BorgBackup
Open-source deduplicating backup program with compression and encryption.
Recommended for deduplicated, compressed backups with mountable snapshots,123 often paired with remote storage such as rsync.net or Hetzner Storage Box.4567 The main caveat is that it used to need an extra community package to run on Synology,8 and a few commenters later moved to Restic or Kopia.910
Why people recommend it
Remote storage · 3
Commenters run it against rsync.net and Hetzner Storage Box and are happy with the setup.
“I have not deleted any of my daily borg backups for many years, covering my laptop and some servers.”
“I have a discounted Borg account on Rsync.net”
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“Borg backup is a good tool in my opinion”
Deduplication · 2
Deduplication removes duplicate copies of files across backups.
“when I switched to borgbackup on Windows as well [1], this massive reduplication of files became a solved problem.”
“Borg backup is a good tool in my opinion”
Long-term schedules · 3
Users keep daily or hourly archives for years.
“I have not deleted any of my daily borg backups for many years, covering my laptop and some servers.”
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“My backup strategy is to create a borg archive entry every day at a fixed time.”
Mountable archives · 2
Archives can be mounted with borg mount and browsed, including older snapshots.
“I have not deleted any of my daily borg backups for many years, covering my laptop and some servers.”
“Borg backup is a good tool in my opinion”
Solid default · 3
Commenters suggest it as a good backup tool for servers and home devices.
“Restic and Borg are good options to look into.”
“I use borg backup, for instance.”
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“Borg backup is a good tool in my opinion”
Encryption · 1
Backups can be encrypted with a passphrase.
“my very long password I use for an encrypted Borgbackup I have”
Caveats and dissent
Synology support · 1
Until recently it needed a fussy extra community package to work on Synology.
“I used to use Borg but until recently it needed some fussy extra community package to work on Synology.”
Users moved on · 2
Some commenters later switched to Restic or Kopia.
“I was evaluating backup systems back then, and went to borg (and later to restic).”
“I used to use Borg but until recently it needed some fussy extra community package to work on Synology.”
Often compared with
Who recommends it in their own words
Threads where it came up
- Rsync.net Technical Notes – Q4 2025 2 mentions
- Obnam Community 1 mention
- Ask HN: What do you run on a $5 VPS that's worth keeping online 24/7? 1 mention
- Creating backup storage sucks 1 mention
- Ask HN: Alternatives to GitHub 1 mention
- Ghostel.el: Terminal emulator powered by libghostty 1 mention
Also written as Borg, borgbackup, borg. Data: borgbackup.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 15
“I was evaluating backup systems back then, and went to borg (and later to restic).”
“Borg backup”
“stuffed into borgbackup on redundant offline devices”
“hourly borg backups to rsync.net”
“Personally I use borg and always at least quick check what changed”
“when I switched to borgbackup on Windows as well [1], this massive reduplication of files became a solved problem.”
“My backup strategy is to create a borg archive entry every day at a fixed time.”
“Borg backup is a good tool in my opinion”
“Restic and Borg are good options to look into.”
“I use borg backup, for instance.”
“my very long password I use for an encrypted Borgbackup I have”
“I used to use Borg but until recently it needed some fussy extra community package to work on Synology.”
“I have a discounted Borg account on Rsync.net”
“I have not deleted any of my daily borg backups for many years, covering my laptop and some servers.”
“I use rsync.net with borg”