File Storage · head to head
Ceph vs Duplicati
Ceph
File Storage
Open source distributed storage providing object, block and file from one cluster
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Ceph ceph assumes an operator who understands placement groups, CRUSH rules and recovery tuning, so organisations without dedicated storage staff routinely end up with a cluster that works until the first failure and then does not.; Duplicati no managed service or commercial support
- They diverge on capability: Ceph covers RADOS object store, Duplicati covers AES-256 encryption.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Ceph and Duplicati actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (File Storage).
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 Ceph
- RADOS object store
- RADOS Gateway
- RBD block devices
- CephFS
- CRUSH placement
- Erasure coded pools
Only in Duplicati
- AES-256 encryption
- Incremental backup
- Deduplication
- Multiple cloud backends
- Compression
- Web interface
- AWS S3
- Azure
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Ceph
- Backing a private cloud where virtual machine disks, shared filesystems and an S3 endpoint all need the same hardwarenot Duplicati
- Growing past the point where a proprietary array upgrade costs more than a rack of commodity serversnot Duplicati
- Research and media environments with petabytes of data and staff who can operate storagenot Duplicati
- Providing an S3 endpoint on premises with multi site replication under your own controlnot Duplicati
Duplicati
- Data protectionnot Ceph
- Disaster recoverynot Ceph
- Business continuitynot Ceph
- Ransomware protectionnot Ceph
- Compliancenot Ceph
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Ceph
- Ceph assumes an operator who understands placement groups, CRUSH rules and recovery tuning, so organisations without dedicated storage staff routinely end up with a cluster that works until the first failure and then does not.
- Small clusters are inefficient: three way replication means a third of raw capacity is usable, and erasure coding needs enough failure domains to be safe, so the economics only work above a certain size.
- Recovery and rebalancing generate heavy internal traffic, so a failed disk can degrade client latency across the cluster unless backfill is throttled correctly beforehand.
- Upgrades must follow a strict daemon order across monitors, managers, OSDs and gateways, and a mistake in that order on a live cluster is difficult to reverse.
- Because it is self hosted, every byte served to the internet is transit you pay for on your own links, so the free licence does not mean free egress and bandwidth planning becomes your problem rather than the providers.
Duplicati
- No managed service or commercial support
- Relies on community support
- No enterprise features
Pricing, plan by plan
Ceph
Free- CephFree
- Full functionality, no capacity limit
- Object, block and file interfaces
- Community support via mailing list and Slack
Duplicati
FreeNo published plan breakdown. See the Duplicati review.
Which should you pick?
Choose Ceph if
- You need rados object store.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Linux.
- You also want rados gateway.
Choose Duplicati if
- You need aes-256 encryption.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Windows, macOS, Linux.
- You also want incremental backup.
Questions people ask
- Is Ceph or Duplicati better?
- Neither clearly leads. Ceph starts at Free and Duplicati at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Ceph or Duplicati?
- Ceph starts at Free and Duplicati at Free.
- Does Ceph or Duplicati run on more platforms?
- Ceph runs on Linux. Duplicati runs on Windows, macOS, Linux.
- Can I use Ceph for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Ceph best used for?
- Ceph is most often used for backing a private cloud where virtual machine disks, shared filesystems and an s3 endpoint all need the same hardware, growing past the point where a proprietary array upgrade costs more than a rack of commodity servers, research and media environments with petabytes of data and staff who can operate storage, providing an s3 endpoint on premises with multi site replication under your own control. Of those, backing a private cloud where virtual machine disks, shared filesystems and an s3 endpoint all need the same hardware and growing past the point where a proprietary array upgrade costs more than a rack of commodity servers are not what Duplicati is typically brought in for.
- What can Ceph do that Duplicati cannot?
- Ceph covers RADOS object store, RADOS Gateway, RBD block devices, CephFS. Duplicati covers AES-256 encryption, Incremental backup, Deduplication, Multiple cloud backends.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Ceph: How many nodes do I need to start?
Three is the practical minimum for a replicated cluster with real fault tolerance, and most production advice starts at five once you account for maintenance windows.
Duplicati: Is Duplicati free?
Yes. Duplicati is completely free and open-source under the LGPL license. There are no premium tiers, trials, or limitations.
SourceCeph: Is it faster than a SAN?
Not on single stream latency. It wins on aggregate throughput and on growing without a forklift upgrade, which is a different property from raw speed.
Duplicati: What does Duplicati support?
Duplicati supports zero-trust, fully encrypted backups to local storage, network drives, and cloud services. It includes deduplication and incremental backups.
SourceCeph: Can I buy support?
Yes. IBM sells IBM Storage Ceph and SUSE and others have offered supported builds; the upstream project itself is free.
Duplicati: What are the platforms?
Duplicati runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It can back up data to local storage, network drives, or cloud providers.
SourceCeph: Should I use it just for S3?
If object is all you need, a dedicated object store is simpler to run. Ceph earns its complexity when you need block and file as well.
Related pages
Other head to heads
- Ceph vs MinIO
- Ceph vs Panzura
- Ceph vs Scality RING
- Ceph vs VAST Data
- Ceph vs Backblaze
- Ceph vs Storj
- Ceph vs Tigris
- Ceph vs Cloudflare R2
- Ceph vs Cloudian
- Ceph vs IDrive e2
- Ceph vs TrueNAS
- Ceph vs LucidLink
- Ceph vs pCloud
- Ceph vs Sync.com
- Ceph vs Arq Backup
- Ceph vs Carbonite
- Ceph vs Nextcloud
- Ceph vs Tresorit
- Ceph vs Microsoft OneDrive
- Ceph vs Zerto
- Duplicati vs MinIO
- Duplicati vs Panzura
- Duplicati vs Scality RING
- Duplicati vs VAST Data
- Duplicati vs Backblaze
- Duplicati vs Storj
- Duplicati vs Tigris
- Duplicati vs Cloudflare R2
- Duplicati vs Cloudian
- Duplicati vs IDrive e2
- Duplicati vs TrueNAS
- Duplicati vs LucidLink
- Duplicati vs pCloud
- Duplicati vs Sync.com
- Duplicati vs Arq Backup
- Duplicati vs Carbonite
- Duplicati vs Nextcloud
- Duplicati vs Tresorit
- Duplicati vs Microsoft OneDrive
- Duplicati vs Zerto