snapper vs Sanoid
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted backup & recovery options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | snapper | Sanoid |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 83 · Excellent | 69 · Good |
| Category | Backup & Recovery | Backup & Recovery |
| License | GPL-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | C++ | Perl |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal | bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,171 | ★ 3,861 |
| First released | 2011 | 2014 |
| Replaces | Time Machine | Time Machine |
What are snapper and Sanoid?
snapper
Snapper is a tool for managing filesystem snapshots on Btrfs and LVM thin volumes. It can create automatic timeline snapshots and roll back the system to a previous state.
- Automatic timeline snapshots
- Btrfs and LVM support
- System rollback
Sanoid
Sanoid is a policy-driven snapshot management tool for ZFS filesystems, bundled with Syncoid for snapshot replication. Together they automate ZFS snapshots and offsite backup replication.
- Policy-based ZFS snapshots
- Syncoid replication included
- Automated pruning
snapper vs Sanoid: key differences
Snapper is written in C++, while Sanoid is built with Perl. Licensing differs — GPL-2.0 for snapper versus GPL-3.0 for Sanoid. Snapper is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Sanoid. Snapper is the more established project (first released 2011), while Sanoid arrived in 2014. Sanoid has the considerably larger community, at 3,861 GitHub stars versus 1,171.
Why pick each one
Choose snapper if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- Active community (1.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in C++
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Choose Sanoid if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Active community (3.9k GitHub stars)
- Written in Perl
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is snapper or Sanoid better?
Neither is universally better. Sanoid has the larger community, while snapper is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are snapper and Sanoid free and open-source?
Yes. snapper is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Sanoid under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run snapper and Sanoid with Docker?
snapper: check the project docs for container support. Sanoid: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, snapper or Sanoid?
snapper has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Sanoid. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.