
First released20152014
ReplacesBackblaze, CarboniteTime Machine

Why pick each one

Choose Restic if…

  • Strong encryption
  • Efficient deduplication
  • Wide backend support
Restic details

Choose Sanoid if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • Active community (3.8k GitHub stars)
  • Written in Perl
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Sanoid details

Frequently asked questions

Is Restic or Sanoid better?

Restic is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Sanoid if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are Restic and Sanoid free and open-source?

Yes. Restic is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and Sanoid under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Restic and Sanoid with Docker?

Restic: yes. Sanoid: check the project docs for container support.

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