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Backup & Disaster Recovery · head to head

Bacula Enterprise vs Restic

Bacula Enterprise logo

Bacula Enterprise

Backup & Disaster Recovery

Open-source enterprise backup solution

From
$500/year
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Restic logo

Restic

Backup & Disaster Recovery

Fast, secure, and efficient backup program

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Restic 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; Restic cold storage is not natively supported; restoring from S3 Glacier and S3 Glacier Deep Archive is only available as an experimental feature behind a feature flag
  • They diverge on capability: Bacula Enterprise covers Modular architecture, Restic covers Content-defined chunking.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Bacula Enterprise and Restic differ
AttributeBacula EnterpriseRestic
Starting price$500/yearFree
Pricing modelsubscriptionfree
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWindows, Linux, WebWindows, Mac, Linux
Founded20092014

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Backup & Disaster Recovery).

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
  • Cloud storage
  • Automated recovery testing
  • VMware
  • Hyper-V
  • AWS
  • Kubernetes

Only in Restic

  • Content-defined chunking
  • Cryptographic verification
  • Multiple backends
  • Snapshot management
  • AWS S3
  • Google Cloud
  • Backblaze B2
  • SFTP

Both cover

  • Deduplication
  • Encryption
  • Azure
  • Windows support
  • Linux support

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

Restic

  • Encrypted deduplicated backups to S3, B2, SFTP and local disk from the command linenot Bacula Enterprise
  • Scripted server backups with snapshot retention policiesnot 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

Restic

  • Cold storage is not natively supported; restoring from S3 Glacier and S3 Glacier Deep Archive is only available as an experimental feature behind a feature flag
  • A Windows file whose name contains a character Windows treats as invalid cannot be read by restic and has to be renamed
  • Antivirus real-time protection degrades performance on Windows unless the restic binary is added to an exclusions list
  • On large repositories the built-in five minute stuck-request timeout fires during file listing and has to be raised manually with --stuck-request-timeout

Pricing, plan by plan

Bacula Enterprise

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

Restic

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Content-defined chunking
    • Encryption
    • Multiple backends

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 Restic if

  • You need content-defined chunking.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Windows, Mac, Linux.
  • You also want cryptographic verification.
Restic review

Questions people ask

Is Bacula Enterprise or Restic better?
Neither clearly leads. Bacula Enterprise starts at $500/year and Restic at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Bacula Enterprise or Restic?
Restic has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $500/year for Bacula Enterprise and Free for Restic.
Does Bacula Enterprise or Restic run on more platforms?
Bacula Enterprise runs on Windows, Linux, Web. Restic runs on Windows, Mac, Linux.
Can I use Restic for free?
Yes. Restic 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 Restic is typically brought in for.
What can Bacula Enterprise do that Restic cannot?
Bacula Enterprise covers Modular architecture, Plugin framework, Cloud storage, Automated recovery testing. Restic covers Content-defined chunking, Cryptographic verification, Multiple backends, Snapshot management. Both handle Deduplication, Encryption, Azure, Windows support.
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