About Zerobyte
Zerobyte is a backup automation tool for self-hosters, built on top of Restic. It adds a web interface for scheduling, managing and monitoring encrypted backups of remote storage, so Restic's capabilities can be used without hand-writing scripts and cron jobs.
Backups are encrypted, compressed and kept according to retention policies, with flexible scheduling for automated jobs and fine-grained retention rules. Data can be backed up from several protocols, including NFS, SMB, WebDAV, SFTP and local directories. The README says the full documentation, with setup guides and configuration reference, is on zerobyte.app.
Zerobyte runs with Docker and Docker Compose using the provided compose file. It is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and still at version 0.x, so the authors warn of major changes between versions. They also advise against exposing it directly to the internet, recommending a localhost port mapping with a secure tunnel, and against pointing its data directory to a network share.
Key features
- Web interface for Restic backups
- Scheduled backup jobs
- Encryption, compression and retention policies
- Backup from NFS, SMB, WebDAV and SFTP
- Monitoring of backup status
- Docker Compose deployment
Good fit for
- →Backing up NAS shares to remote storage
- →Scheduling encrypted homelab backups
- →Managing Restic without the command line
- Built with
- TypeScript
- Tags
- backup
- restic
- self-hosted
- encryption
- scheduling
- docker
- homelab
- nas
Zerobyte: questions and answers
- What is Zerobyte used for?
- Zerobyte is a web control plane built on Restic that schedules, manages and monitors encrypted backups from NFS, SMB, WebDAV, SFTP and local sources. It is a good fit for backing up NAS shares to remote storage, scheduling encrypted homelab backups and managing Restic without the command line.
- Is Zerobyte open source?
- Yes. Zerobyte is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at nicotsx/zerobyte and is written mainly in TypeScript.
- Is Zerobyte free?
- Yes. Zerobyte is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
- Can I self-host Zerobyte?
- Yes. Zerobyte can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
- What is Zerobyte an alternative to?
- Zerobyte is an open-source alternative to Acronis Cyber Protect, Veeam, Druva and Commvault. Other open-source alternatives to Acronis Cyber Protect include Kopia, Bareos and Duplicati.
- Is Zerobyte actively maintained?
- Yes. The most recent commit to Zerobyte was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v0.43.1, published on 27 September 2026. The project has 7k stars on GitHub.
Open-source alternatives to Zerobyte
See all
Kopia
File Storage & Sharing
Cross-platform backup tool for Windows, macOS & Linux with fast, incremental backups, clie
Apache-2.0vs Backblaze Computer Backup★ 14k
Bareos
File Storage & Sharing
Bareos is a cross-network Open Source backup solution (licensed under AGPLv3) which preser
OSSvs Veeam★ 1.3k
restic
File Storage & Sharing
Fast, secure, efficient backup program
BSD-2-Clausevs CrashPlan★ 36k
BorgBackup
File Storage & Sharing
Deduplicating archiver with compression and authenticated encryption.
OSSvs Backblaze Computer Backup★ 14k
Duplicati
File Storage & Sharing
Store securely encrypted backups in the cloud!
OSSvs Backblaze Computer Backup★ 15kBackrest
File Storage & Sharing
Backrest is a web UI and orchestrator for restic backup.
GPL-3.0vs Backblaze Computer Backup★ 7.4k
SaaS alternatives to Zerobyte
See all
Acronis Cyber Protect
File Storage & Sharing
Backup, disaster recovery and endpoint protection combined in one agent
SaaS
Veeam
File Storage & Sharing
Backup and recovery software for virtual, cloud and physical workloads
SaaS
Druva
File Storage & Sharing
Cloud-native data protection and backup SaaS for endpoints, servers and SaaS apps
SaaS
Commvault
File Storage & Sharing
Enterprise data protection and cyber resilience platform for backup and recovery
SaaSCohesity
File Storage & Sharing
Data security and management platform with backup, recovery and ransomware protection
SaaS
Rubrik
File Storage & Sharing
Data security platform for backup, cyber recovery and identity resilience
SaaS

