XDA published a piece this week from an admin who ran a home server for a year with no real backups. One drive died. Everything went with it. The follow-up was a quick, unflashy conversion to the 3-2-1 rule: three copies of your data, on two types of media, with at least one copy offsite. The rule is old, the reason it survives is that it works. The hard part is picking apps that actually make it real on a home server, without turning the setup into a second job. We tested eight for the 2026 refresh.
What to look for in a 3-2-1 backup app
The rule maps to three questions. Match your tool set to the three answers:
- Local, fast snapshots. How often do you want a rollback point on the machine or NAS itself? Hourly is normal for a homelab, and the tool has to be quick enough that you barely notice it running.
- A second copy on different media. A NAS is not a backup of another NAS in the same rack. Something has to leave the primary storage: a USB drive, a second NAS, a Pi with rotating disks, anything.
- Offsite. The one that survives a fire or a burglary. Practical picks are a cloud object store (Backblaze B2, Wasabi, S3), a friend’s Raspberry Pi over Tailscale, or a rotated drive kept at work.
- Encryption before it leaves the box. Everything that goes offsite has to be encrypted client-side. That is not negotiable.
- A verified restore. The tool has to make it easy to actually pull data back. A backup you have never tested is a backup you do not have.
- Retention that thins over time. Grandfather-Father-Son or something similar. Storage does not stay cheap if you keep everything forever.
Quick comparison
| App | Best for | Free plan | Platforms | Standout feature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Borgmatic | Local, fast, deduplicated snapshots | Fully free (open source) | Linux, macOS | Wraps Borg with YAML config and scheduling |
| Restic | Offsite cloud backups | Fully free (open source) | Windows, macOS, Linux | Native S3, B2, Azure, GCS, Swift backends |
| Kopia | Modern deduped local + cloud in one tool | Fully free (open source) | Windows, macOS, Linux | Web UI, policy-based scheduling |
| Duplicati | Windows-first cloud target | Fully free (open source) | Windows, macOS, Linux | Browser dashboard, 20+ cloud backends |
| Proxmox Backup Server | VM and container-native homelabs | Fully free (community) | Linux | Native Proxmox VE, incremental dirty-bitmap |
| Sanoid | ZFS snapshot policy + replication | Fully free (open source) | Linux, FreeBSD | Snapshot pruning + Syncoid zfs send |
| rclone | Glue between local and cloud | Fully free (open source) | Windows, macOS, Linux | 70+ cloud providers, mount, bidirectional sync |
| Syncthing | Peer-to-peer second copy | Fully free (open source) | Windows, macOS, Linux | No cloud dependency, LAN-first |
The 8 apps
1. Borgmatic — best for local hourly snapshots
Borgmatic wraps BorgBackup in a config file and a scheduler, and Borg is the reason it belongs here. Borg dedupes at the chunk level, compresses with zstd or lz4, and encrypts client-side, and in most benchmarks it finishes faster than Restic on the same dataset. Borgmatic adds YAML config, systemd timer templates, and pre/post hooks for database dumps.
Where it falls short: Windows support runs through WSL only. The remote target has to be an SSH-reachable Borg repo, so no native S3 or B2 backend.
Pricing:
- Free: fully open source, no paid tier
- Paid: none
Platforms: Linux, macOS (Windows via WSL)
Download: Borgmatic docs · Borg repo
Bottom line: The one to run on the server itself for the “3 copies” and “2 media types” legs.
2. Restic — best for offsite cloud backups
Restic is the terminal-first pick for the offsite leg. It writes to S3, Backblaze B2, Wasabi, Azure Blob, GCS, and Swift natively, uses client-side encryption by default, and the repository format is stable and well-documented. Add resticprofile if you want scheduling and multiple profiles per host.
Where it falls short: No compression, which shows up when you back up compressible data like logs. The single-file binary is nice; the learning curve for pruning policies is not.
Pricing:
- Free: fully open source
- Paid: none
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux
Download: Restic on GitHub
Bottom line: The right pick for the offsite leg to a cloud object store.
3. Kopia — best modern all-in-one deduplicated backup
Kopia is the newer of the deduped backup tools and it shows in the UI. There is a proper web dashboard, snapshot policies attach to paths rather than to hosts, and the same tool can write to a local repo and to B2 in the same run. Compression is on by default. Cross-platform support is real, including a signed Windows installer.
Where it falls short: The repository format has churned a few times over the years, so long-running installs occasionally need repo upgrades. Bug reports still land regularly, which is normal for a project still growing.
Pricing:
- Free: fully open source
- Paid: none
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux
Download: Kopia releases
Bottom line: The right pick if you want one tool to cover both the local and offsite legs.
4. Duplicati — best for Windows-first setups
Duplicati ships a web UI, a Windows installer, and support for 20+ cloud backends. The 2.1 release cycle stabilised a lot of the older issues around database corruption, and the app is popular with homelabbers who do not want to live in a terminal. Client-side encryption is on by default.
Where it falls short: The database can still get into odd states after a hard shutdown. Read the release notes before upgrading, and back the config database up separately.
Pricing:
- Free: fully open source
- Paid: none
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux
Download: Duplicati downloads
Bottom line: The right pick for a Windows-first home server or a household member who will actually check on it.
5. Proxmox Backup Server — best for Proxmox VE homelabs
Proxmox Backup Server is the free companion to Proxmox VE, and it uses dirty-bitmap tracking to run truly incremental backups on running VMs and LXC containers. The web UI is Proxmox-familiar, retention policies attach to backup groups, and verify jobs walk chunks and confirm they are readable.
Where it falls short: Only makes sense if your homelab is Proxmox-based. Standalone use for regular file backups is possible but awkward.
Pricing:
- Free: community edition, full features
- Paid: enterprise subscription for supported repos and priority support
Platforms: Linux (dedicated appliance install)
Download: Proxmox Backup Server
Bottom line: The right pick if you already run Proxmox VE. Nothing else fits its workflow this cleanly.
6. Sanoid — best for ZFS-based servers
Sanoid manages ZFS snapshot retention on a policy, and its companion Syncoid replicates snapshots between machines with zfs send. If your data lives on ZFS, this is the fastest, cheapest way to make the “3 copies” leg real, because ZFS snapshots are effectively free and Syncoid moves only the deltas.
Where it falls short: ZFS only. Not a backup tool for file-level restore; snapshots are dataset-wide.
Pricing:
- Free: fully open source
- Paid: none
Platforms: Linux, FreeBSD
Download: Sanoid on GitHub
Bottom line: The right pick if you are running TrueNAS SCALE or a ZFS root on Linux.
7. rclone — best for pushing anything to any cloud
rclone is the swiss-army knife of cloud sync. Seventy-plus providers, mount support, bidirectional bisync, and a crypt remote that layers client-side encryption on any backend that does not do its own. It is not a full backup tool on its own (no dedup, no versioning), but paired with Borg or Restic it becomes the transport layer for the offsite leg.
Where it falls short: Not a backup tool. Do not rely on rclone sync as a backup, because it happily deletes destination files that no longer exist at the source.
Pricing:
- Free: fully open source
- Paid: none
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux
Download: rclone downloads
Bottom line: The right pick as glue: pair it with a real backup tool and use it to move encrypted repos to the cheapest cloud.
8. Syncthing — best for peer-to-peer second copies
Syncthing replicates folders between machines you control, over LAN or over the internet. It is the second copy that costs nothing extra: point it at a spare drive in another room, at a friend’s Pi behind Tailscale, or at a NAS at a family member’s house. No cloud account, no monthly bill, no third party in the loop.
Where it falls short: Not backup software. Versioning is optional and limited; if you overwrite a file, the overwrite propagates.
Pricing:
- Free: fully open source
- Paid: none
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux (and Android)
Download: Syncthing downloads
Bottom line: The right pick for the “different physical location” leg when the cloud costs feel steep.
How to pick the right combination
The rule needs a stack, not a single app. A typical home server 3-2-1 setup looks like this:
- On the server: Borgmatic to a local Borg repo on the same box, hourly.
- On a second machine: A pull job that runs Borg through SSH from a Pi with a rotating USB drive, daily. Sanoid + Syncoid instead if the data lives on ZFS.
- Offsite: Restic to Backblaze B2, weekly. Or rclone-crypt piping a Borg archive to Wasabi if you want to keep the same primary tool.
If your server is Proxmox, swap the local layer for Proxmox Backup Server and keep Restic or Borg for the offsite leg.
If you are on Windows and do not want a terminal, Duplicati handles the local + offsite legs with a UI. Kopia does the same, better, if you are willing to touch a browser dashboard.
If any of the tools intimidate you, start with Kopia. It is the one that will least punish you for skipping a manual page.
FAQ
What does the 3-2-1 rule actually mean? Three copies of your data, on two different types of media, with at least one copy offsite. The point is that no single failure (a drive dying, a fire, a ransomware event) takes out every copy.
Is a RAID array a backup? No. RAID protects against drive failure; it does not protect against deletion, corruption, ransomware, or fire. Treat it as availability, not backup.
How often should I test restores? Quarterly is a reasonable minimum. Do a full restore of a real file to a spare machine and open it. Anything less is trust, not verification.
Do I need encryption if my server is at home? For the offsite copy, yes, always. For the local copy, whenever the storage might leave the house (rotated drives, a NAS you sell later).
Is Backblaze B2 the cheapest offsite option? For most home servers under a few TB, yes. Wasabi is close, with slightly different egress economics. rsync.net’s Borg service is a great option if you want a target that speaks Borg natively.
