Is Trilio or Velero better?

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

Which is cheaper, Trilio or Velero?

Trilio starts at Free and Velero at Free.

Does Trilio or Velero run on more platforms?

Trilio runs on Linux, Web. Velero runs on Linux.

Can I use Trilio for free?

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

What is Trilio best used for?

Trilio is most often used for a telco running an openstack cloud whose incumbent backup vendor supports it only through generic agents, an organisation migrating virtual machines from vmware to openshift virtualization and needing protection on the new platform from day one, a research institution protecting tenant workloads where each tenant should restore its own data without a ticket, a platform team wanting to evaluate kubernetes backup properly on ten nodes before committing budget. Of those, a telco running an openstack cloud whose incumbent backup vendor supports it only through generic agents and an organisation migrating virtual machines from vmware to openshift virtualization and needing protection on the new platform from day one are not what Velero is typically brought in for.

What can Trilio do that Velero cannot?

Trilio covers OpenStack backup, Kubernetes backup, OpenShift Virtualization, Open format backups. Velero covers Cluster resource backup, Volume snapshots, File-level backup, Cross-cluster restore.

Backup · head to head

Trilio vs Velero

Trilio

Backup

Backup and recovery for OpenStack, Kubernetes and Red Hat Virtualization

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Velero

Backup

Open source backup and migration for Kubernetes cluster resources

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: Trilio coverage is deliberately narrow, so a mixed estate with VMware and physical servers needs a second backup product and two sets of restore procedures.; Velero there is no vendor support contract from the project itself, so a failed restore during an outage is resolved by your team reading source code and GitHub issues.
They diverge on capability: Trilio covers OpenStack backup, Velero covers Cluster resource backup.
Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Trilio and Velero actually diverge.

Attributes where Trilio and Velero differ
Attribute	Trilio	Velero
Pricing model	Per node per year	Open source, no licence fee
Platforms	Linux, Web	Linux

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Backup).

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 Trilio

OpenStack backup
Kubernetes backup
OpenShift Virtualization
Open format backups
Incremental forever
Self-service restore
Free basic edition

Only in Velero

Cluster resource backup
Volume snapshots
File-level backup
Cross-cluster restore
Backup hooks
Scheduled backups
Object storage targets

What people use each for

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

Trilio

A telco running an OpenStack cloud whose incumbent backup vendor supports it only through generic agentsnot Velero
An organisation migrating virtual machines from VMware to OpenShift Virtualization and needing protection on the new platform from day onenot Velero
A research institution protecting tenant workloads where each tenant should restore its own data without a ticketnot Velero
A platform team wanting to evaluate Kubernetes backup properly on ten nodes before committing budgetnot Velero

Velero

A platform team needing namespace-level restore after an accidental deletion, with no budget for a backup productnot Trilio
Migrating workloads between Kubernetes clusters or between cloud providers using backup and restorenot Trilio
Capturing cluster configuration before a risky upgrade so the previous state can be reinstatednot Trilio
An organisation proving a Kubernetes recovery capability to an auditor before deciding whether to buy a commercial productnot Trilio

Where each one falls short

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

Trilio

Coverage is deliberately narrow, so a mixed estate with VMware and physical servers needs a second backup product and two sets of restore procedures.
Trilio is a small vendor next to the backup incumbents, and buyers with ten year retention obligations should assess the risk of the company being acquired or wound down.
Enterprise pricing is per node or per virtual machine and is not published, which makes it hard to compare against per-terabyte competitors without going through sales.
The free basic edition stops at ten nodes with community support only, so the step from evaluation to production is a full commercial negotiation rather than a tier upgrade.
Restore performance depends on the object storage or NFS target you supply, and egress charges from a cloud object store during a large recovery sit outside the vendor quote entirely.

Velero

There is no vendor support contract from the project itself, so a failed restore during an outage is resolved by your team reading source code and GitHub issues.
Application consistency depends on backup hooks you write and maintain, and a database backed up without a correct hook restores to a state that may not be usable.
Restore ordering across dependent resources such as custom resource definitions and operators needs manual attention, and complex applications frequently need a documented runbook rather than a single restore command.
Corporate engineering investment became uncertain after Broadcom acquired VMware, which is a real consideration for anyone building a long retention policy on the project.
Object storage egress charges apply on restore and are billed by your cloud provider, so a full cluster recovery from another region carries a cost discovered during the incident rather than during planning.

Pricing, plan by plan

Trilio

Free

Basic EditionFree
- Up to ten nodes
- No time limit
- Community support only
Enterprise Edition$undefined/year
- Priced per node or per virtual machine annually
- No scale limits
- OpenStack, Kubernetes, OpenShift and Red Hat Virtualization

Velero

Free

VeleroFree
- Apache 2.0 licensed
- No cluster or capacity limits
- Community support via Kubernetes Slack and GitHub

Which should you pick?

Choose Trilio if

You need openstack backup.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Linux, Web.
You also want kubernetes backup.

Trilio review

Choose Velero if

You need cluster resource backup.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Linux.
You also want volume snapshots.

Velero review

Questions people ask

Is Trilio or Velero better?: Neither clearly leads. Trilio starts at Free and Velero at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Trilio or Velero?: Trilio starts at Free and Velero at Free.
Does Trilio or Velero run on more platforms?: Trilio runs on Linux, Web. Velero runs on Linux.
Can I use Trilio for free?: Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Trilio best used for?: Trilio is most often used for a telco running an openstack cloud whose incumbent backup vendor supports it only through generic agents, an organisation migrating virtual machines from vmware to openshift virtualization and needing protection on the new platform from day one, a research institution protecting tenant workloads where each tenant should restore its own data without a ticket, a platform team wanting to evaluate kubernetes backup properly on ten nodes before committing budget. Of those, a telco running an openstack cloud whose incumbent backup vendor supports it only through generic agents and an organisation migrating virtual machines from vmware to openshift virtualization and needing protection on the new platform from day one are not what Velero is typically brought in for.
What can Trilio do that Velero cannot?: Trilio covers OpenStack backup, Kubernetes backup, OpenShift Virtualization, Open format backups. Velero covers Cluster resource backup, Volume snapshots, File-level backup, Cross-cluster restore.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Trilio: Is the free edition production usable?

It is functionally complete up to ten nodes with community support only. Use it to evaluate, but understand that production incidents have no vendor behind them at that tier.

Velero: Can we buy support for Velero?

Not from the project. Several commercial Kubernetes backup products package or extend it and sell support, which is the practical route to an accountable vendor.

Trilio: Does it support OpenShift Virtualization?

Yes, which is the main reason it appears on shortlists for organisations moving virtual machines off VMware.

Velero: Does it back up persistent volume data?

Yes, through cloud or Container Storage Interface snapshots, or through file-level upload where snapshots are not available.

Trilio: Where are backups stored?

On NFS or S3-compatible object storage you provide, in an open format rather than a proprietary vendor container.

Velero: What does it cost?

Nothing to licence. You pay for object storage capacity and for egress on restore, both billed by your cloud provider.

Trilio vs Velero

Trilio

Velero

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Trilio

Only in Velero

What people use each for

Trilio

Velero

Where each one falls short

Trilio

Velero

Pricing, plan by plan

Trilio

Velero

Which should you pick?

Choose Trilio if

Choose Velero if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Trilio

More on Velero

Keep looking

Other head to heads