Best Self Hosted Alternatives to Duplicati

restic is a modern backup program designed to create efficient, secure backups of files and directories across major operating systems. It stores data as snapshots and is built to be easy to run as a single executable without requiring a dedicated server.

Key Features

• Client-side encryption for confidentiality and integrity
• Deduplication and incremental snapshots to reduce storage and bandwidth use
• Multiple backends including local storage, SFTP over SSH, and an HTTP REST backend
• S3-compatible object storage support (including MinIO) and other cloud backends
• Repository verification features to help ensure restores will work
• Mount and restore capabilities for browsing and recovering previous snapshots

Use Cases

• Encrypted offsite backups to an SFTP server or object storage
• Workstation and server file backups with efficient incremental updates
• Periodic backup verification and disaster-recovery restore testing

restic is a strong choice when you want a scriptable, secure backup workflow with deduplication and flexible storage targets. Its snapshot-based design and verification focus make it well-suited for reliable long-term backups.

Kopia is a cross-platform backup and restore tool for Windows, macOS, and Linux that creates snapshot-based, incremental backups of selected files and directories. It focuses on fast backups with client-side end-to-end encryption, compression, and deduplication, and can store backups in many different backends.

Key Features

• Snapshot-based incremental backups for files and directories (not full-disk imaging)
• Client-side end-to-end encryption with user-controlled keys
• Deduplication and compression to reduce storage usage
• Multiple repository backends, including local storage, network targets, and cloud object storage
• Command-line interface and a desktop GUI for managing backups, policies, and restores
• Supports backing up multiple machines to a shared repository

Use Cases

• Encrypted laptop and workstation backups with quick file restores
• Centralized backups for multiple servers to an object storage bucket or NAS
• Cost-efficient long-term backups using deduplication and compression

Limitations and Considerations

• Designed for file and directory backups rather than full system imaging
• Some storage backends via Rclone are experimental and may vary in reliability

Kopia is well-suited for users who want secure, portable backups with flexible storage choices and strong data reduction. It works for both technical users via CLI and everyday workflows through its GUI, while keeping encryption and storage selection under your control.

Duplicacy is a cross-platform backup tool designed for fast, encrypted, deduplicated backups to local, SFTP, and many cloud storage providers. It uses a lock-free deduplication design that allows multiple clients to back up to the same repository without requiring distributed locks or a centralized chunk database.

Key Features

• Lock-free, cross-client deduplication enabling concurrent backups to the same storage target
• Database-less chunk storage (chunks stored independently by hash) for simple lookups and reduced metadata complexity
• Encrypted backups with support for stronger asymmetric encryption options
• Full-snapshot incremental backups, with support for deleting/pruning old backups
• Data integrity checking and repository maintenance workflows (e.g., check and prune)
• Broad storage backend support including local disk, SFTP, S3-compatible/object storage, and various cloud drives
• Command-line interface plus an optional web-based GUI application built on the same backup engine

Use Cases

• Centralized backups for multiple machines to a shared NAS/SFTP or cloud bucket with cross-machine deduplication
• Efficient long-term backup retention with pruning of old snapshots
• Offsite backups to common cloud/object storage providers while keeping data encrypted

Limitations and Considerations

• The command-line version is source-available but not OSI open-source; commercial use typically requires per-computer licensing for running backups

Duplicacy focuses on reliability, performance, and storage efficiency, particularly for multi-client repositories. It is well-suited for individuals and teams that want deduplicated, encrypted backups to commodity storage backends without lock coordination overhead.

Backrest is a web-based UI and orchestrator for restic backups. It offers a browser-accessible interface to create repositories, browse snapshots, and restore files, while coordinating scheduled backups and repo health operations.

Key Features

• Web Interface: Access locally or remotely for convenient backup management
• Multi-Platform Support: Linux, macOS, Windows, FreeBSD, and Docker
• Backup Management: Import existing restic repositories; cron-scheduled backups and maintenance (prune, check, forget, etc); browse and restore files from snapshots; configurable notifications (Discord, Slack, Shoutrrr, Gotify, Healthchecks); pre/post backup command hooks
• Storage Options: Compatible with rclone remotes; supports all restic storage backends (S3, B2, Azure, GCS, local, SFTP, and all rclone remotes)
• Lightweight Architecture: Distributed as a standalone binary with restic as its sole dependency; Docker image available for quick deployment

Use Cases

• Centralized backup management across multiple repositories and storage backends from a single web UI
• NAS or home/office server backup orchestration with scheduled snapshots and automated maintenance
• Browse snapshots and restore files directly through the interface, with optional real-time notifications

Conclusion

Backrest enables easy, web-based management of restic backups, consolidating repository handling, scheduling, and restores in a single tool. It is designed for self-hosted deployments and flexible storage options, simplifying backup operations across environments.

Zerobyte is a backup automation service for self-hosters that schedules, manages, and monitors encrypted backups through a modern web interface. It orchestrates backups using restic and supports backing up from local folders or remote network shares into a variety of repository backends.

Key Features

• Automated, encrypted, deduplicated backups powered by restic
• Web interface to create volumes, repositories, and scheduled backup jobs
• Flexible scheduling and retention policies for backup rotation
• Restore workflow to browse snapshots and restore selected data
• Multiple source protocols, including local directories, NFS, SMB, WebDAV, and SFTP
• Multiple repository backends, including local storage, S3-compatible, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob, and rclone remotes
• Secret reference support (environment variables or Docker secrets) to avoid storing sensitive values in the database

Use Cases

• Protect homelab or self-hosted application data with scheduled, encrypted backups
• Back up NAS/network shares to offsite object storage (S3-compatible) with retention rules
• Centralize monitoring and management of multiple restic backup jobs via a single UI

Limitations and Considerations

• Currently in 0.x releases and may introduce breaking changes between versions
• Remote share mounting features may require elevated container capabilities and FUSE device access

Zerobyte is a practical way to run restic-based backups with a friendlier operational workflow and broader backend support. It fits well for users who want scheduled, policy-driven backups and a UI for monitoring and restores without building custom scripts.

docker-volume-backup is a lightweight companion container for backing up Docker volumes. It supports both recurring and one-off backups, can store archives locally and/or on remote storage backends, and can rotate old backups automatically.

Key Features

• Scheduled or on-demand backups of one or more Docker volumes
• Multiple targets: local archive plus optional remote backends (S3-compatible, WebDAV, SSH, and others)
• Configurable rotation/pruning of old backups for supported backends
• Optional container stop/restart during backup for improved consistency
• Optional GPG encryption for backup archives
• Notifications for successful or failed backup runs
• Works with Docker Compose and supports Docker Swarm mode

Use Cases

• Automated backups for stateful Docker services (databases, app data, configuration)
• Shipping volume backups to an S3-compatible object store for offsite retention
• Simple backup companion service for homelabs and small production stacks

Limitations and Considerations

• Developed and tested primarily against Docker CE; other engines may work but are not guaranteed

It is designed to be small, easy to integrate into existing Docker stacks, and flexible in where backups are stored. For teams and individuals running stateful containers, it provides a pragmatic approach to volume backups without needing a full backup platform.

GitSave is a self-hosted web application that automates scheduled backups of Git repositories. It provides a simple, responsive UI to configure repositories, schedules, retention and storage destinations for safe, repeatable backups.

Key Features

• Responsive web interface for managing repositories, schedules and backups
• Automated scheduling with pause/resume controls and configurable retention (number of backups to keep)
• Support for GitHub, GitLab and arbitrary Git endpoints
• Pluggable authentication / support for a custom authentication provider
• Backup history and logs for auditing and troubleshooting
• Ability to store backups on a mounted filesystem or an SMB/CIFS share
• Distributed as Docker images with a provided docker-compose deployment pattern
• Requires configurable secrets for JWT and encryption (ENCRYPTION_SECRET is used to encrypt stored data)

Use Cases

• Regularly back up personal and starred repositories to a local NAS or backup server
• Ensure offline copies of organization repositories hosted on third-party Git providers
• Maintain a retention policy of repository snapshots for incident recovery and audits

Limitations and Considerations

• ENCRYPTION_SECRET must be a specific length (32 characters) for encryption to function correctly
• Primary storage options documented are local filesystem mounts and SMB shares; built-in cloud storage providers are not a highlighted feature
• Intended for single-node Docker deployments; lacks built-in clustering or multi-node high-availability features

GitSave is aimed at users who need a straightforward, self-hosted solution to schedule and retain Git repository backups. It emphasizes ease of deployment via Docker and simple management through a web UI.