Restic vs Backblaze B2
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Restic and Backblaze B2.
Quick Verdict
4.3/5
Restic
0 reviews
4.2/5
Backblaze B2
0 reviews
Restic is rated higher (4.3 vs 4.2). Restic is a modern backup program that uses content-addressable storage, deduplication, and AES-256 encryption. Backs up to S3, B2, Google Cloud, SFTP, and more. No server required. Backblaze B2 offers S3-compatible object storage at $6.95/TB/month (raised from $6/TB in May). Free egress up to 3x stored data for all customers, unlimited free egress to partner CDNs/compute.
Restic Fast, secure, encrypted open source backup | Backblaze B2 S3-compatible object storage at $6.95/TB/month with 3x free egress | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 4.3 (0 reviews)✓ | 4.2 (0 reviews) |
| Pricing model | free | usage-based |
| Starting price | Free✓ | From $6.95/mo |
| Best for | Developers and sysadmins who want encrypted, deduplicated off-site backups to any storage backend and are comfortable owning key management and operations. | Backup targets, snapshot archives, and asset storage where low, predictable cost beats global distribution |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ✓ | |
| DDoS protection | ||
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ||
| Free tier | ||
| Data-center locations | ||
| Regions | — | ["US West (Sacramento, Stockton, Phoenix)", "US East (Reston, VA)", "EU Central (Amsterdam, NL)", "CA East (Toronto, ON)"] |
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tieropen source | free tiers3 compatibleus datacenterapi access |
| Visit Restic → | Visit Backblaze B2 → | |
Restic
Pros
- + Free BSD-2-Clause software with no paid tier or usage caps
- + Client-side AES-256-CTR encryption with Poly1305 authentication is always on
- + Content-addressed deduplication: incremental backups and multi-machine repositories
- + Native support for S3, B2, GCS, Azure Blob, SFTP, and REST backends; rclone for the rest
- + Openly documented repository format — no vendor lock-in, portable repositories
Cons
- - No password recovery: lose the repository key and the data is gone
- - Command-line only — scheduling, monitoring, and alerting are external
- - Community support only; no SLA or paid support option
- - Repository maintenance (prune, check) requires operational discipline
- - Pre-1.0 version numbering; the API surface can still shift between releases
Backblaze B2
Pros
- + $6.95/TB/month storage with no minimum file size or storage duration fees
- + Free egress up to 3x average monthly storage for all customers; unlimited free egress to partner CDNs/compute
- + Genuine S3-compatible API plus native API, with free Class A/B/C transactions
- + 11 nines claimed durability with published Vault math (20 shards across 20 pods)
- + EU data residency via the Amsterdam region; permanent 10 GB free tier
Cons
- - One region per account (fixed at creation); no cross-region buckets or read replicas
- - S3 compatibility is partial: no IAM roles, object tagging, or website hosting; bucket-level ACLs only
- - SLA is thin: 99.9% objective with 5–10% service credits
- - Storage price rose from $6 to $6.95/TB in May — value still strong, but the direction is upward
- - No compute, functions, or database services
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