Kopia
Hacker ApprovedRanked 3 of 8 backup software by recommenders
Free backup tool that people recommend over paid options, with GUI restores and support for multiple repositories. Common caveat: local config makes scripting and declarative setups harder.
Free backup tool that people recommend over paid options, with GUI restores and support for multiple repositories. Common caveat: local config makes scripting and declarative setups harder.
18 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 16
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 89%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 16 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 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
Free and better than paid tools
“There are actually really good free backup solutions, like kopia.io. Tried a couple of paid ones first because I didn't know about them, but this is even better”
Comment from 9 Jun 2026 in “OneDrive data now has an expiry date” “Gave up and moved on to Kopia.”
Comment from 11 Feb 2026 in “TIL: Apple Broke Time Machine Again on Tahoe” “something better like Kopia”
Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Self-hosting my photos with Immich” GUI makes restores easy
“Borg/Kopia if you want GUI-driven restores for non-technical members of your family”
Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “TIL: Apple Broke Time Machine Again on Tahoe” “Kopia is better for maybe less advanced user as it gives them GUI to click on”
Comment from 18 Sep 2026 in “Backups Aren't Simple” Works with object storage and S3
“I use Kopia for that, one repository on an external SSD and another on Backblaze”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Ask HN: How do you keep your data private?” “Reliable for me is Kopia from Mac to S3 compatible volume (minio) on Synology.”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “TIL: Apple Broke Time Machine Again on Tahoe” “use restic or kopia to back it up to cheap object storage”
Comment from 12 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: s@: decentralized social networking over static sites” - Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “Unpowered SSDs slowly lose data”
Recommended alongside restic
“restic and kopia should work decently, if with a bit of setup”
Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “TIL: Apple Broke Time Machine Again on Tahoe” “restic or kopia are better for proper backups”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “Time Machine-style Backups with rsync (2018)”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Harder to script and configure
“it insists on keeping local config which makes scripting a bit more involved”
Comment from 16 Sep 2026 in “Backups Aren't Simple” “IMO it's harder to configure if you have your own declarative config tooling”
Comment from 17 Sep 2026 in “Backups Aren't Simple”
Other backup software people recommend
The four most recommended other backup software, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time Machine | 70 | 95 | 42% | 13 | 6 yrs13 owners | — |
| Arq Backup | 30 | 2 | 94% | 10 | — | Approved |
| KopiaThis page | 16 | 2 | 89% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Carbon Copy Cloner | 15 | 0 | 100% | 9 | — | Approved |
| BorgBackup | 12 | 1 | 92% | 6 | — | Approved |
What people said
21 of the 23 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I then tested restore vis kopia desktop onto my desktop to validate restore works.”
“Kopia is better for maybe less advanced user as it gives them GUI to click on”
“IMO it's harder to configure if you have your own declarative config tooling”
“it insists on keeping local config which makes scripting a bit more involved”
“There are actually really good free backup solutions, like kopia.io. Tried a couple of paid ones first because I didn't know about them, but this is even better”
“Failed for me with absolutely cryptic error messages during repo init both times I tried it”
“It is Apache-licensed and you can try it locally.”
“Can recommend all three highly; the latter two are FOSS.”
“using retention-mode: compliance as ransomware protection”
“use restic or kopia to back it up to cheap object storage”
“I use Kopia for that, one repository on an external SSD and another on Backblaze”
“certainly way faster than Kopia on restore”
“Gave up and moved on to Kopia.”
“Reliable for me is Kopia from Mac to S3 compatible volume (minio) on Synology.”
“restic or kopia are better for proper backups”
“Borg/Kopia if you want GUI-driven restores for non-technical members of your family”
“restic and kopia should work decently, if with a bit of setup”
“Kopia(to avoid fussing with Borg's community NAS package)”
“something better like Kopia”
“need backup software with multiple backup locations, it will know how to recheck integrity”
“stuff like restic or kopia backups nicely to it”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.