What is Bareos used for?

Bareos is open-source backup and recovery software for mixed IT environments, with disk, tape and S3 storage and a web interface. It is a good fit for backing up mixed Linux and Windows server fleets, and tape and object storage backup strategies.

Is Bareos open source?

Yes. Bareos is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at bareos/bareos and is written mainly in C++.

Yes. Bareos is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence. Paid plans are also available, starting at €1,080 per year.

Can I self-host Bareos?

Yes. Bareos can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.

What is Bareos an alternative to?

Bareos is an open-source alternative to Veeam, Acronis Cyber Protect, Druva and Commvault. Other open-source alternatives to Veeam include Kopia, Zerobyte and restic.

Is Bareos actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Bareos was on 2 October 2026. The project has 1.3k stars on GitHub.

Bareos: open-source alternative to Veeam

About Bareos

Bareos is backup and recovery software for mixed IT environments. It helps organizations back up, restore and manage data across networks, operating systems, storage targets and workloads. The project is licensed under AGPLv3, and the README says it follows an open-source approach without open-core restrictions. Supported systems include Linux, Windows, FreeBSD and macOS.

The architecture is designed for many clients, storage daemons and backup targets across a network. Backups can go to disk, tape or S3-compatible object storage, in a format that suits deduplicating filesystems such as ZFS, VDO and btrfs, and a tool called bdedupestimate helps estimate the benefit. Always Incremental backups are available for file-based data, and a catalog with the WebUI helps teams find and restore the right data.

Administration is scriptable through bconsole and command-line tools, with the Bareos WebUI as a graphical alternative. Role-based ACLs control commands and objects, and encryption covers communication and backups. Plugins extend support to virtual environments, databases and specialized workloads, including VMware vSphere, Hyper-V and Proxmox. It is written in C++ and Python.

Key features

Backup to disk, tape and S3 storage
Always Incremental backup scheme
Catalog and WebUI for controlled restores
Role-based access control lists
Encrypted communication and backups
Plugins for VMware, Hyper-V and Proxmox
Scriptable administration through bconsole

Good fit for

→Backing up mixed Linux and Windows server fleets
→Tape and object storage backup strategies

Built with: C++; Python; PostgreSQL; MySQL
Tags: backup; restore; disaster-recovery; archiving; enterprise; tape; s3; cross-platform

Bareos: questions and answers

What is Bareos used for?: Bareos is open-source backup and recovery software for mixed IT environments, with disk, tape and S3 storage and a web interface. It is a good fit for backing up mixed Linux and Windows server fleets, and tape and object storage backup strategies.
Is Bareos open source?: Yes. Bareos is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at bareos/bareos and is written mainly in C++.
Is Bareos free?: Yes. Bareos is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence. Paid plans are also available, starting at €1,080 per year.
Can I self-host Bareos?: Yes. Bareos can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What is Bareos an alternative to?: Bareos is an open-source alternative to Veeam, Acronis Cyber Protect, Druva and Commvault. Other open-source alternatives to Veeam include Kopia, Zerobyte and restic.
Is Bareos actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Bareos was on 2 October 2026. The project has 1.3k stars on GitHub.