Borg Backup
Hacker ApprovedRanked 3 of 19 backup tools by recommenders
Deduplicating, encrypted backup tool that people recommend for space-efficient, verifiable backups. Critics note it is slow and memory-hungry, and needs fussing on some NAS systems.
Deduplicating, encrypted backup tool that people recommend for space-efficient, verifiable backups. Critics note it is slow and memory-hungry, and needs fussing on some NAS systems.
38 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 30
- criticize it
- 8
- approval share
- 79%
Recommended in 12 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 30 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 12 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Deduplication saves space on backups
“borg has been sufficiently scalable to deduplicate any collection I've thrown at it.”
Comment from 3 Sep 2026 in “Creating backup storage sucks” “using RESTIC or Borg as a backup container is a good idea since they can deduplicate”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “Backblaze has stopped backing up your data” “include dedpulication, incremental versioning, verification, and encryption”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “Backblaze has stopped backing up your data” - Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “Time Machine-style Backups with rsync (2018)”
- Comment from 8 Mar 2026 in “Filesystems Are Having a Moment”
Often named alongside restic
“Use tools with straightforward, predictable semantics, like rclone, or synching, or restic/Borg.”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “Backblaze has stopped backing up your data” “using RESTIC or Borg as a backup container is a good idea since they can deduplicate”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “Backblaze has stopped backing up your data” “If I had to start over I'd go with rustic-rs or borg backup.”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “TIL: Apple Broke Time Machine Again on Tahoe” - Comment from 8 Mar 2026 in “Filesystems Are Having a Moment”
- Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “Site Runs on 30GB of RAM”
Incremental backups store only changes
“include dedpulication, incremental versioning, verification, and encryption”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “Backblaze has stopped backing up your data” “it'll only need to store what's changed”
Comment from 17 Jul 2026 in “Learning a few things about running SQLite” Trusted for years of daily backups
“I have not deleted any of my daily borg backups for many years”
Comment from 4 Dec 2025 in “Rsync.net Technical Notes – Q4 2025” “based on Borg Backup which I can also vouch for”
Comment from 10 Nov 2025 in “A brief history of Time Machine (2024)”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Fussy setup on Synology NAS
“it needed some fussy extra community package to work on Synology”
Comment from 3 Feb 2026 in “Time Machine-style Backups with rsync (2018)” “to avoid fussing with Borg's community NAS package”
Comment from 15 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (December 2025)” Others seen as better choices
“The author, and most readers, would probably be better off using any of a number of actual backup programs”
Comment from 26 Nov 2025 in “Automating Linux Backups with Rsync: A Set-and-Forget Strategy” “I used to use Borg, but Restic (and it's Rust clone Rustic) are better.”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “Time Machine-style Backups with rsync (2018)” “There's no reason to use borg today”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “Time Machine-style Backups with rsync (2018)” - Comment from 3 Mar 2026 in “Vykar is a fast, encrypted, deduplicated backup tool written in Rust”
Reported failures and data corruption
“This also failed at one point, but at least its five-year record remained readable”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “TIL: Apple Broke Time Machine Again on Tahoe” “i resumed it per documentation and got 2gb of silently corrupted data.”
Comment from 16 Sep 2026 in “Backups Aren't Simple”
Other backup tools people recommend
The four most recommended other backup tools, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| restic | 83 | 5 | 94% | 12 | — | Approved |
| pgBackRest | 32 | 6 | 84% | 6 | 1 yr4 owners | Approved |
| Borg BackupThis page | 30 | 8 | 79% | 12 | — | Approved |
| iCloud Photos Downloader | 18 | 4 | 82% | 2 | — | — |
| Barman | 17 | 3 | 85% | 6 | — | Approved |
What people said
33 of the 41 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Seriously, it's just vim, borg and git”
“Huge fan of borg + vorta for backups”
“i resumed it per documentation and got 2gb of silently corrupted data.”
“borg has been sufficiently scalable to deduplicate any collection I've thrown at it.”
“Borg to expensive, always available storage”
“compresses slightly varying build artifacts really well, but slow and memory intensive”
“it'll only need to store what's changed”
“they solved real, hard problems the company was facing for which there were no good external solutions”
“Don’t think stuff like borg is necessary now that Emacs has built in support”
“Seems worth a look, simply because it’s from the magit author.”
“You'll get rock solid emacs. Worth the effort.”
“things work at global scale without thought”
“Not turnkey enough for me.”
“Use tools with straightforward, predictable semantics, like rclone, or synching, or restic/Borg.”
“using RESTIC or Borg as a backup container is a good idea since they can deduplicate”
“include dedpulication, incremental versioning, verification, and encryption”
“use borg, restic or git-annex for deduplicating backups”
“it's a lot faster than Vorta/Borg”
“something just goes wrong somewhere on this seemingly simple task”
“Restic and Borg are good options to look into.”
“many that will have snapshot features”
“it needed some fussy extra community package to work on Synology”
“If I had to start over I'd go with rustic-rs or borg backup.”
“There's no reason to use borg today”
“I used to use Borg, but Restic (and it's Rust clone Rustic) are better.”
“Without dedup you're just going to backup less stuff, which is far worse.”
“This also failed at one point, but at least its five-year record remained readable”
“Borg/Kopia if you want GUI-driven restores for non-technical members of your family”
“that Borg handled much better”
“to avoid fussing with Borg's community NAS package”
“I have not deleted any of my daily borg backups for many years”
“The author, and most readers, would probably be better off using any of a number of actual backup programs”
“based on Borg Backup which I can also vouch for”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.