Open-source backup software compared

Bareos is the only one of the three with a paid subscription that changes what you install. Bareos is licensed under AGPLv3 without open-core restrictions, so the community code is complete. What a subscription adds is tested packages for major Linux distributions, Windows and macOS through subscription repositories that keep the complete version history, plus subscription-only plugins. Those repositories are separate from the public community download repository, and a subscription is a prerequisite for Bareos support. Prices are set by quote. Before you commit, confirm which plugins you need (for example, for your hypervisors or databases) and whether they sit behind the subscription, because that decides whether a paid agreement is needed at all for your workloads.

Proxmox Backup Server sells support levels, not features. Its subscriptions are listed per server per year at 560 euros (Community), 1,120 euros (Basic), 2,240 euros (Standard) and 4,480 euros (Premium), each including unlimited backup storage and clients and access to the Enterprise Repository. Proxmox states that every feature is available at every level. The tiers differ only in ticket allowance and response time: Basic includes 5 tickets a year with a one business day response, Standard 15 tickets with a 4-hour critical response, and Premium unlimited tickets with a 2-hour critical response. Count your servers, not your backup volume, when you estimate this recurring cost, and decide how fast a critical response must be before you pick a tier. Check the Proxmox Backup Server pricing page for current terms.

Velero has no vendor subscription in the supplied facts, so confirm the support path before you rely on it. Velero is Apache-2.0 licensed and its cost is the infrastructure it runs on: object storage for the backup target, snapshot capacity, and the people who operate it. Ask whether your Kubernetes distribution or storage vendor offers commercial support for Velero, and who would answer a restore failure at 2 a.m. The license alone rarely decides total cost for any of the three. Licenses cost nothing to acquire, so the recurring spend is usually support hours, storage, test restores and staff time. Put all three into one written quote or internal estimate, and include restore testing, which is the cost most often left out.

Velero File System Backup is the option to check carefully before you rely on it, because its limits are different from snapshot-based backup. Velero can protect persistent volumes in two ways: through snapshots on supported block storage and CSI drivers, or through File System Backup, which moves data with modules from the open-source Kopia backup tool. The documented constraints of File System Backup are that it supports only object storage as the backup target, and that the target must be S3-compatible for providers not explicitly listed. It does not support hostPath volumes, it needs root and sometimes privileged node-agent pods, and it backs up the live file system, which is less consistent than a snapshot. It also only works on volumes mounted by a running pod, so unmounted PVCs need a staging pod to be backed up at all.

The encryption caveat is the most serious item in this section. Velero's documentation warns that File System Backup uses a static, common encryption key, so anyone with access to the backup storage can decrypt the backup data. Treat the backup bucket as sensitive material: restrict who can read it, limit the credentials the node-agent uses, and check whether your bucket provider offers server-side encryption and access logging that fit your policy. Confirm the current key handling in the Velero documentation for the version you deploy, since the key model is a decision you cannot change later without a new backup set.

Before you choose File System Backup, check whether your cluster can take volume snapshots. Confirm that your storage provider has a CSI driver with a VolumeSnapshotClass available, and test a restore of a snapshotted volume in a non-production cluster. Snapshots avoid most of the node-agent privilege requirements and give a more consistent point in time. Use File System Backup only for volumes where snapshots are unavailable, and document the exception, including the node-agent permissions, the staging pod pattern for unmounted claims and the encryption model. Your security and compliance reviewers will need that record, and so will the team that restores under pressure.

Confirm the commercial terms before you size a backup estate, because the open-source code is only part of what you may pay for. Bareos is AGPL-3.0 without open-core restrictions, but its subscription repositories, tested packages and subscription-only plugins are separate from the public community repository, and prices are by quote. Ask Bareos which plugins for your hypervisors and databases sit behind the subscription, whether your target Linux distributions are covered by the tested packages, and what support term the quote includes. For Proxmox Backup Server, every feature is available at every subscription level, so the question is support fit. Compare the per-server, per-year prices with the Community, Basic, Standard and Premium support entitlements, including ticket allowance and critical response time, against how fast your team needs a human when a restore fails. Proxmox's published figures are the starting point, and you should confirm them on the current pricing page before you budget.

For Velero, support is not a single vendor contract. Confirm with your Kubernetes distribution, storage vendor or any commercial Velero support provider which support options apply to your environment. Then test snapshot driver compatibility on your own clusters: check whether your CSI drivers and block storage support volume snapshots, because File System Backup is the fallback and carries its own limits, including a static common encryption key and reduced consistency. Set retention and restore testing requirements before you buy anything. Decide how long each backup class must be kept, where the copies live, who can decrypt them, and how often you will perform a full restore to a clean environment, then ask every vendor how their tooling supports those steps. DeployOpen does not publish prices. A quote follows a written scope that names the platforms, data volumes, retention rules and restore tests you need, so bring this list to the scoping call.