Kopia vs Restic: Which Backup Tool to Self-Host?

Both Kopia and Restic handle encrypted, deduplicated backups — but they take different approaches to UI, performance, and automation. Here's how to pick. Quick Verdict Kopia is the better choice for most self-hosters because it includes a web UI, faster snapshot creation, and more granular retention policies out of the box. Restic has a larger community and more third-party integrations, but requires CLI-only operation unless you add Borgmatic or another wrapper. Overview Both Kopia and Restic are modern, encrypted, deduplicated backup tools that compete directly with each other. Restic has been around since 2015 and has a mature ecosystem. Kopia launched in 2019 and has been rapidly gaining ground with features like a built-in web UI, better compression options, and server mode for multi-machine backups. Both tools encrypt and deduplicate your data by default, and both support a wide range of storage backends including S3, SFTP, Backblaze B2, and local storage. Feature Comparison Feat