{"slug": "vorta", "name": "Vorta", "category": "files", "category_name": "Files, sync and backup", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 8, "warners": 1, "score": 3.398, "rising": 1.02, "first": "2025-11-10", "latest": "2026-09-26", "why": "now I use Vorta on my Mac just because that\u2019s what I use on Linux", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 5, "neutral": 2, "compare": 1, "warn": 1}, "spark": [2, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "now I use Vorta on my Mac just because that\u2019s what I use on Linux", "kind": "", "icon": false, "domain": "borgbase.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://vorta.borgbase.com", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Vorta"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 797744850, "item_id": 49859053, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49859053", "by": "setopt", "date": "2026-09-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "now I use Vorta on my Mac just because that\u2019s what I use on Linux", "excerpt": "Good examples. When I switched to Mac in ~2020, the Mac users I knew all told me to avoid Time Machine \u2013 at least two had issues where they needed their backups, only to find that the entirety of their backups had been silently corrupted. (I used Arq then based on online recommendations, now I use Vorta on my Mac just because that\u2019s what I use on Linux.) Spotlight was near-unusable when I switched as well. Often 5+ s", "context": "uses Linux and Mac", "use_case": "macOS and Linux backups", "switched_from": "Arq", "story": "The Mafia may be keeping fentanyl out of Italy"}, {"id": 795792337, "item_id": 49737021, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49737021", "by": "l1am0", "date": "2026-09-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Huge fan of borg + vorta for backups", "excerpt": "Huge fan of borg + vorta for backups and time Maschine like \u201eJump back in time\u201c. Wrote about it years ago: https://simon-frey.com/blog/borgvorta-is-finally-a-usable-backup-solution-for-linux-desktop/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Backups Aren't Simple"}, {"id": 749625666, "item_id": 46851604, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46851604", "by": "k2enemy", "date": "2026-02-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Vorta is a pretty nice GUI for borg on mac.", "excerpt": "Vorta is a pretty nice GUI for borg on mac. Not as simple as Time Machine, but easier than creating launchctl entries. https://vorta.borgbase.com", "context": "", "use_case": "GUI for Borg backups", "switched_from": "", "story": "TIL: Apple Broke Time Machine Again on Tahoe"}, {"id": 737080545, "item_id": 46067534, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46067534", "by": "_kidlike", "date": "2025-11-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Vorta with them", "excerpt": "comment about the linked blog post: he replaced Proton Drive with Synology, which is kinda cheating (comparing apples to apple trees). Also he did not include a cloud drive in his pricing calculations, which is also cheating... Anyway, for anyone actually looking for good cloud drive hosting, without any BS: rsync.net (you encrypt on your side before sending anything. I use Vorta with them). Also the same server can ", "context": "", "use_case": "Backups to rsync.net", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mount Proton Drive on Linux using rclone and systemd"}, {"id": 733981810, "item_id": 45873863, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45873863", "by": "setopt", "date": "2025-11-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Vorta (based on Borg Backup which I can also vouch for)", "excerpt": "Arq Backup works great on Mac. It has a lot of smart features like only backing up on certain networks, only backing up when external power is connected, etc. You can backup either locally or remote (encrypted then uploaded to your preferred cloud provider, I used BackBlaze B2). If you prefer free and open source, you can try Vorta (based on Borg Backup which I can also vouch for).", "context": "", "use_case": "Free backup app", "switched_from": "", "story": "A brief history of Time Machine (2024)"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 767480373, "item_id": 47967523, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47967523", "by": "lukasgraf", "date": "2026-04-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Not turnkey enough for me.", "excerpt": "I can't remember the exact phrasing, but are you talking about the error message that essentially says: \"The Tardis is broken. Your backup has diverged into an entirely separate timeline, and I have no way of reconciling it. You may now sacrifice an entire weekend to do an initial backup again.\"? I've been on a lucky streak for several years now, where I haven't gotten that one on any of my devices. \"Preparing backup", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "10Gb/s Ethernet: what I did to get it working in my home"}]}], "who": [{"by": "setopt", "context": "uses Linux and Mac", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49859053", "date": "2026-09-26"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["macos and linux backups", "backup client", "gui for borg backups", "backups to rsync.net", "free backup app"], "compared": [{"slug": "borgbackup", "name": "BorgBackup", "co": 6, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "arq-backup", "name": "Arq Backup", "co": 3, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "time-machine", "name": "Time Machine", "co": 5, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "kopia", "name": "Kopia", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "restic", "name": "restic", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46848699", "title": "TIL: Apple Broke Time Machine Again on Tahoe", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49842487", "title": "The Mafia may be keeping fentanyl out of Italy", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49732513", "title": "Backups Aren't Simple", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47947944", "title": "10Gb/s Ethernet: what I did to get it working in my home", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47762864", "title": "Backblaze has stopped backing up your data", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47223541", "title": "Vykar is a fast, encrypted, deduplicated backup tool written in Rust", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 2}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-03": {"compare": 1}, "2026-04": {"neutral": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 797744850, "item_id": 49859053, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49859053", "by": "setopt", "date": "2026-09-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "now I use Vorta on my Mac just because that\u2019s what I use on Linux", "excerpt": "Good examples. When I switched to Mac in ~2020, the Mac users I knew all told me to avoid Time Machine \u2013 at least two had issues where they needed their backups, only to find that the entirety of their backups had been silently corrupted. (I used Arq then based on online recommendations, now I use Vorta on my Mac just because that\u2019s what I use on Linux.) Spotlight was near-unusable when I switched as well. Often 5+ s", "context": "uses Linux and Mac", "use_case": "macOS and Linux backups", "switched_from": "Arq", "story": "The Mafia may be keeping fentanyl out of Italy"}, {"id": 795792337, "item_id": 49737021, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49737021", "by": "l1am0", "date": "2026-09-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Huge fan of borg + vorta for backups", "excerpt": "Huge fan of borg + vorta for backups and time Maschine like \u201eJump back in time\u201c. Wrote about it years ago: https://simon-frey.com/blog/borgvorta-is-finally-a-usable-backup-solution-for-linux-desktop/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Backups Aren't Simple"}, {"id": 767480373, "item_id": 47967523, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47967523", "by": "lukasgraf", "date": "2026-04-30", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Not turnkey enough for me.", "excerpt": "I can't remember the exact phrasing, but are you talking about the error message that essentially says: \"The Tardis is broken. Your backup has diverged into an entirely separate timeline, and I have no way of reconciling it. You may now sacrifice an entire weekend to do an initial backup again.\"? I've been on a lucky streak for several years now, where I haven't gotten that one on any of my devices. \"Preparing backup", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "10Gb/s Ethernet: what I did to get it working in my home"}, {"id": 764340097, "item_id": 47771256, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47771256", "by": "noja", "date": "2026-04-14", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "As client there are more options now (like Vorta, from them)", "excerpt": "I like https://www.borgbase.com It's set it and forget. You will need to set it up for them, then you get an email (from borgbackup, not the client so it works when the client is not running) when a backup hasn't happened for a while. As client there are more options now (like Vorta, from them), but I have had success with https://github.com/garethgeorge/backrest and the Restic backend.", "context": "", "use_case": "Backup client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Backblaze has stopped backing up your data"}, {"id": 755618561, "item_id": 47226160, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47226160", "by": "havaloc", "date": "2026-03-02", "stance": "compare", "quote": "when compared to Borg/Vorta", "excerpt": "Yeah, I love the original name, but it would have been problematic potentially with copyright. As for breaking the format, sometimes there's good reasons for it. I can tell you that it really flies though, when compared to Borg/Vorta. I can't tell if the speed improvements are from the Rust front end or the back end format changes, but it's a lot faster than Vorta/Borg and certainly way faster than Kopia on restore.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Vykar is a fast, encrypted, deduplicated backup tool written in Rust"}, {"id": 749629298, "item_id": 46851831, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46851831", "by": "thedanbob", "date": "2026-02-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "switched to borg via Vorta", "excerpt": "I finally got fed up with TM and switched to borg via Vorta. So much more reliable. A couple of times I've gotten error messages when I went off network while it was trying to do a backup, but each time the repo was fine.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "TIL: Apple Broke Time Machine Again on Tahoe"}, {"id": 749625666, "item_id": 46851604, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46851604", "by": "k2enemy", "date": "2026-02-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Vorta is a pretty nice GUI for borg on mac.", "excerpt": "Vorta is a pretty nice GUI for borg on mac. Not as simple as Time Machine, but easier than creating launchctl entries. https://vorta.borgbase.com", "context": "", "use_case": "GUI for Borg backups", "switched_from": "", "story": "TIL: Apple Broke Time Machine Again on Tahoe"}, {"id": 737080545, "item_id": 46067534, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46067534", "by": "_kidlike", "date": "2025-11-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Vorta with them", "excerpt": "comment about the linked blog post: he replaced Proton Drive with Synology, which is kinda cheating (comparing apples to apple trees). Also he did not include a cloud drive in his pricing calculations, which is also cheating... Anyway, for anyone actually looking for good cloud drive hosting, without any BS: rsync.net (you encrypt on your side before sending anything. I use Vorta with them). Also the same server can ", "context": "", "use_case": "Backups to rsync.net", "switched_from": "", "story": "Mount Proton Drive on Linux using rclone and systemd"}, {"id": 733981810, "item_id": 45873863, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45873863", "by": "setopt", "date": "2025-11-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Vorta (based on Borg Backup which I can also vouch for)", "excerpt": "Arq Backup works great on Mac. It has a lot of smart features like only backing up on certain networks, only backing up when external power is connected, etc. You can backup either locally or remote (encrypted then uploaded to your preferred cloud provider, I used BackBlaze B2). If you prefer free and open source, you can try Vorta (based on Borg Backup which I can also vouch for).", "context": "", "use_case": "Free backup app", "switched_from": "", "story": "A brief history of Time Machine (2024)"}]}