What Is Duplicati? A Free, Open-Source Backup Tool With Zero Vendor Lock-In

Updated

Duplicati is a free, open-source backup solution that creates zero-trust, fully encrypted backups and stores them wherever you choose — major cloud providers, your own servers, or local hardware. It fits you best if you want encrypted backups without being locked into a single storage vendor, and you're comfortable managing backup configuration yourself or through a central console.

What Duplicati actually does

At its core, Duplicati encrypts your data before it leaves your machine, then sends it to a storage destination you control. The website describes this as "zero-trust, fully encrypted backups," meaning the storage provider never needs to see your data in a readable form.

The key idea behind the product is Bring Your Own Storage (BYOS). Duplicati doesn't sell you storage and doesn't charge storage or bandwidth fees — you pick the provider or hardware, and Duplicati follows. That's what "zero vendor lock-in" means in practice: switching storage backends doesn't mean rebuilding your backup strategy from scratch.

Where you can send backups

Duplicati supports a range of storage environments, so you can match the destination to your cost, compliance, or performance needs.

Direction Example destinations
On-prem to cloud AWS S3, Azure Blob Storage, Wasabi Hot Storage, Backblaze B2
Cloud to on-prem Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, or S3 buckets backed up to an on-prem SAN or private S3 cluster
Local to local Network-attached storage over SFTP or SMB, keeping traffic on the internal network

It also lists S3, WebDAV, SFTP, and local hardware as supported storage types managed from a single console.

Who it's built for

Duplicati targets two broad groups:

  • Individuals — people who want encrypted backups to cloud or local storage without paying a storage markup.
  • Enterprises — teams that need centralized control across many machines.

For the enterprise side, the site highlights:

  • Multi-site and departmental management — global admins can delegate local backup management to regional IT staff.
  • Silent, agent-based deployment — agents run in the background and aren't accessible on the host.
  • Centralized backup policies — configure a backup once and push it to multiple clients instantly.

This separation matters if you need clean boundaries between departments without adding overhead.

What to check before you commit

A few things are worth confirming on your own, since the source material doesn't cover them:

  • Pricing details — the site has a Pricing page, but the excerpt doesn't state which tiers are free versus paid. Check that page directly if cost matters to your decision.
  • Your specific storage backend — confirm your provider or hardware is on the supported list before planning a migration.
  • Your encryption and key management requirements — "zero-trust, fully encrypted" tells you data is encrypted client-side, but you should verify how keys are handled for your compliance needs.

The short version

Duplicati is a free, open-source backup engine for people who want encrypted backups and the freedom to choose their own storage. If you value avoiding vendor lock-in and are willing to manage configuration, it covers cloud-to-cloud, on-prem-to-cloud, and local-to-local scenarios from one console. If you need a fully managed, storage-included service, that's a different category of tool — and you'd want to compare it against Duplicati's BYOS model on cost and control.