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BorgBase vs SimpleBackups

SEPT 2026 audit

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

Updated 11 criteria comparedSources last checked

The short answer

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

Choose SimpleBackups if…

Backing up many different things on a schedule you choose and being told when one stops working: 5 jobs at $49 a month rising to 100 at $299, with unlimited storage of your own alongside whatever the plan includes.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Consider something else if…

  • 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.
  • SimpleBackups: You protect one or two things. The free plan allows a single job with 1 GB, and the next step is $49 — Snapshooter covers three resources for $14 and five times that for $39.

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

Visit BorgBase documentationVisit SimpleBackups 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.

CriterionBorgBaseSimpleBackups
Pricing
Free tierYesYes
What the free plan includes10 GB across 2 repositories, free forever rather than a trial, with no API or data transfer charges on top.The Basic plan at $0: one backup job and 1 GB of included storage, with your own storage connectable without limit.
Entry paid plan
$2 a month, sold as $24 a year billed annually for the Small plan, which includes 250 GB and 10 repositories.
$49 a month for Lite, which includes 5 backup jobs, 50 GB of storage and a floor of 12 hours between runs.
Pricing modelPer 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.Per backup job, in plan-sized blocks of 1, 5, 20 and 100, with storage included at each step and unlimited bring-your-own storage alongside it. The tier also sets how often a job may run — 12 hours, 1 hour, then 5 minutes — so the plan buys recovery point objective as much as it buys capacity.

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

BorgBase
10 GB across 2 repositories, free forever rather than a trial, with no API or data transfer charges on top.
SimpleBackups
The Basic plan at $0: one backup job and 1 GB of included storage, with your own storage connectable without limit.
Sources (2) →

Entry paid plan

BorgBase
$2 a month, sold as $24 a year billed annually for the Small plan, which includes 250 GB and 10 repositories.
SimpleBackups
$49 a month for Lite, which includes 5 backup jobs, 50 GB of storage and a floor of 12 hours between runs.
Sources (2) →

Pricing model

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.
SimpleBackups
Per backup job, in plan-sized blocks of 1, 5, 20 and 100, with storage included at each step and unlimited bring-your-own storage alongside it. The tier also sets how often a job may run — 12 hours, 1 hour, then 5 minutes — so the plan buys recovery point objective as much as it buys capacity.
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.

Egress over allowanceBorgBase: None. Neither API calls nor data transfer are charged for, so a restore costs only the time.
RegionsBorgBase: EU and US, and a single account can hold repositories in both at once rather than choosing one at signup.
Backup retentionSimpleBackups: Customer-defined on every paid tier, described only as flexible retention and schedule rather than as a fixed number of days.
Storage priceBorgBase: $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.
Multi-factor authenticationBorgBase: Supported
SOC 2SimpleBackups: Listed as a feature of the $299 Max plan rather than as a property of the company, which is an unusual way to present an attestation and is recorded as the page frames it.
Customer-managed keysBorgBase: Yes, and not optionally: Borg encrypts client-side with a key BorgBase never holds, so the provider cannot read a repository it stores.
04.

Questions this comparison answers.

Entry paid plan: BorgBase or SimpleBackups?

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

SimpleBackups: $49 a month for Lite, which includes 5 backup jobs, 50 GB of storage and a floor of 12 hours between runs.

Should I choose BorgBase or SimpleBackups?

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.

Pick SimpleBackups if Backing up many different things on a schedule you choose and being told when one stops working: 5 jobs at $49 a month rising to 100 at $299, with unlimited storage of your own alongside whatever the plan includes.

Provider pages

BorgBaseHosted repositories for Borg and Restic, billed on stored data after compression and deduplication.SimpleBackupsManaged backup automation for servers, databases and storage, billed by the number of backup jobs.

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Every page here is sourced and dated.