Backrest vs Duplicati
Pros and cons
Each app's own strengths and weaknesses, plus the specs where Backrest and Duplicati differ.
Backrest
Pros
- Standard restic repositories
- Encrypted, deduplicated snapshots
- Single small Go binary
- Pre and post backup hooks
- Completely free
Cons
- Prune needs significant memory
- Per-repository deduplication only
- Prune locks repository exclusively
Duplicati
Pros
- Encrypted, deduplicated archives
- Many storage backends
- Schedules and retention rules
- Restore single files or versions
- Multiple destinations per job
Cons
- Restore needs Duplicati
- No dedupe across machines
- Alerts need the paid Console
Backrest vs Duplicati: specs side by side
Every spec for both apps in one table. Values in bold are where one app has the edge, and amber ones are worth a second look before you install.
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Price | Advantage: Free | Free + Paid |
| Licence | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Concurrent backups | Sequential / locked | – |
| Storage support | Local, SFTP, S3, B2, rclone | Local, SFTP, S3, B2, WebDAV |
| Notifications | Discord, Slack, Gotify, Shoutrrr, Healthchecks | Email, Webhooks, Telegram |
| Deduplication | Yes (per repository) | Yes (per repository) |
| Install options | Docker + Linux · macOS · Windows | Docker + Linux · Windows · macOS |
| Clients | – | macOS · Windows · Linux |
| Web UI | Yes | Yes |
| Architecture | x86 + ARM | x86 + ARM |
| Containers | 1The app alone | 1The app alone |
| Database | SQLite | SQLite |
| Runtime | Go | .NET |
Updated