head to head · open source
kubernetes vs restic
kubernetes has 128,275 GitHub stars, 46,721 forks, 3,072 open issues and last shipped yesterday. restic has 36,523 stars, 1,918 forks, 622 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kubernetes leads on adoption by 251% (128,275 vs 36,523 stars). kubernetes is written in Go under Apache-2.0; restic is written in Go under BSD-2-Clause. kubernetes has attracted 36% as many forks as stars, restic 5%. restic was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (go), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| kubernetes | restic | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 128K | ★ 37K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-11 | 2026-10-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 47K | ⑂ 1.9K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick kubernetes if
- You weight community size — 128K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick restic if
- You want the restic feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and restic fits your workflow better
About kubernetes
Kubernetes (K8s) is an open source, Apache 2.0 licensed system for managing containerized applications across multiple hosts, hosted by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation and aimed at teams who deploy, maintain and scale container packaged and microservices oriented workloads in production.
read the full kubernetes overview →
About restic
restic is a fast, secure, efficient backup program written in Go for Linux, macOS, Windows, FreeBSD and OpenBSD users who want verifiable, encrypted backups stored to a backend of their choosing.
read the full restic overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is kubernetes or restic more popular?
kubernetes has 128,275 GitHub stars and restic has 36,523. kubernetes has the larger community by that measure.
Are kubernetes and restic free?
Both are open source. kubernetes is licensed under Apache-2.0 and restic under BSD-2-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between kubernetes and restic?
kubernetes is written in Go and restic in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, kubernetes or restic?
Choose kubernetes if you want the larger community (128,275 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose restic if its feature set, stack or BSD-2-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.