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Backup · head to head

Bacula Enterprise vs Longhorn

Bacula Enterprise logo

Bacula Enterprise

Backup

Open-source enterprise backup solution

From
$500/year
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Longhorn logo

Longhorn

Cloud

Open source distributed block storage for Kubernetes, incubating at the CNCF

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Longhorn has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Bacula Enterprise pricing is not published; the vendor asks for a request rather than listing rates; Longhorn there is no vendor and no SLA, so a production incident at three in the morning is your own problem unless you buy SUSE Rancher Prime support separately.
  • They diverge on capability: Bacula Enterprise covers Modular architecture, Longhorn covers Per-volume controllers.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Bacula Enterprise and Longhorn actually diverge.

Attributes where Bacula Enterprise and Longhorn differ
AttributeBacula EnterpriseLonghorn
Starting price$500/yearFree
Pricing modelsubscriptionOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWindows, Linux, WebLinux, Kubernetes
CategoryBackupCloud
Founded2009Unknown

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Bacula Enterprise

  • Modular architecture
  • Plugin framework
  • Deduplication
  • Cloud storage
  • Encryption
  • Automated recovery testing
  • VMware
  • Hyper-V

Only in Longhorn

  • Per-volume controllers
  • Synchronous replication
  • Snapshots and backups
  • Volume expansion
  • Disaster recovery volumes
  • Web interface

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Bacula Enterprise

  • Enterprise backup across virtual machines, databases and containersnot Longhorn
  • Multi-cloud and hybrid backup from one systemnot Longhorn
  • Backup where licensing by data volume would be prohibitive, since Bacula does not charge by capacitynot Longhorn
  • Long-retention archival for regulated environmentsnot Longhorn

Longhorn

  • An on-premises Kubernetes cluster with local disks and no SAN that needs replicated persistent volumesnot Bacula Enterprise
  • Edge sites where shipping a storage array is impractical and three nodes is the whole clusternot Bacula Enterprise
  • A K3s deployment where the storage layer must be light enough to run alongside the workloadsnot Bacula Enterprise
  • A team that wants snapshots and S3 backups of persistent volumes without paying per-node storage licencesnot Bacula Enterprise

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Bacula Enterprise

  • Pricing is not published; the vendor asks for a request rather than listing rates
  • The differences between Enterprise and the open source Community edition are not set out on the product pages, so what the licence buys is unclear until you talk to sales
  • Aimed at data centre and enterprise environments rather than small deployments

Longhorn

  • There is no vendor and no SLA, so a production incident at three in the morning is your own problem unless you buy SUSE Rancher Prime support separately.
  • Synchronous replication across nodes means write latency depends on the slowest replica and the network between nodes, which makes it a poor fit for latency-sensitive databases.
  • Every replica is a full copy, so three-way replication consumes three times the raw capacity, unlike erasure-coded systems that are far more space efficient.
  • It is designed for block storage on modest clusters and does not scale to the node counts or throughput that Ceph or a commercial array handles, so growth eventually forces a migration.
  • Recovery from certain degraded states, such as a volume stuck detaching or replicas failing to rebuild, requires manual intervention and knowledge of Longhorn internals that is not widely held.

Pricing, plan by plan

Bacula Enterprise

$500/year
  • Bacula Enterprise$500/year
    • Unlimited data
    • Plugin support
    • Enterprise support

Longhorn

Free
  • LonghornFree
    • Apache 2.0 licensed, no licence fee
    • Community support via GitHub and Slack only
    • No vendor SLA or escalation path

Which should you pick?

Choose Bacula Enterprise if

  • You need modular architecture.
  • You work on Windows, Linux, Web.
  • You also want plugin framework.
Bacula Enterprise review

Choose Longhorn if

  • You need per-volume controllers.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Kubernetes.
  • You also want synchronous replication.
Longhorn review

Questions people ask

Is Bacula Enterprise or Longhorn better?
Neither clearly leads. Bacula Enterprise starts at $500/year and Longhorn at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Bacula Enterprise or Longhorn?
Longhorn has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $500/year for Bacula Enterprise and Free for Longhorn.
Does Bacula Enterprise or Longhorn run on more platforms?
Bacula Enterprise runs on Windows, Linux, Web. Longhorn runs on Linux, Kubernetes.
Can I use Longhorn for free?
Yes. Longhorn has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Bacula Enterprise starts at $500/year.
What is Bacula Enterprise best used for?
Bacula Enterprise is most often used for enterprise backup across virtual machines, databases and containers, multi-cloud and hybrid backup from one system, backup where licensing by data volume would be prohibitive, since bacula does not charge by capacity, long-retention archival for regulated environments. Of those, enterprise backup across virtual machines, databases and containers and multi-cloud and hybrid backup from one system are not what Longhorn is typically brought in for.
What can Bacula Enterprise do that Longhorn cannot?
Bacula Enterprise covers Modular architecture, Plugin framework, Deduplication, Cloud storage. Longhorn covers Per-volume controllers, Synchronous replication, Snapshots and backups, Volume expansion.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Bacula Enterprise: Does Bacula Enterprise offer a trial?

Yes. Bacula offers a trial that provides 'a streamlined version of Bacula Enterprise' with 'rapid access to an online, hosted environment'. However, no specific trial period duration is stated on the page.

Source
Longhorn: Who do we call when it breaks?

Nobody, unless you buy SUSE Rancher Prime, which includes commercial support for Longhorn. This is the decisive question for production use.

Bacula Enterprise: Is there a free trial available, or does it require contacting sales?

The trial is available directly online without needing to contact sales first. The page provides streamlined access to test the service with Global Endpoint Deduplication and cloud storage capabilities.

Source
Longhorn: How much capacity does replication cost?

Full copies, so three replicas means three times the raw capacity. Budget accordingly rather than assuming erasure coding efficiency.

Bacula Enterprise: Does Bacula charge by data volume?

No. One customer testimonial states 'we are not charged by data volume or hardware', indicating that Bacula does not use capacity-based pricing like some competitors.

Source
Longhorn: Is it suitable for production databases?

For modest workloads yes, but synchronous replication adds write latency and high-transaction databases usually want something faster.

Bacula Enterprise: How can I get Bacula pricing information?

Bacula directs interested parties to Request Pricing through their contact page rather than displaying rates publicly.

Source
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