Kopia vs Velero
Kopia and Velero are both backup software. Kopia is open source under Apache-2.0, with 15k GitHub stars. Velero is open source under Apache-2.0, with 10k GitHub stars.
Which to pick
- Pick Kopia when
- You want restic-style backups with a GUI and built-in scheduling, for desktops or small servers.
- Pick Velero when
- You run Kubernetes in production and need cluster-level disaster recovery or migration.
Side by side
A backup tool for Windows, macOS and Linux with encrypted, compressed, deduplicated snapshots to local or cloud storage, with both a CLI and a desktop GUI.
Backs up and restores Kubernetes cluster resources and persistent volumes, and migrates workloads between clusters, using object storage and volume snapshots.
Still pre-1.0 in version numbering, and its repository format is specific to Kopia.
Restores need rehearsal, and volume backup behaviour depends on your storage provider's snapshot support.
Production-ready (both)
Desktop app, command line and self-hosted server
Self-hosted server and command line
Go, React and Electron
Go and Kubernetes
Open source, Apache-2.0 (permissive) (both)
You can build it into a product you sell, as long as you keep its copyright notice. (both)
15k GitHub stars
10k GitHub stars
Established: started 11 years ago, latest release v0.23.1.
Established: started 9 years ago, latest release v1.18.4.
Other comparisons
More backup software
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-03 from each project's README and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.