Rustic vs SnapRAID
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?
Rustic
Fast encrypted deduplicated backup compatible with Restic
VS
SnapRAID
Parity-based backup for disk arrays of large files
| Feature | Rustic | SnapRAID |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Rust | C |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary | binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,170 | ★ 2,543 |
| First released | 2022 | 2011 |
| Replaces | Backblaze, CrashPlan | unRAID parity |
Why pick each one
Choose Rustic if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Active community (3.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Choose SnapRAID if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Active community (2.5k GitHub stars)
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Rustic or SnapRAID better?
Neither is universally better. Rustic has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Rustic and SnapRAID free and open-source?
Yes. Rustic is licensed under Apache-2.0 and SnapRAID under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Rustic and SnapRAID with Docker?
Rustic: check the project docs for container support. SnapRAID: check the project docs for container support.