Plakar Community

The open backup engine
you actually control.

Plakar creates encrypted, deduplicated, self-contained snapshots on storage you own. One binary, zero-knowledge, no lock-in.

plakar ui
Browse and restore snapshots in the built-in Plakar web UI

The problem

Backups fail exactly when you need them most.

You have to trust your infrastructure

Legacy tools encrypt at rest, so the backup server, the network, and the storage provider still see your data and hold your keys. Zero-trust can't be an afterthought.

Encryption kills deduplication

Encrypt with traditional tools and they can no longer deduplicate, so every backup is a full transfer and storage and egress costs balloon.

Proprietary formats hold you hostage

Closed archives and appliances put a vendor between you and your own data. Your backup should outlive any vendor, cloud, or appliance.

How it works

Your data becomes a Kloset.

Plakar reads from your sources, then chunks, deduplicates, compresses, and encrypts in a single pass. The result is a Kloset: an open, self-contained store of snapshots on storage you own. Keys never leave your machine, and every snapshot is a logical full you can verify.

Your sources

What you protect

  • Filesystems
  • Databases
  • Object storage and S3
  • Virtual machines
  • SaaS and connectors

Plakar engine

One open binary

chunk deduplicate compress encrypt

Keys never leave your machine.

Every action is a command

backup restore sync check ls diff mount

Kloset store

On storage you own

Autonomous Portable Immutable Verifiable Encrypted Deduplicated Compressed Browsable Queryable

Open format. Readable and restorable without Plakar.

What you get

Everything you need to back up and restore with confidence.

Kloset store

An immutable, encrypted store for your snapshots, on storage you own.

Learn more

Encrypted deduplication

Deduplicate and compress before data leaves your system, so each new snapshot stores only what changed.

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Self-contained snapshots

Independent, tamper-evident snapshots you can delete without breaking newer ones.

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Restore anywhere

Restore to the original location or a new destination, a single file or a full snapshot.

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Broad integrations

Back up filesystems, PostgreSQL, MySQL, S3, SFTP, Notion, and more.

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Built-in UI

Browse, search, and restore snapshots from a local web UI with plakar ui.

Learn more

Schedules and retention

Schedule backups with cron, systemd, launchd, or Task Scheduler, and enforce retention with plakar prune.

Learn more

Open and programmatic

Open under a permissive license. One binary with a clean CLI, API, and SDK.

Learn more

Trusted by the ecosystem

Backed by the people who built modern infrastructure.

“
Finally a pragmatic, modern replacement for TAR. It is called PTAR, and it looks dope.
Solomon Hykes
Solomon Hykes Founder, Docker
“
Plakar's architecture replicates a lot of the infrastructure Apple built for iCloud Backup: chunking and encryption client-side.
Olivier Bonnet
Olivier Bonnet VP Engineering, Datadog (ex-Apple iCloud Backup)
Datadog
“
The rise of agentic AI compels us to rethink the resilience primitives of large, dynamic, and distributed infrastructures.
Matthieu Blumberg
Matthieu Blumberg SVP Infrastructure, Security and IT, Criteo
Criteo

Where it runs

Runs on your machines, writes to your storage.

Self-hosted by design. Your data and keys stay on infrastructure you control.

Any OS

One binary for Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Linux macOS Windows

Any storage

Any S3-compatible backend, local disk, or filesystem, always with zero plaintext.

Amazon S3 MinIO Backblaze Cloudflare Local disk

Any source

Filesystems, databases, and SaaS through a growing set of integrations.

PostgreSQL MySQL SFTP Notion

Anywhere you run it

On-prem, private or sovereign cloud, or fully air-gapped.

On-prem AWS OVHcloud Scaleway Air-gapped

Join the community

Nestor saved you a seat.

Plakar is built in public. Drop into our community calls or a Discord hackroom, organize a meetup, improve the docs, or ship your first integration. Nestor will be there, probably counting chunks.

"You wrote your own backup script? Bring it to the next community call. We need to talk."

Nestor, every single week
Nestor, Plakar's chipmunk mascot, dancing

Get started

Your first snapshot is one command away.

Install Plakar, create a Kloset, and back up a folder in under a minute. Open, self-hosted, and yours to keep.