The short version: your data goes to storage you own, encrypted with keys
only you hold, for a one-time price. Here is how that stacks up against the big
cloud-backup services and against the other encrypted backup tools - drawn from each
product's own documentation.
vs. mainstream cloud backup
Services like Backblaze and iDrive are genuinely good at hands-off, managed backup. The
difference is the model: they hold your (encrypted) data on their cloud for a
recurring fee; Nyx puts it on storage you control, and never sees it.
Nyx Backup
Backblaze Personal
iDrive
Where your data lives
Storage you own (13 backends + any S3-compatible)
Backblaze's cloud
iDrive's cloud
Who can hold your data
Only you
Backblaze (encrypted)
iDrive (encrypted)
Cost model
Buy once + your own storage
Subscription (~$99/yr, 1 computer, unlimited)
Subscription (storage tiers, ~$79.50/yr for 5 TB)
Zero-knowledge on restore
Key never leaves your machine
Private key, but sent to Backblaze to decrypt for restore
Private-key option (key not stored)
Choose / switch storage
Any of 13, incl. any S3-compatible
No - their cloud only
No - their cloud only
Network drives & NAS
Yes - any folder you can reach
No - Personal excludes NAS
Yes (as a mapped drive)
External / removable drives
Yes
USB only, must re-scan every 30 days
Yes
Deleted-file retention
Your retention policy
30 days by default (extended costs more)
Retains until you clean up
Getting your data out
Already in your own storage; restoring is always free
Export from their cloud before you cancel
Export from their cloud before you cancel
Linux
Yes
No
CLI-only, by request
Interfaces
GUI + TUI + CLI
Desktop app
Desktop + mobile
Prefer a managed cloud anyway? You can point Nyx at Backblaze B2 (or any S3) as your
destination - the same storage, but your keys and an open format. (Acronis and Carbonite
follow a similar rent-our-cloud model and are not listed row-by-row here.)
vs. other encrypted, bring-your-own-storage tools
This is Nyx's own category. Arq is the established commercial option; Duplicati and Kopia
are popular free, open-source tools. All are solid - here is where Nyx differs.
One row deserves plain English: open / locked files. Your mail database,
your accounting file and anything else that is open while the backup runs cannot simply be
read - the operating system has it locked. The fix is to snapshot the whole volume first
(Volume Shadow Copy on Windows, APFS snapshots on macOS) and back up the frozen copy, so
you get every file as it looked at one instant. Nyx and Arq do this automatically on both
platforms. Duplicati supports it on Windows only and ships with it
switched off. Kopia has no built-in support at all - its documentation asks you to
write your own PowerShell before/after scripts. Nyx also keeps its Windows shadow copy
across a reboot, so a large first backup that gets interrupted resumes instead of starting
over.
Nyx Backup
Arq 7
Duplicati
Kopia
Windows / macOS / Linux
All three
Windows, macOS
All three
All three
Built in
Rust
Swift / Obj-C
C# / .NET
Go
Client-side E2E, your keys
Yes (AES-256-GCM)
Yes (AES-256)
Yes (AES-256 / GPG)
Yes (AES-256-GCM / ChaCha20)
Bring-your-own storage
Yes (13, incl. any S3-compatible)
Yes
Yes
Yes (+ rclone, 40+)
Deduplication + compression
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Erasure-coding self-heal (bit-rot repair)
Yes (NAS: SMB/SFTP/WebDAV)
No
No
Yes
Snapshot browse + restore
Yes, in the app
Yes
Yes (versions)
Yes (mountable)
Open / locked files (Windows VSS, macOS APFS)
Automatic, both platforms
Automatic, both platforms
Windows only, off by default
No - you write your own scripts
Interfaces
GUI + TUI + CLI
GUI
Web UI + CLI
GUI + CLI
Native desktop app
Yes
Yes
No (web UI)
Yes
Localized UI
24 languages
English
Limited
English
License
Buy once + 12 mo updates
Buy once + $25/yr updates, or subscription
Free (open-source)
Free (open-source)
Price
Starting at $39.99 + $19.99/yr (optional maintenance)
$49.99 + $25/yr (optional maintenance)
Free
Free
Free trial
60 days
30 days
n/a (free)
n/a (free)
Fully offline license, no account
Yes (signed .lic file)
License code + cloud portal
n/a
n/a
Documented archive format
Yes (published spec)
Yes
Yes (open-source)
Yes (open-source)
FIPS-validated crypto modules
Yes (140-2 / 140-3)
No
No
No
Restoring costs nothing, ever
Yes - app is free to install and restore with
Yes
Yes
Yes
Standalone recovery tool
Yes (separate installer)
Yes (arq_restore)
n/a (tool is free)
n/a (tool is free)
Compiled August 2026 from each product's official documentation; features and prices change -
verify current details on their own sites:
Arq,
Duplicati,
Kopia,
Backblaze,
iDrive.
Built in Rust - why that matters for a backup tool
The language under the hood is not marketing trivia for software that runs for
hours moving gigabytes of your data. Nyx Backup is written in Rust -
here is what that buys you.
Memory-safe by design
Rust eliminates the memory-corruption bugs - buffer overflows, use-after-free -
that are the leading source of crashes and security vulnerabilities in native
software, and it does so without a garbage collector.
Low, steady memory - no GC pauses
No garbage collector means no stop-the-world pauses and a small, flat memory
footprint even on multi-hour backups of large trees. It stays light on the
machine it is protecting.
Fearless parallelism
The compiler rules out data races, so Nyx chunks, encrypts, and uploads in
parallel for speed without risking the state corruption that unsafe concurrency
can cause.
Native speed like C or C++, memory-safety like a managed language, and a single
self-contained binary with no runtime or VM to install or patch. For a tool whose
entire job is not losing your data, that reliability-and-safety combination is the
whole point.
Which is right for you?
Pick a managed cloud service
If you want completely hands-off, unlimited single-computer backup and don't mind a
subscription and trusting a provider to hold your encrypted data (Backblaze, iDrive, Acronis).
Pick a free open-source tool
If you're comfortable with a hands-on, do-it-yourself setup and want zero license cost,
Kopia and Duplicati are strong. The trade-offs: support is community forums rather than a
vendor you can email, and you may hit more setup, configuration, or compatibility friction.
Nyx keeps the same idea - your storage, your keys - with a polished app and real support.
Pick Nyx Backup
If you want to own your storage and keys, buy once instead of renting, and get a polished
app across Windows, macOS, and Linux - GUI, terminal, and CLI - with FIPS-grade crypto, an
open format, a free recovery tool, cross-snapshot file search to find any file fast, and
erasure-coding parity that auto-repairs bit rot on self-hosted (NAS/SMB/SFTP/WebDAV)
destinations - no account or phone-home.
Try it on your own files
Free 60-day trial. No account required. Bring your own storage.
