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rdiff-backup Review

Depends

Should I use rdiff-backup?

reverse differential backup tool, over a network or locally - rdiff-backup.net

· 1 month ago

Buy it if you're a Linux admin or terminal-comfortable user — it's free, proven for ~20 years, and gives versioned backups. Skip it if you want a GUI, vendor support, or a managed cloud backup.

Confidence

Medium. Based on 20+ public sources; no formal review ratings exist for this product, so scores rely on community and documentation evidence.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support quality
  • Security posture

Pricing

Free

Open source

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes

Best for

  • Linux sysadmins
  • Terminal-comfortable home users
  • Disk-to-disk backups over SSH
  • Zero-budget versioned backups

Not for

  • Non-technical users wanting one-click GUI backups
  • Businesses needing vendor support or SLAs
  • Anyone wanting a managed cloud backup dashboard
  • People who won't read man pages

Gotchas - check before you buy

high

Long diff chains make migrating away painful later.

medium

Zero vendor support; community mailing list is your help desk.

medium

Incrementals can crawl with many changed files; plan job windows.

medium

Temp directory may fill mid-recovery; reconfigure /tmp or free space.

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Proven solid across nearly 20 years of use
  • Works locally or over SSH, on Linux and Windows
  • Exact mirror plus unlimited incrementals for versioning
  • Latest backup browsable as a plain file copy
  • Completely free and open source

Cons

  • Command-line only; terminal comfort required
  • Slower than rsync due to stored version history
  • Some incremental backup runs take very long
  • Restores depend on long diff chains over time
  • Recovery can demand extra temporary disk space

Sources & method

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

official x4review x4news x2
  • Default SSH usage carries risk if the server runs as root, The man page warns that although SSH is secure, default rdiff-backup usage presents some security risks, e.g. when the server runs as root.

Key stats

  • Value for money: 5/5

    Rating

  • Free

    Starting price

  • 10

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 5/5. Free and fully open source
  • Ease of use: 2/5. CLI-only; terminal skills required
  • Feature depth: 4/5. Mirror plus unlimited incrementals and versioning
  • Support quality: 2/5. Community mailing lists only, no vendor
  • Security posture: 3/5. No known CVEs; root-over-SSH caution
  • Free Price open source, no paid tiers
  • Yes Free tier the entire tool
  • ~20 years Age per project site
  • Linux & Windows Platforms cross-platform supported

Pricing

Open source

Free

  • Local and remote (SSH) backups
  • Versioned incrementals
  • Linux and Windows support

Security

No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

  • Default SSH usage carries risk if the server runs as rootThe man page warns that although SSH is secure, default rdiff-backup usage presents some security risks, e.g. when the server runs as root.³

What users say

Long-time Linux admins keep it as a reliable secondary backup but complain about slow incrementals and fragile restore chains.

“I use rdiff-backup as secondary backup system on a file server (primary backup system is Bareos).”
Reddit, r/linuxadmin
“rdiff-backup: great feature set, It worked really nicely for me when I only had one job to run”
Reddit, r/linux
“rdiff-backup will be slower because it keeps a history of the difference between files.”
Reddit, r/linux
Full analysis

Based on 20+ public sources; no formal review ratings exist for this product, so scores rely on community and documentation evidence.

Free, battle-tested CLI backup for power users. Wrong pick if you want a GUI, support SLAs, or managed cloud backups.

Methodology

Based on 20+ public sources; no formal review ratings exist for this product, so scores rely on community and documentation evidence.

Read how a report is made.

Sources

  1. rdiff-backup: Main Pagerdiff-backup.net
    official
  2. rdiff-backup on GitHubgithub.com
    official
  3. rdiff-backup(1) - Linux man pagelinux.die.net
    official
  4. How to Configure rdiff-backup for Versioned Backups on Ubuntuoneuptime.com
    news
  5. What's new with rdiff-backup? | Opensource.comopensource.com
    news
  6. rdiff-backup takes a very long time on some incremental backupsreddit.com
    review
  7. Should I be using something other than rdiff-backup?reddit.com
    review
  8. rdiff-backup needs too much space to recover from failureunix.stackexchange.com
    review
  9. Using rdiff-backup under Linux - Thomas-Krenn-Wikithomas-krenn.com
    official
  10. Advice on using rdiff-backup for home backup (mailing list)lists.nongnu.org
    review

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