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Best Productivity ResourcesBy Shushant LakhyaniVerified creator

Desktop App

restic

Fast, encrypted backups that only store what changed.

Visit restic4.7

  • Rating

    4.7 / 5

  • Pricing

    Free

  • Difficulty

    Intermediate

  • Works on

    macOS, Windows, Linux

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What is restic?

restic is a free, open-source backup program that encrypts your data, removes duplicates before saving and checks that backups are intact. It can save to a local folder, a network drive or cloud storage such as Amazon S3, Backblaze B2 or Google Cloud Storage, and you can restore single files or browse snapshots like a normal folder.

Third-party open-source projects. We are not affiliated with their authors; repositories are provided as-is by their maintainers. Review each project's license, code and security before installing. See our Disclaimer.

Pros: what restic does well

  • Backups are encrypted and verified
  • Only changed data is stored again
  • Works with many local and cloud storage options

Cons: where it falls short

  • Runs from the command line
  • You need to schedule backups yourself

Who restic is for

Anyone who wants safe, space-saving backups of their files and is comfortable with a terminal.

Who can skip it

People who prefer a point-and-click backup app.

restic alternatives

Not sold on restic? These do a similar job, and each card says what it has in common.

All File Management resources

BorgBackup

Focus: deduplication. Shares backup and encryption with restic. Rated 4.6 (restic: 4.7).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.6Visit

Duplicati

Focus: cloud storage and scheduler. Shares backup and encryption with restic. Rated 4.5 (restic: 4.7).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.5Visit

Vorta

Focus: borg and privacy. Shares backup and encryption with restic. Rated 4.5 (restic: 4.7).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Linux
4.5Visit

fd

Focus: file search and developer tool. Shares command line and open source with restic. Adds Offline. Same 4.7 rating.

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.7Visit

dua-cli

Focus: disk usage, storage cleanup and terminal. Shares command line and open source with restic. Rated 4.6 (restic: 4.7).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.6Visit

eza

Focus: file listing, terminal and ls alternative. Shares command line and open source with restic. Rated 4.6 (restic: 4.7).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.6Visit

Free alternatives to restic

Want to spend nothing? These free picks cover similar ground.

Broot

Focus: file manager, terminal and navigation. Shares command line and open source with restic. Rated 4.5 (restic: 4.7).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.5Visit

duf

Focus: disk usage, terminal and storage. Shares command line and open source with restic. Rated 4.5 (restic: 4.7).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.5Visit

PhotoPrism

Focus: photo library, self-hosted and face recognition. Shares backup and open source with restic. A web app, not a desktop app. Adds Web. Rated 4.6 (restic: 4.7).

Web AppFreeWeb
4.6Visit

Etcher

Focus: usb, sd card and disk image. Shares open source and github with restic. Rated 4.6 (restic: 4.7).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.6Visit

nnn

Focus: file manager, terminal and batch rename. Shares open source and github with restic. Rated 4.6 (restic: 4.7).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Linux
4.6Visit
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