BorgBackup — The Complete Guide: Deduplicated, Encrypted Backup over SSH

BorgBackup is a command-line backup tool for Linux and macOS. It splits files into chunks and stores each identical chunk only once, across files and over time. As a result, a daily backup of a large projects folder adds very little space, and the remote server only ever sees encrypted data.

BorgBackup

The Borg Collective

Command-line backup with deduplication, compression and encryption, to a local disk or a server over SSH.

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What you get

Deduplication — many versions of the same files at almost no extra size.
Compression and encryption — data is encrypted before it reaches the server.
Repository over SSH — a USB disk, a NAS or a remote server, with no background service.
Archive mounting — open an old backup as a folder and pull out a single file.
Script-friendly — easy to run from cron or systemd on a server.

Who it suits — plus a security tip

It suits anyone who runs a Linux server or NAS and is comfortable in a terminal. Windows is not fully supported and there are no built-in cloud destinations; if you want a graphical interface, Vorta sits on top of it. Tip: export the repository key and store it with the passphrase in a separate place — without both you cannot restore — and check the repository from time to time.

Related tools

For a graphical interface on top of Borg — Vorta. For a similar engine that also supports Windows and cloud storage — restic. For deduplicated backup with its own interface — Kopia.