Best Self-Hosted Backup Solutions in 2026

Quick Picks

Use Case	Best Choice	Why
Best overall	Restic	Fast, encrypted, supports 20+ storage backends (S3, B2, SFTP, local). The community standard.
Best deduplication	BorgBackup	Superior compression ratios. Best for large, slowly-changing datasets.
Best modern alternative	Kopia	Restic-like features plus a web UI, policies, and snapshot management.
Best with GUI	Duplicati	Web-based GUI for scheduling and configuring backups. Best for non-CLI users.
Best Borg automation	Borgmatic	YAML-configured wrapper around BorgBackup. Automates the 3-2-1 rule.

The Full Ranking

1. Restic — Best Overall

Restic is the most versatile self-hosted backup tool. It encrypts all data by default (AES-256), deduplicates at the content level, and supports more storage backends than any alternative — local directories, SFTP, S3-compatible storage (AWS, Backblaze B2, MinIO, Wasabi), Azure Blob, Google Cloud Storage, and REST servers.

Backups are fast thanks to content-defined chunking. Restores are straightforward. The community is large and active. If you’re choosing one backup tool, choose Restic.

Pros:

• 20+ storage backends (most of any backup tool)
• AES-256 encryption by default — all data encrypted at rest
• Content-defined chunking for efficient deduplication
• Fast incremental backups
• Cross-platform (Linux, macOS, Windows, BSD)
• Single static binary — no dependencies
• Active development with regular releases
• Large community, extensive documentation

Cons:

• CLI-only — no built-in GUI or web UI
• No built-in scheduler — needs cron or systemd timers
• Compression added relatively recently (v0.16.0+)
• Cannot exclude files from an existing snapshot retroactively
• Repository repair tools are limited

Best for: Anyone who wants reliable, encrypted backups to any storage backend. The default recommendation for self-hosters.

Read our full guide: How to Set Up Restic

2. BorgBackup — Best for Storage Efficiency

BorgBackup excels at compression and deduplication. For datasets with many similar files (VMs, databases, Docker volumes), Borg achieves smaller backup sizes than Restic. The authenticated encryption is solid, and append-only mode provides protection against ransomware.

Pros:

• Best-in-class compression (lz4, zstd, zlib, lzma)
• Excellent deduplication ratios
• Append-only mode for ransomware protection
• Mountable backups (FUSE) — browse archives like a filesystem
• Mature and battle-tested (10+ years)

Cons:

• SSH-only for remote backups — no native S3/cloud support
• Requires BorgBackup installed on both client AND server
• Slower than Restic for initial backups
• No Windows support
• No built-in scheduler
• CRITICAL: Losing the encryption key means permanent data loss — export with borg key export

Best for: Users backing up to another Linux server via SSH who need maximum storage efficiency.

Read our full guide: How to Set Up BorgBackup

3. Kopia — Best Modern Alternative

Kopia is the newest serious contender in the backup space. It combines Restic’s multi-backend support with a built-in web UI, snapshot policies, and retention management. Think of it as “Restic with a GUI and better policy management.”

Pros:

• Built-in web UI (server mode on port 51515)
• Policy-based retention (global, per-directory, per-host)
• S3, B2, SFTP, local, GCS, Azure, Rclone backends
• AES-256-GCM encryption
• Content-defined chunking (like Restic)
• Snapshot browsing via FUSE mount
• Active development, growing community

Cons:

• Newer project — less battle-tested than Restic or Borg
• Docker setup requires privileged mode for FUSE support
• Web UI is functional but not polished
• Smaller community means fewer guides and troubleshooting resources
• Documentation is improving but still gaps exist

Best for: Users who want Restic’s backend flexibility with a web UI and built-in scheduling.

4. Duplicati — Best GUI Backup Tool

Duplicati provides a full web-based GUI for configuring, scheduling, and monitoring backups. For users who don’t want to touch the command line, it’s the only real option. Supports encryption, S3/B2/OneDrive/Google Drive backends, and email notifications.

Pros:

• Full web-based GUI — no CLI needed
• Built-in scheduler with retention policies
• Email notifications
• 25+ storage backends including consumer cloud (Google Drive, OneDrive)
• AES-256 encryption
• Runs on .NET (cross-platform)

Cons:

• .NET runtime means higher resource usage
• Known reliability issues with large backups (database corruption)
• Slower than Restic or Borg for large datasets
• Restore verification can be unreliable
• Development pace has slowed

Best for: Non-technical users who need a GUI. Use with caution for critical data — always verify restores.

5. Borgmatic — Best BorgBackup Automation

Borgmatic wraps BorgBackup with YAML-based configuration, making it easy to define backup schedules, retention policies, consistency checks, and hooks — all in a single config file. It turns Borg’s manual CLI workflow into an automated system.

Pros:

• Simple YAML configuration for complex Borg workflows
• Built-in scheduling, retention, and consistency checks
• Pre/post backup hooks (database dumps, notifications)
• Supports multiple repositories in one config
• Healthcheck integration (Healthchecks.io, Uptime Kuma)

Cons:

• Requires BorgBackup (it’s a wrapper, not standalone)
• Inherits Borg’s limitations (SSH-only remote, no Windows)
• Adds a layer of abstraction to debug
• No GUI

Best for: Users who’ve chosen BorgBackup and want to automate it properly. The recommended way to run Borg in production.

Full Comparison Table

Feature	Restic	BorgBackup	Kopia	Duplicati	Borgmatic
Encryption	AES-256 (default)	AES-256	AES-256-GCM	AES-256	Via Borg
Deduplication	Content-defined	Content-defined	Content-defined	Block-level	Via Borg
Compression	zstd (v0.16+)	lz4/zstd/zlib/lzma	Multiple	Zip/7z	Via Borg
S3/cloud backends	Yes (20+)	No (SSH only)	Yes (many)	Yes (25+)	No (SSH only)
GUI	No	No	Web UI	Web UI	No
Built-in scheduler	No	No	Yes (policies)	Yes	Yes (cron)
Windows support	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
FUSE mount	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Via Borg
Append-only mode	No	Yes	No	No	Via Borg
RAM usage	~100-200 MB	~200-500 MB	~200-300 MB	~300-500 MB	Via Borg
Maturity	High	Very High	Medium	Medium	High
License	BSD-2	BSD-3	Apache-2.0	LGPL	GPL-3.0

The 3-2-1 Backup Rule

Every self-hoster should follow the 3-2-1 rule:

• 3 copies of your data
• 2 different storage media
• 1 copy offsite

Example setup with Restic:

1. Primary data on your server’s drives
2. Local backup to a USB drive or NAS: restic -r /mnt/backup backup /data
3. Offsite backup to Backblaze B2: restic -r b2:bucket-name backup /data

This costs roughly $5-10/month for 1 TB of B2 storage — far less than any managed backup service.

Read our full guide: Backup Strategy (3-2-1 Rule)

How We Evaluated

We evaluated each tool on: reliability (does restore actually work?), encryption strength, storage efficiency, backend flexibility, ease of automation, resource usage, and community support. Restic ranks #1 because it’s the most reliable and versatile. BorgBackup ranks #2 for its superior compression. Kopia ranks #3 as the best modern alternative with a GUI.

Related

• How to Set Up Restic
• How to Set Up BorgBackup
• Restic vs BorgBackup
• Replace Backblaze
• Replace CrashPlan
• Backup Strategy (3-2-1 Rule)
• Docker Compose Basics
• Docker Volumes & Bind Mounts
• Linux Basics for Self-Hosting
• Getting Started with Self-Hosting