head to head · open source
Plakar vs Pluton
Plakar has 2,062 GitHub stars, 92 forks, 123 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Pluton has 787 stars, 31 forks, 5 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. Plakar leads on adoption by 162% (2,062 vs 787 stars). Plakar is written in Go under ISC; Pluton is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Plakar has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, Pluton 4%. Plakar was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Plakar | Pluton | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 2.1K | ★ 787 |
| License | ISC | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 92 | ⑂ 31 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Plakar if
- You weight community size — 2.1K stars and counting
- You want the ISC license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Pluton if
- You want the Pluton feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Pluton fits your workflow better
About Plakar
Plakar is an open source backup engine written in Go for the infrastructure and operations ecosystem. It is powered by Kloset, an immutable data store, and it uses the ptar format for self contained archives. Plakar creates snapshots of data, stores them in encrypted and deduplicated repositories, and lets users inspect, verify, and restore the snapshots later.
read the full Plakar overview →
About Pluton
Pluton is an Apache 2.0 licensed, self hosted backup management platform written in TypeScript. It lives in the backup and recovery ecosystem, and it uses Restic for encrypted incremental backups and Rclone for cloud storage connectivity. The project provides a web interface for creating, scheduling, monitoring, and restoring backup jobs across local and remote storage destinations.
read the full Pluton overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
Frequently asked questions
Is Plakar or Pluton more popular?
Plakar has 2,062 GitHub stars and Pluton has 787. Plakar has the larger community by that measure.
Are Plakar and Pluton free?
Both are open source. Plakar is licensed under ISC and Pluton under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Plakar and Pluton?
Plakar is written in Go and Pluton in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Plakar or Pluton?
Choose Plakar if you want the larger community (2,062 stars) or its ISC licence terms. Choose Pluton if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.