shouldiuse.io

Categories

VERDICT

BorgBackup Review

Depends

Should I use BorgBackup?

Deduplicating backup program with compression and authenticated encryption. Free software, BSD licensed. - borgbackup.org

· 1 month ago

A buy for Linux sysadmins and self-hosters who want free, deduplicated, encrypted backups and are comfortable in a terminal. Not for non-technical users or anyone needing vendor support, hosting, or a polished GUI.

Confidence

Medium. Based on ~35 public sources, mostly link aggregations and community mentions; few in-depth reviews or user testimonials found.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of useNo direct usability evidence reviewed
  • Feature depth
  • Support quality
  • Security posture

Pricing

$0

BorgBackup

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes

Best for

  • Linux sysadmins
  • Self-hosters and homelabbers
  • Encrypted NAS and offsite backups
  • Cost-conscious teams okay with CLI

Not for

  • Non-technical users wanting one-click backups
  • Windows-first small offices
  • Teams needing vendor support contracts or SLAs
  • Buyers wanting a hosted, managed backup service

Gotchas - check before you buy

medium

DIY support: no vendor, only community docs and forums.

medium

You must provision and manage your own backup destination.

medium

Automation needs your own scripting and scheduling setup.

low

No security page found at monitor GitHub advisories yourself.

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Completely free, BSD-licensed software
  • Deduplication plus compression cuts storage costs
  • Authenticated encryption protects backups
  • Large, active open-source community behind it
  • Featured in curated awesome-sysadmin tool lists

Cons

  • No commercial support; donation-funded via Open Collective
  • CLI-oriented; positioned as a sysadmin tool
  • Linux-centric; little evidence of Windows-first use

Sources & method

- 8 sources - No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

official x1review x5security x1news x1

Key stats

  • Value for money: 5/5

    Rating

  • $0

    Starting price

  • 8

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 5/5. Free and BSD-licensed, no paid tiers
  • Ease of use. No direct usability evidence reviewed
  • Feature depth: 5/5. Dedup, compression, authenticated encryption built in
  • Support quality: 3/5. Community-backed only, donation-funded project
  • Security posture: 4/5. Authenticated encryption; no issues in sources
  • $0 Starting price Free, BSD-licensed open source
  • Yes Free tier Entire product is free software
  • 872 Homebrew installs Dec 2020 snapshot
  • awesome-sysadmin Featured in Curated FOSS sysadmin catalog

Pricing

BorgBackup

$0

  • Deduplicating archiver
  • Compression
  • Authenticated encryption

Security

No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

What users say

Recommended across sysadmin lists, Linux forums, and self-hosting podcasts, but the sources contain far more tagline echoes than detailed critiques.

Full analysis

Based on ~35 public sources, mostly link aggregations and community mentions; few in-depth reviews or user testimonials found.

Free, powerful CLI backup with dedup and encryption — great for Linux sysadmins; skip if you want point-and-click.

Methodology

Based on ~35 public sources, mostly link aggregations and community mentions; few in-depth reviews or user testimonials found.

Read how a report is made.

Sources

  1. BorgBackup official siteborgbackup.org
    official
  2. BorgBackup security page (none found)borgbackup.org
    security
  3. awesome-sysadmin listgithub.com
    review
  4. 4 Ways To Backup Linux Workstations Onto A Synology NASdanielrosehill.medium.com
    review
  5. My Approach To Ubuntu Desktop Backupsmedium.com
    review
  6. Self-Hosted podcast mentionsselfhosted.show
    review
  7. BorgBackup is a Feature-Rich and Efficient Data Backup Solutionmedevel.com
    review
  8. Brew Top Dec 2020 package statsgist.github.com
    news

Add this review to your site

This check for BorgBackup says Depends.

Put the badge on your site.

Visitors see the independent review.

The link points here, and search engines follow it.

This is the badge visitors see on your site.

Depends BorgBackup Independent review on Should I Use It

Paste one snippet. Keep the link as it is. A nofollow tag stops search engines from following it.

Rate this review

Anonymous. You can change your vote.

Loading votes…

Comments

One queue. No nested comments. Give a display name first. Limit: 200 words per comment and 7 comments per day. You can edit or delete yours.

Save a name to write a comment.

0 / 200 words

No comments yet.