What Bacula does

Bacula is an open-source network backup and recovery platform originally established in 2009. Its software suite consists of modular components: the Bacula Director for scheduling and management, a Storage Daemon for backup media handling, File Daemons deployed on each protected host, and the Baculum and Bacularis web-based administration interfaces. The architecture is engineered to scale from a single machine to enterprise networks with hundreds of systems and supports heterogeneous environments across Linux, Windows, macOS, and major virtualization, container, and database platforms.

The product portfolio splits into two lines. Bacula Community is a free, open-source edition available via direct download, SourceForge, and Git, and is supported by an active community of contributors across email lists and forums. Bacula Enterprise is the commercial edition distributed through Bacula Systems SA and adds deeper scalability, broader platform coverage (including Kubernetes CSI Volume Snapshot support, Nutanix-AHV, Azure VM, M365 SharePoint, HPE StoreOnce Catalyst, AWS, and Google Workspace), advanced security features (volume encryption, TOTP console authentication, ClamAV integration), and ZSTD compression. Professional services, administrator training, and enterprise support are monetized alongside the subscription license.

Bacula operates a freemium, community-led go-to-market: community users download and self-deploy at no cost, while enterprise customers are converted to paid subscriptions and support contracts via direct sales through Bacula Systems. The community reaches an estimated 2.5–4+ million downloads with thousands of contributors worldwide, with the European Space Agency cited as a notable government customer for mission-critical workloads including satellite ground segments and flight operation control systems.

Name

Bacula

Legal name

Bacula.org

Website

https://bacula.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2009

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Bacula is an open-source network backup and recovery platform, founded in 2009, offering a modular Community edition and a subscription Enterprise edition sold by Bacula Systems to system administrators and IT organizations worldwide.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Data backup software (network backup and recovery)

NAICS

Software Publishers (513210), Software Publishers (5132)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Backup as a Service (BaaS) (BPAEALAB)

akta.pro secondary industry

Business Continuity Management (BCM) Platforms (HDABAIAD)

Keywords

• Open source backup
• Network backup software
• Data recovery
• Disaster recovery
• Enterprise backup

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Bacula Community Edition: Free open source version available for download with full backup functionality. Supported by community forums, email lists, and documentation. No revenue generated directly from community edition.
2. Bacula Enterprise: Commercial version provided by Bacula Systems with enhanced features, platform coverage, professional support, superior security architecture, and cloud integrations. Targets enterprise customers requiring vendor support and advanced capabilities.
3. Professional Services and Training: Bacula Systems provides professional support, services, and training for enterprises using Bacula, including Administrator training courses and expert series training.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Bacula is a set of open source computer programs that permit system administrators to manage backup, recovery, and verification of computer data across networks of heterogeneous systems (Linux, Windows, Mac). The platform is delivered in two editions: the free Bacula Community edition (open source, self-download, community-supported) and the commercial Bacula Enterprise edition (sold by Bacula Systems SA) which adds deeper scalability, broader platform coverage, superior security architecture, cloud integrations, and professional support. Complementary products include the Baculum web/REST management interface, the Bacularis web interface, the vchanger virtual autochanger, and the BWeb Management Console.

Product overview

Bacula is an open source network backup and recovery software suite consisting of Bacula Community (free open source edition) and Bacula Enterprise (commercial version). The platform offers a modular architecture with core backup/restore/verification capabilities, complemented by web management interfaces (Baculum, Bacularis), specialized plugins (Kubernetes, Docker, VMware, Hyper-V, database plugins), and enterprise tools (vchanger, BWeb Management Console). The Community edition provides enterprise-ready features including TLS encryption, compression, and incremental backup, while Bacula Enterprise extends these with deeper scalability, broader platform coverage, and professional support services.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Baculum: Web-based administration interface for Bacula providing graphical management of backup, restore, and verification operations.
• Bacularis
• vchanger

Products and services

• Bacula Community Open source backup and recovery software for Linux, Windows, and macOS environments. Includes incremental/differential/synthetic backups, compression, TLS encryption, multi-tier storage with migration and copy jobs, and scales from a single computer to enterprise systems of hundreds of machines. Distributed free via bacula.org and SourceForge with community-based support.
• Bacula Enterprise Commercial-grade backup solution offered by Bacula Systems that delivers deeper scalability, broader platform coverage, superior security architecture, advanced cloud integrations, and professional support compared with the Community edition. Targets enterprise and public-sector customers requiring vendor support and SLAs; available with a free trial and subscription-based pricing.
• Baculum Web-based graphical user interface and REST API (PHP) for Bacula administration. Provides job management, service monitoring, volume management, console operations, multiple Directors support, configuration management with easy-to-use wizards, OAuth2 authentication, JSON output, and API v2 documented via OpenAPI specification.
• Bacularis Alternative web interface project based on Baculum, designed to make Bacula easy to use with simple installation, friendly interface, clean functions, and easy-to-use wizards. Version 2.6.0 (released) added a data views function for custom filters across job, client, storage, pool and volume pages.
• vchanger Virtual disk autochanger implementing Bacula's Autochanger Interface for removable disk drives and RDX cartridge systems. Supports unlimited magazines, plug-n-play drive attachment, automatic slot updates via udev, and symlink-based virtual drive management; initial release 1.0.0.
• BWeb Management Console Enterprise management console with an Automation Center feature integrating plugins for Azure VM backup, Nutanix AHV backup, M365 SharePoint backup, and other automated backup operations within the Enterprise edition.
• Bacula Installation Manager (BIM) Installation utility introduced in Bacula Community 15.0.2 that guides users through the Bacula installation process with a simplified, step-by-step setup experience.

Quantifiable outcome

• 2.5+ million downloads, making it the most popular open source backup software for full system backup
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration22 records

AI capability2 records

Feature13 records

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Zerto (HPE): Zerto (now an HPE company) specializes in disaster recovery and continuous data protection for virtualized and cloud workloads — its CDP technology is a close functional analog to Bacula's CDP plugin and addresses overlapping enterprise DR use cases.
• Druva: Druva delivers 100% SaaS-delivered backup and data protection for cloud-native workloads (AWS, M365, Salesforce, Kubernetes) — competes directly with Bacula on modern workload backup and competes with its self-hosted architecture via a SaaS alternative.
• NAKIVO: NAKIVO provides a commercial backup solution targeting SMB and mid-market with VMware, Hyper-V, Nutanix, AWS, and Microsoft 365 support — a smaller direct competitor in Bacula's SMB-to-enterprise segment, competing on price and feature completeness.
• Rubrik: Rubrik is a cloud-native data management and backup platform (publicly listed) targeting enterprise hybrid-cloud workloads, with strong Kubernetes, SaaS, and ransomware-recovery positioning — directly competitive with Bacula's modern-workload plugin strategy.
• Cohesity: Cohesity is a cloud-native data management and backup vendor offering backup, file/object services, and ransomware recovery across hybrid environments — comparable to Bacula Enterprise on hybrid-cloud backup and security features.
• Veeam Software: Veeam is the dominant commercial backup vendor for virtualized and cloud workloads, with native VMware, Hyper-V, AWS, Azure, Kubernetes (via Kasten), and enterprise support — a directly comparable commercial backup suite to Bacula Enterprise, but at much larger scale.
• Amanda (open source) / zmanda: Zmanda is the commercial entity behind the Amanda open-source backup project — historically the closest open-source competitor to Bacula in the Linux/Unix backup space, with a similar community-plus-commercial GTM model.
• Acronis: Acronis combines backup with cybersecurity (anti-ransomware, malware detection) for endpoints, servers, and cloud workloads — directly comparable to Bacula's integration of ClamAV, Abuse.ch threat intelligence, and CDP, but delivered as a packaged commercial product.

Emerging players

• Storware Backup & Recovery: Storware is an emerging backup and recovery vendor focused on virtualization, containers, and cloud (OpenStack, Kubernetes, VMware, Nutanix) — a niche direct competitor with overlapping modern-workload coverage similar to Bacula's plugin ecosystem.

Broad incumbents

• Commvault: Commvault is a long-established enterprise data protection and information management platform offering backup, recovery, archiving, and cloud migration — a broad incumbent whose portfolio overlaps Bacula's core backup/recovery use case for large enterprises.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/bacula

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Bacula