Is Longhorn or UrBackup better?

Neither clearly leads. Longhorn starts at Free and UrBackup at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Longhorn or UrBackup?

Longhorn starts at Free and UrBackup at Free.

Does Longhorn or UrBackup run on more platforms?

Longhorn runs on Linux, Kubernetes. UrBackup runs on Linux, Windows, macOS, FreeBSD.

Can I use Longhorn for free?

Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.

What is Longhorn best used for?

Longhorn is most often used for an on-premises kubernetes cluster with local disks and no san that needs replicated persistent volumes, edge sites where shipping a storage array is impractical and three nodes is the whole cluster, a k3s deployment where the storage layer must be light enough to run alongside the workloads, a team that wants snapshots and s3 backups of persistent volumes without paying per-node storage licences. Of those, an on-premises kubernetes cluster with local disks and no san that needs replicated persistent volumes and edge sites where shipping a storage array is impractical and three nodes is the whole cluster are not what UrBackup is typically brought in for.

What can Longhorn do that UrBackup cannot?

Longhorn covers Per-volume controllers, Synchronous replication, Snapshots and backups, Volume expansion. UrBackup covers Windows image backups, File backups, Client discovery, Internet mode. Both handle Web interface.

Cloud · head to head

Longhorn vs UrBackup

Longhorn

Cloud

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

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

UrBackup

Backup

Open source client server backup doing both file and whole disk image backups of Windows machines

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: 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.; UrBackup backups are stored on the server without encryption at rest by default, so the backup server holds a readable copy of every machine it protects and becomes the highest value target on the network.
They diverge on capability: Longhorn covers Per-volume controllers, UrBackup covers Windows image backups.
Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Longhorn and UrBackup actually diverge.

Attributes where Longhorn and UrBackup differ
Attribute	Longhorn	UrBackup
Platforms	Linux, Kubernetes	Linux, Windows, macOS, FreeBSD
Category	Cloud	Backup

Identical on both: starting price (Free), pricing model (Open source, no licence fee), free tier (Yes), 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 Longhorn

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

Only in UrBackup

Windows image backups
File backups
Client discovery
Internet mode
Filesystem deduplication

Both cover

Web interface

What people use each for

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

Longhorn

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

UrBackup

A small office with Windows workstations that needs bare metal restore without per seat licensingnot Longhorn
Schools and labs where machines are re-imaged often and a known good image must be recoverablenot Longhorn
Backing up a mixed fleet to one server on premises with a web interface non specialists can usenot Longhorn
Replacing an expiring commercial endpoint backup licence where the budget is the constraintnot Longhorn

Where each one falls short

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

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.

UrBackup

Backups are stored on the server without encryption at rest by default, so the backup server holds a readable copy of every machine it protects and becomes the highest value target on the network.
Deduplication relies on filesystem features such as hard links, btrfs or ZFS, so a server built on the wrong filesystem silently consumes far more space and the fix is a rebuild rather than a setting.
There is no native object storage target, so offsite copies mean replicating the server storage with another tool rather than backing up to a bucket directly.
Restoring a full Windows image requires booting a restore environment, which is a manual, on site procedure that needs to be rehearsed before the day it is needed.
A single server holds everything and there is no built in clustering, so its own failure removes every recovery point at once unless you have separately solved replication.

Pricing, plan by plan

Longhorn

Free

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

UrBackup

Free

UrBackupFree
- Full functionality, unlimited clients
- File and image backups
- Web administration interface

Which should you pick?

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

Choose UrBackup if

You need windows image backups.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Linux, Windows, macOS, FreeBSD.
You also want file backups.

UrBackup review

Questions people ask

Is Longhorn or UrBackup better?: Neither clearly leads. Longhorn starts at Free and UrBackup at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Longhorn or UrBackup?: Longhorn starts at Free and UrBackup at Free.
Does Longhorn or UrBackup run on more platforms?: Longhorn runs on Linux, Kubernetes. UrBackup runs on Linux, Windows, macOS, FreeBSD.
Can I use Longhorn for free?: Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Longhorn best used for?: Longhorn is most often used for an on-premises kubernetes cluster with local disks and no san that needs replicated persistent volumes, edge sites where shipping a storage array is impractical and three nodes is the whole cluster, a k3s deployment where the storage layer must be light enough to run alongside the workloads, a team that wants snapshots and s3 backups of persistent volumes without paying per-node storage licences. Of those, an on-premises kubernetes cluster with local disks and no san that needs replicated persistent volumes and edge sites where shipping a storage array is impractical and three nodes is the whole cluster are not what UrBackup is typically brought in for.
What can Longhorn do that UrBackup cannot?: Longhorn covers Per-volume controllers, Synchronous replication, Snapshots and backups, Volume expansion. UrBackup covers Windows image backups, File backups, Client discovery, Internet mode. Both handle Web interface.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

UrBackup: Does it back up Linux servers as well?

File backups yes, image backups no. The image path is Windows only through volume shadow copy.

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.

UrBackup: Is the data encrypted?

Transport can be encrypted, and there is optional client side file encryption, but the default server storage is not encrypted at rest. Use full disk encryption on the server.

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.

UrBackup: Can I back up to Amazon S3?

Not directly. The server writes to local or mounted storage, so cloud copies are made by replicating that storage separately.

UrBackup: How many clients can one server handle?

Dozens is routine on decent hardware. The limit is usually storage input and output during overlapping backup windows rather than client count.

Longhorn vs UrBackup

Longhorn

UrBackup

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Longhorn

Only in UrBackup

Both cover

What people use each for

Longhorn

UrBackup

Where each one falls short

Longhorn

UrBackup

Pricing, plan by plan

Longhorn

UrBackup

Which should you pick?

Choose Longhorn if

Choose UrBackup if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Longhorn

More on UrBackup

Keep looking

Other head to heads