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Tarsnap vs BorgBackup: catalog facts
Tarsnap	BorgBackup
Paid Prepaid usage billing at $0.25 per GB-month stored and $0.25 per GB transferred, with no…	Free Free and open source, with no paid edition.
macOS, Linux, Command line	Linux, macOS, Command line
Client-side encryption with keys only you hold Deduplication uploads only changed data	Content-defined chunking that survives files being renamed, moved or shifted around Authenticated AES encryption, so an untrusted backup server only ever sees ciphertext
Command line only, with no graphical interface No native Windows client, only Cygwin or WSL	Primarily a Unix tool; on Windows it needs WSL or Cygwin rather than a native build Borg 2 is still in beta, ships breaking changes between betas and should not hold production backups
Downloadable app, Hosted service	Downloadable app
Closed source	Open source
License not stated	License: BSD-2-Clause
Account needed	No account needed
Needs internet	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 20, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.