Reliable backup solutions are crucial in the modern digital era to protect data from possible loss. Restic vs Borg are two well-known open-source solutions in this field. The enormous volume of data generated daily and the potential risks associated with data loss for both consumers and organizations impact their development into sophisticated and feature-rich solutions.
Three popular backup options that have grown in popularity among techies are Restic, Borg, and Kopia. Although the goal of all three products is to offer safe backups, each has unique benefits and limitations that distinguish it from its competitors.
Keep reading and exploring to learn the main Borg vs Restic comparison in 2025. We will also let you know which one provides the best data backup strategies.
Table of Contents
Understanding the Concepts of Restic vs Borg
Let’s discuss the Borg vs Restic concepts before getting into the main comparison.
What is Restic?
Restic is a backup application that supports several backends and is quick, safe, and effective. It guarantees that Restic customers may do data backups without needless complexity and is simple, safe, and effective in managing large volumes of data. Its simple setup procedure makes it suitable for both novices and seasoned technical experts.
Restic is fully open-source and available for free usage. For our users to always be able to restore their stored data, backups must be backward compatible. In order to specify which versions are compatible, Restic uses semantic versioning. According to semantic versioning, the repository and data structures it contains are referred to as the “Public API.”
Restic uses Poly1305-AES for authentication and AES-256 in counter mode for encryption by default. This indicates that your backups are safe and secure against integrity issues. This degree of protection keeps anyone who manages to access your storage from accessing your data without the appropriate encryption key. Let’s discuss Restic vs Borg before getting into the main differences.
What is Borg?
Borg, previously BorgBackup, is another robust open-source data backup program. This system focuses on using compression and deduplication to achieve the quickest execution and maximum efficiency. Every backup is initially cryptographically protected against access by illegal third parties, one of Borg’s many great cloud security alliance features.
Borg’s primary objective is to offer a safe and effective method of data backup. Because only changes accumulate, Borg’s data deduplication approach makes it appropriate for daily backups. It is appropriate for backups to targets that are not entirely trusted due to the authorized encryption approach.
The amount of bytes saved is decreased using deduplication based on content-defined chunking, in which each file is divided into many variable-length chunks, and only previously unseen pieces are added to the repository.
Borg exists for consumers in need of dependable and quick backup options. Because it uses a chunk-based approach to data storage security, this application excels at managing enormous data sets and guarantees that it is appropriate for consumers and enterprises with high data storage needs. This indicates that backup and restoration speed is well tuned, guaranteeing less downtime and quick recovery in the event that data is lost.
Borg vs Restic: Key Differences
Now is the time to discuss the Restic vs Borg differences so that you have a better idea of which one delivers faster backup performance.
Usability
Restic offers an easy-to-use interface and is quick to set up and use. Communication via its command-line interface is sufficiently accessible for all users, from novices to experts, to use the technology with minimal difficulty.
Borg is just slightly more complicated than Restic, while being easier to use. If further control and customization are required, Borg’s CLI’s sophisticated choices could be helpful.
Performance
Restic is quick and space-efficient because of incremental and deduplicated backups. But in some situations, especially when dealing with very huge datasets, it might not be as quick as Borg.
However, Borg works well, particularly when it comes to massive backups and restorations. Because of its well-optimized deduplication and compression methods, Borg is among the quickest backup options on the market right now.
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Utilize Less to Store More
Borg vs Restic both use deduplication. Their approaches to implementing the backup service differ. Because Borg gives each user their own backup repository, there may be data duplication between repositories. In contrast, Restic uses a shared storage strategy in which a particular user group shares an S3 bucket. Our results clearly show that this greatly improves deduplication prospects.
The average repository sizes for the Borg vs Restic backups were contrasted. The average size of a single-user Borg repository in the Netherlands was 2.08 GiB, but the average size of a 100-user Restic repository was 127.07 GiB. This suggests that Restic may be able to use its storage more effectively.
In addition, we compared the storage effectiveness of Restic vs Borg backups at different data centers. Restic performed admirably, using just around 58% of the storage space required by Borg to keep the same amount of client data.
Utilization of CPU and RAM
One of the most important factors to consider when deciding between Restic and Borg backup systems is how much CPU and RAM they use. Borg uses less RAM, making it more appropriate for smaller computers. Restic and Borg both use a significant amount of memory during backup operations, which may restrict systems with low resources.
Restic is the better choice for those who want to put performance above capacity because it uses less CPU or GPU power than Restic and Borg, which have both shown themselves to be CPU-heavy when running backups.
Efficiency of Storage
Borg’s deduplication and compression methods result in extremely efficient storage utilization. The backup size is much reduced since duplicate files are not saved redundantly. Borg also makes data encryption before storing possible, therefore ensuring security and confidentiality. Restic, on the other hand, is more serious with data integrity, offering end-to-end encryption and making sure backups aren’t altered or damaged. By default, it lacks deduplication capabilities, which might result in higher storage needs.
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S3 and AWS Buckets
Both backup options support AWS S3 buckets for backup reasons, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud hosting is one of the top cloud storage providers. Restic vs Borg users may set up their login information with AWS to use S3 backups as a backup option.
While Borg only supports Amazon S3 buckets, Restic has an advantage over them due to its S3-compatible APIs, which allow it to work with alternative cloud storage providers like DigitalOcean Cloud Spaces or Wasabi.
Security
One of Restic’s fundamental design tenets is security. For strong security against unwanted access, all data is encrypted using AES-256 and verified using Poly1305-AES.
Borg depends heavily on security. Using authenticated encryption guarantees the data’s integrity and secrecy. Since the two tools have nearly identical levels of security, one may rely on them to protect private information.
Adaptability
Among Restic’s main benefits is its great support for several storage backends, including local disk, cloud services, and SFTP. This lets the consumer easily select from a great range of storage solutions depending on their needs. Even while Borg only supports a small number of backends natively—especially when compared to Restic—third-party technologies allow Borg to handle the majority of storage solutions.
Errors Handling
In contrast to Borg, our investigation revealed no instances of corruption in Restic repositories. The client-side migration from Borg to Restic also went well, letting Ceph infrastructure recycle its existing Borg backup servers.
Speed
Restic was notable for its quicker backup production speeds, although it used a little more CPU and RAM. In contrast to Borg’s 211.332 seconds, the average was around 111.517 seconds. This faster speed guarantees timely backups in addition to increasing overall efficiency.
Restic vs Borg: Key Features
Now that you know about the key differences, let’s discuss the key features both software offer.
Key Features of Restic
- One of Restic’s main data backup best practices between Restic vs Borg, is to make configuration and usage simple. Easy-to-understand instructions that even non-technical individuals can use.
- Backups undergo authentication and encryption. This implies that since your data is completely safe from illegal access or possible dangerous PC viruses. It means nobody will be able to access it.
- To cut down on storage use, Restic uses deduplication. In other words, backup space is reduced since only data updates are kept.
- Among many other storage backends, Restic supports local disk, SFTP, Amazon S3, and Google Cloud Storage. The user may select the ideal solution for their needs thanks to this versatility.
Key Features of Borg
- Fastest VPS hosting is necessary to accomplish Borg’s goal of quick backups and restorations. The deduction technique significantly speeds up the process by ensuring that distinct bits of data are stored.
- Borg compresses data to save even more space, besides deduplication. The twin approach of the design is really good for storage.
- It encrypts your information just as Restic does. Borg provides authorized encryption to guarantee both confidentiality and integrity concurrently.
- Borg lets cloud services via local filesystems, SSH hosting, and third-party utilities. As a result, it is modified to fit several requirements and situations.
Conclusion
Restic vs Borg is a question of taste and needs. Any user searching for a simple and adaptable backup solution should choose Restic. This is because it offers simplicity, versatility, and strong security. Performance, storage economy, and sophisticated control make Borg stand out; it’s ideal for users handling big datasets that need optimal storage management. Your data will be protected and accessible thanks to these trustworthy and secure technologies.
During backup, Borg separates data into distinct pieces and identifies them. After that, the pieces are saved, encrypted, and compressed. Borg is quick for a backup since it reconstructs the pieces to generate the original data while restoring.
On the other hand, Restic operates by taking pictures of your data. Restic only includes the modified data in the incremental backup after comparing the data to the most recent snapshot. This saves storage space and time for each subsequent data backup strategy.
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
Is Restic Reliable?
While comparing Restic vs Borg, Restic is a backup application that supports several backends and is quick, safe, and effective. It guarantees that Restic customers may do data backups without needless complexity and is simple, safe, and effective in managing large volumes of data.
Does Restic Do Compression?
Restic can compress data well on its own and does so automatically for all new repositories.
Why Use Restic?
Restic enables backups to keep data on a variety of storage platforms, including distant computers, cloud services (such as AWS, Google Cloud, etc.), and local storage.
What Is The Difference Between Borgmatic And Vorta?
A command-line interface (CLI) called Borgmatic offers a more automated and scriptable method of managing Borg backups, especially for jobs and backups at the system level. In contrast, Vorta is a graphical user interface (GUI) that makes Borg backups easier to use, particularly for desktop users who are in charge of their own data.