Softwr

Backup & Disaster Recovery · head to head

Restic vs Rewind

Restic logo

Restic

Backup & Disaster Recovery

Fast, secure, and efficient backup program

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Rewind logo

Rewind

Backup & Disaster Recovery

SaaS backup for cloud business applications

From
$29/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Restic has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: 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; Rewind cannot back up all QuickBooks Online data due to API limitations, excluding company info, exchange rates, and payroll data
  • They diverge on capability: Restic covers Content-defined chunking, Rewind covers Automated backup.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Restic and Rewind actually diverge.

Attributes where Restic and Rewind differ
AttributeResticRewind
Starting priceFree$29/month
Pricing modelfreeUnknown
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWindows, Mac, LinuxWeb
Founded20142015

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 Restic

  • Content-defined chunking
  • Cryptographic verification
  • Deduplication
  • Encryption
  • Multiple backends
  • Snapshot management
  • AWS S3
  • Azure

Only in Rewind

  • Automated backup
  • One-click restore
  • Version comparison
  • Continuous protection
  • Bulk restore
  • Activity monitoring
  • Shopify
  • BigCommerce

What people use each for

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

Restic

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

Rewind

  • Data protectionnot Restic
  • Disaster recoverynot Restic
  • Business continuitynot Restic
  • Ransomware protectionnot Restic
  • Compliancenot Restic

Where each one falls short

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

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

Rewind

  • Cannot back up all QuickBooks Online data due to API limitations, excluding company info, exchange rates, and payroll data
  • Backup restore speed is slow for large datasets, causing significant delays during critical recovery situations
  • Cannot back up Shopify inventory tracking quantities, weight, measurement, or cost per item

Pricing, plan by plan

Restic

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

Rewind

$29/month

No published plan breakdown. See the Rewind review.

Which should you pick?

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

Choose Rewind if

  • You need automated backup.
  • You also want one-click restore.
Rewind review

Questions people ask

Is Restic or Rewind better?
Neither clearly leads. Restic starts at Free and Rewind at $29/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Restic or Rewind?
Restic has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Restic and $29/month for Rewind.
Does Restic or Rewind run on more platforms?
Restic runs on Windows, Mac, Linux. Rewind runs on Web.
Can I use Restic for free?
Yes. Restic has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Rewind starts at $29/month.
What is Restic best used for?
Restic is most often used for encrypted deduplicated backups to s3, b2, sftp and local disk from the command line, scripted server backups with snapshot retention policies. Of those, encrypted deduplicated backups to s3, b2, sftp and local disk from the command line and scripted server backups with snapshot retention policies are not what Rewind is typically brought in for.
What can Restic do that Rewind cannot?
Restic covers Content-defined chunking, Cryptographic verification, Deduplication, Encryption. Rewind covers Automated backup, One-click restore, Version comparison, Continuous protection.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Rewind: How long does Rewind keep backup snapshots?

Rewind keeps backup snapshots for 365 days, making them easily accessible for on-demand restores. This provides over a year of recovery options.

Source
Rewind: What SaaS applications does Rewind back up?

Rewind backs up Shopify, BigCommerce, GitHub, Jira, Confluence, QuickBooks Online, Trello, monday.com, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, and Zendesk Suite, among others.

Source
Rewind: Is Rewind compliant with data protection regulations?

Rewind is SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, DORA, HIPAA, and CCPA compliant with AES-256 encryption and role-based access control.

Source
Rewind: Can you restore individual items or only full backups?

Rewind supports granular, item-level recovery understanding parent-child dependencies, allowing you to restore specific files, orders, or customer information without full dataset rollback.

Source
ShareXLinkedInRedditWhatsAppEmail

Related pages

More on Restic

More on Rewind

Keep looking

Other head to heads