BorgBase
Worth it
Confidence: Medium
Buy if you run Linux servers or a homelab and want cheap, encrypted offsite Borg/Restic storage with a clean dashboard.
New check
Comparison
BorgBase vs Rsync
BorgBase lands on Worth it, and Rsync lands on Depends.
Rsync
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Use it if you run servers, live in a terminal, and patch promptly . it's free and battle-tested.
| Compare | BorgBase | Rsync |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Worth it | Depends |
| Best for | Linux homelab users | Sysadmins scripting server backups |
| Who it's not for | Non-technical users wanting one-click backup | Non-technical users wanting point-and-click sync |
| Privacy | No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.⁹ | Actively targeted: Jan 2025 six-vulnerability RCE chain, 33 CVEs fixed in 3.5.0 (Aug 2026), new CVEs disclosed May 2026.14 |
| Support quality | 2023 outage communication frustrated customers | Community-only; 2026 funding and maintainer controversy |
| Public sentiment | Linux and homelab communities mostly praise BorgBase's price and reliability, with a notable 2023 outage complaint.⁴ | Users treat rsync as the default server sync tool for decades, but complain about slowness versus rclone and fragile version upgrades. |
| Biggest gotcha | 2023 outage lasted three days; some customers felt vendor communication was poor.³ | Never expose the rsync daemon to the internet . Rapid7 found oceans of exposed data15 |
Pick BorgBase when
- Linux homelab users
- Developers backing up servers
- Borg/Restic users needing offsite target
- Privacy-minded individuals
When BorgBase is not a fit
- Non-technical users wanting one-click backup
- Enterprises needing SLAs and compliance reports
- Anyone uncomfortable with SSH keys and CLI
- Teams needing guaranteed 24/7 vendor support
Pick Rsync when
- Sysadmins scripting server backups
- Homelab and NAS replication
- Large one-off data migrations
- Low-bandwidth incremental syncs
When Rsync is not a fit
- Non-technical users wanting point-and-click sync
- Anyone running the daemon on the public internet
- Teams needing real-time two-way sync
- Backup pipelines that can't tolerate breaking changes between releases
Sources
- Borgbackup is amazing (1TB = $6.67)reddit.comreview
- Borgbase backups have been unavailable for 3 daysnews.ycombinator.comnews
- Customer comment on outage communicationnews.ycombinator.comnews
- Does anyone use BorgBase for Backup?forum.level1techs.comreview
- BorgBase Halloween Promotion: 10 GB free foreverlowendtalk.comreview
review
- BorgBase Alternative: Restic-Native, $5/200GBservercrate.netreview
- BorgBase API docsdocs.borgbase.comofficial
- BorgBase product security pageborgbase.comsecurity
- My Backup Strategy with Borg, Vorta and BorgBaseandreagrandi.itreview
official
- Rsync Security Advisoriessamba.orgofficial
security
security
- An Ocean of Data Exposed Through rsyncrapid7.comsecurity
- 4x faster network file sync with rclone (vs rsync)jeffgeerling.comnews