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AWS Backup vs BorgBase

SEPT 2026 audit

A comparison of AWS Backup and BorgBase built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.

Updated 12 criteria comparedSources last checked

The short answer

Choose AWS Backup if…

Backing up AWS services from one console with nothing bought in advance. There is no minimum fee and no setup charge, and the rate is per GB-month per service, so a small estate genuinely pays a small bill.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Choose BorgBase if…

Paying for what survives compression and deduplication rather than for what you sent. Borg deduplicates client-side under a key BorgBase never holds, so the bill and the blast radius of a breach are both smaller than the data being protected.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Consider something else if…

  • AWS Backup: Your estate is not all AWS, or disaster recovery means a copy in another region. Cross-region transfer is billed as its own line where rsync.net and BorgBase charge nothing to move data at all, and anything moved to cold storage is committed for 90 days whether you keep it or not.
  • BorgBase: You are not running Borg or Restic. The product is hosting for those two tools, so anything that speaks neither — a managed database, a SaaS export, an S3 bucket — needs a service that connects to it directly rather than a repository to push into.

6 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.

Visit AWS Backup documentationVisit BorgBase documentation

No affiliate links, sponsored placements or paid rankings appear on this site. Ordering follows the sourced data and the stated criteria.

01.

At a glance.

CriterionAWS BackupBorgBase
Pricing
Free tierYesYes
What the free plan includesBackup storage free tiers exist for EBS, DocumentDB and Neptune. The pricing page names them only in passing, to say they do not apply inside a logically air-gapped vault, and never states how large they are — so the allowance is confirmed to exist here and its size is not sourced from here.10 GB across 2 repositories, free forever rather than a trial, with no API or data transfer charges on top.
Entry paid planNone. There is no minimum fee and no setup charge, so the smallest possible bill is the cost of whatever is actually stored — the only member of this category without a floor to clear.$2 a month, sold as $24 a year billed annually for the Small plan, which includes 250 GB and 10 repositories.
Pricing modelPure consumption, with no plan and no floor: backup storage held, cross-region transfer, data restored, and backup evaluations. Nothing is bought in advance, which is the opposite end of the category from the job-count and resource-count plans.Per gigabyte stored AFTER compression and deduplication, which is the distinction from every other per-GB vendor here: Borg deduplicates client-side, so the billed quantity is smaller than the data protected and there is no separate charge for the transfer that produced it.
Egress over allowanceCharged. Backup data transferred between AWS Regions is billed as its own line, so cross-region copies — the thing that makes a backup a disaster recovery plan — are not free the way they are at rsync.net and BorgBase.None. Neither API calls nor data transfer are charged for, so a restore costs only the time.
Storage
Storage price$0.05 per GB-month warm and $0.01 per GB-month cold, for EFS in us-east-1. The rate is per protected service rather than universal — EBS, RDS, Aurora and DynamoDB each carry their own — so this is one row of a table, not a headline price.$0.01 per GB per month beyond the 250 GB included on Small, falling to $7 per TB per month on Medium — the same unit quoted two ways, which works out cheaper per gigabyte on the larger plan.
Compliance
Customer-managed keysYes, through KMS. The key is configured on the backup vault rather than per backup, so the vault is the unit of key control — which also means moving a backup between vaults changes which key protects it.Yes, and not optionally: Borg encrypts client-side with a key BorgBase never holds, so the provider cannot read a repository it stores.

Only criteria both providers publish appear here; a tinted cell marks a real difference. Criteria only one of them documents are listed below, and an absence there means we found no source — not that the feature is missing. How we source this.

The small bar above a value is inetGeek's own lean toward that side — computed from the same facts shown, never a number the provider published. See the picker below "The short answer" to weigh only the criteria you care about.

02.

Where they differ.

What the free plan includes

AWS Backup
Backup storage free tiers exist for EBS, DocumentDB and Neptune. The pricing page names them only in passing, to say they do not apply inside a logically air-gapped vault, and never states how large they are — so the allowance is confirmed to exist here and its size is not sourced from here.
BorgBase
10 GB across 2 repositories, free forever rather than a trial, with no API or data transfer charges on top.
Sources (2) →

Entry paid plan

AWS Backup
None. There is no minimum fee and no setup charge, so the smallest possible bill is the cost of whatever is actually stored — the only member of this category without a floor to clear.
BorgBase
$2 a month, sold as $24 a year billed annually for the Small plan, which includes 250 GB and 10 repositories.
Sources (2) →

Pricing model

AWS Backup
Pure consumption, with no plan and no floor: backup storage held, cross-region transfer, data restored, and backup evaluations. Nothing is bought in advance, which is the opposite end of the category from the job-count and resource-count plans.
BorgBase
Per gigabyte stored AFTER compression and deduplication, which is the distinction from every other per-GB vendor here: Borg deduplicates client-side, so the billed quantity is smaller than the data protected and there is no separate charge for the transfer that produced it.
Sources (2) →
  • AWS Backup Pricing ↗

    “pay only for the backup storage you use, backup data transferred between AWS Regions, backup data you restore, and backup evaluations”

    Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing

  • BorgBase - Simple and Secure Offsite Backups ↗

    “Only pay for data stored after compression and deduplication. No other charges.”

    Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing

Egress over allowance

AWS Backup
Charged. Backup data transferred between AWS Regions is billed as its own line, so cross-region copies — the thing that makes a backup a disaster recovery plan — are not free the way they are at rsync.net and BorgBase.
BorgBase
None. Neither API calls nor data transfer are charged for, so a restore costs only the time.
Sources (2) →

Storage price

AWS Backup
$0.05 per GB-month warm and $0.01 per GB-month cold, for EFS in us-east-1. The rate is per protected service rather than universal — EBS, RDS, Aurora and DynamoDB each carry their own — so this is one row of a table, not a headline price.
BorgBase
$0.01 per GB per month beyond the 250 GB included on Small, falling to $7 per TB per month on Medium — the same unit quoted two ways, which works out cheaper per gigabyte on the larger plan.
Sources (2) →

Customer-managed keys

AWS Backup
Yes, through KMS. The key is configured on the backup vault rather than per backup, so the vault is the unit of key control — which also means moving a backup between vaults changes which key protects it.
BorgBase
Yes, and not optionally: Borg encrypts client-side with a key BorgBase never holds, so the provider cannot read a repository it stores.
Sources (2) →

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

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03.

Documented by only one.

These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing.

RegionsBorgBase: EU and US, and a single account can hold repositories in both at once rather than choosing one at signup.
Minimum storage durationAWS Backup: 90 days for anything moved to cold storage. Deleting earlier still bills the remaining days, so cold storage is a commitment rather than a cheaper shelf.
Multi-factor authenticationBorgBase: Supported
HIPAAAWS Backup: Yes. AWS Backup is named on the HIPAA Eligible Services Reference, the list of services that may handle protected health information under the AWS Business Associate Addendum. Eligibility is per-service rather than account-wide, so the list is the thing to check.
Encryption at restAWS Backup: Yes, and independently of the source: a backup can carry a different encryption method from the resource it was taken from, so an unencrypted volume can still produce an encrypted recovery point. Only resource types supporting full AWS Backup management get this; others inherit the source resource encryption.
04.

Questions this comparison answers.

Entry paid plan: AWS Backup or BorgBase?

AWS Backup: None. There is no minimum fee and no setup charge, so the smallest possible bill is the cost of whatever is actually stored — the only member of this category without a floor to clear.

BorgBase: $2 a month, sold as $24 a year billed annually for the Small plan, which includes 250 GB and 10 repositories.

Egress over allowance: AWS Backup or BorgBase?

AWS Backup: Charged. Backup data transferred between AWS Regions is billed as its own line, so cross-region copies — the thing that makes a backup a disaster recovery plan — are not free the way they are at rsync.net and BorgBase.

BorgBase: None. Neither API calls nor data transfer are charged for, so a restore costs only the time.

Should I choose AWS Backup or BorgBase?

Pick AWS Backup if Backing up AWS services from one console with nothing bought in advance. There is no minimum fee and no setup charge, and the rate is per GB-month per service, so a small estate genuinely pays a small bill.

Pick BorgBase if Paying for what survives compression and deduplication rather than for what you sent. Borg deduplicates client-side under a key BorgBase never holds, so the bill and the blast radius of a breach are both smaller than the data being protected.

Provider pages

AWS BackupA central control plane for backing up AWS services, billed per GB-month of backup storage with no plan.BorgBaseHosted repositories for Borg and Restic, billed on stored data after compression and deduplication.

Related comparisons

AWS Backup vs rsync.netAWS Backup vs SimpleBackupsAWS Backup vs SnapShooterBorgBase vs SimpleBackupsBorgBase vs SnapShooterrsync.net vs BorgBasersync.net vs SimpleBackupsrsync.net vs SnapShooter

Every page here is sourced and dated.