Duplicati is a backup client that creates encrypted, incremental, block-based copies of your files and sends them to local drives, network shares, or cloud services, so individuals and administrators can protect data without paying storage lock-in fees.
Duplicati is a backup client that stores encrypted, incremental, compressed copies of your files on local disks, network shares, and cloud storage services. Instead of duplicating whole folders, it splits files into blocks, encrypts each block locally with AES-256, and Duplicati uploads only the new or changed blocks, so repeated backup runs stay small even for large media libraries. You create a job in a browser-based interface, choose source folders and a destination, pick a schedule, and add filters or retention rules. The same console also handles restore, verification, and reporting, giving individuals and administrators a practical way to keep dependable off-site versions without changing how they work.
Backup jobs are independent, so one machine can protect documents hourly and archival footage nightly under separate schedules, destinations, and retention policies. Duplicati keeps a local database of block metadata, which lets it list versions and prepare restores without downloading the entire archive first; if that database is lost, Duplicati can rebuild it from the remote files. Remote verification periodically downloads random archive volumes and checks their integrity, catching silent corruption before a recovery attempt fails. Anyone weighing alternatives can compare it with KopiaUI, which takes a snapshot-based approach to the same problem. Command-line support, email notifications, and pre- and post-run scripts make unattended operation realistic on servers and NAS boxes.
The main benefit of Duplicati is control over where your backups live and what they cost: you point it at storage you already pay for, and it adapts to providers that speak S3, WebDAV, FTP, SFTP, or plain disks. Encryption happens on your machine before anything leaves it, so a compromised or curious provider sees only opaque volumes. Block-level deduplication and compression keep growth gradual, and because every version is self-contained, restoring an older file does not mean replaying a chain of incremental sets. With Duplicati, scheduled jobs run unattended, retry after network failures, and resume interrupted transfers instead of starting over, which matters on slow uplinks. Automatic verification and detailed logs turn silent storage corruption into a fixable warning, and the compact local database keeps browsing and restoring fast. For mixed environments, the same tool covers a laptop, a home NAS, and a Linux server, which reduces training and keeps one recovery procedure for everything.
Manage every job from a web interface that runs locally or on a headless machine, so you can configure, start, pause, and inspect backups from another computer on the network. Status pages show progress, timing, and warnings in plain language, which makes remote administration of NAS devices and servers realistic without a desktop session.
Files are split into blocks and stored once, so duplicate data and renamed or moved folders consume almost no extra space. Because each version is complete on its own, you can pick any recovery point and restore it directly, without replaying a chain of incremental sets to rebuild a file.
Backup data is compressed and encrypted before it leaves your machine, so the destination never receives readable files and your passphrase never reaches the storage provider. You can add a separate credential for the storage account, decide whether file names are encrypted too, and restore only with the original key.
The built-in scheduler runs jobs on simple intervals or calendar rules such as every third Monday, and it catches up on runs missed while a machine was powered off. Retention policies then delete sets older than a chosen number of days, weeks, months, or years, keeping archives inside your storage budget.
Point backups at local drives, USB disks, network shares, or providers such as Amazon S3, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Azure Blob, Backblaze B2, Storj, SFTP, WebDAV, and FTP-family services. Spreading jobs across several destinations makes a 3-2-1 strategy practical without depending on one vendor.
Duplicati can download random archive volumes on a schedule, restore their contents, and compare hashes to confirm the backup is actually readable. If problems appear, repair options rebuild the local database or salvage usable data, so you learn about storage corruption long before a real recovery attempt is needed.
Rule-based filters include or exclude paths, file types, and sizes, which keeps caches, temporary folders, and virtual machine images out of the archive. On Windows, volume shadow copy snapshots allow locked files such as databases and mail stores to be captured consistently, with comparable snapshot support available on Linux systems.
Every function in the graphical console is exposed through the command-line tool, so jobs can run from scripts, scheduled tasks, and configuration management. Pre- and post-run hooks trigger your own scripts, while notification options send email or HTTP reports whenever a backup completes, warns, or fails.
Duplicati creates block-based backups: files are split into small chunks, compressed, encrypted, and stored as archive volumes at the destination. Only changed blocks are uploaded on later runs, so the process behaves incrementally while every restore point remains complete and usable on its own.
Yes. Duplicati connects to many cloud and network targets, including Amazon S3, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Azure Blob, Backblaze B2, Storj, SFTP, WebDAV, and FTP-family services, as well as local disks and shared folders. You choose the destination per job, so different folders can go to different providers.
Yes. Data is compressed and encrypted with AES-256 on your own machine before it is uploaded, and the passphrase never leaves your computer. The storage provider receives only encrypted volumes, so a compromised or untrusted account does not expose the contents of your files.
Neither. It backs up selected files and folders rather than whole volumes including boot sectors, and it stores block-based archives instead of mirroring files in place at the destination. If you need bare-metal system recovery or files that are readable directly on the target drive, an imaging or synchronization tool suits that job better.
The scheduler detects that a run did not happen and starts it as soon as the machine is available again, so a laptop that was switched off still gets protected later. Interrupted transfers also resume where they stopped, which prevents long uploads over unreliable connections from restarting from the beginning.
Open the job in the web interface, choose a restore point, browse or search the file tree, and select the items you need. Files can be written back to their original locations or into a different folder, and individual versions can be picked, which is useful after accidental edits or deletions.
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