#16 of 16 open-source backup tools · Updated October 2026
Amanda review 2026
Amanda Community · Dormant
Amanda ranks #16 of 16 open-source backup tools in the Open-Source Backup Ledger 2026, with a Ledger Index of 31.6 out of 100. Amanda was once a reference for tape backup, and its plain tar format still makes old backups easy to read.
Scores
Source: Open-Source Backup Ledger 2026, edition 2026-10-02. How each score works: methodology.
Pros
No domain scores 4 or higher out of 5.
Cons
- Databases and applications1/5
- New-platform support (VMware exit)1/5
- Cyber resilience1.5/5
What the Ledger says
Amanda was once a reference for tape backup, and its plain tar format still makes old backups easy to read. The community project has not released since July 2023 or committed since January 2024, and its owner invests only in the proprietary Zmanda product. Do not start new deployments on it; plan a migration for existing ones.
No AI features; the project is not developing.
Capability by area
Buying, lock-in and release record
Buying and licence (sustainability risk)(lower is better)
- Maintainer concentration5
- No active maintainers
- Backer health4.5
- BETSOL develops only the proprietary Zmanda product
- Licence-change risk2
- Permissive licence; corporate copyright holders
- Abandonment signs5
- Fails both near-dormant tests: 38 months without a release, no committers
- Security response4.5
- No security process
Technical lock-in(lower is better)
- Formats0.5
- Standard tar and dump archives
- Export path0.5
- Restorable with dd and tar, without Amanda
- Stack coupling1
- Simple C and Perl stack
- Hardware / cloud coupling0
- Any tape, disk or S3
- Skills and tooling coupling3
- Legacy, scarce skills
Release credibility
- Cadence1
- No release since July 2023
- Roadmap transparency2
- Public repository; no roadmap
- Say-do1.5
- 2 of 5 items shipped; the 3.6 release and a web UI were dropped
- Velocity0.5
- Zero commits since January 2024
- Lifecycle stability1
- No maintenance; build fixes for current compilers left open
Partners and services
- Paid support0.5
- No paid support for the community edition
- Consultants and partners1
- A few legacy consultants
- Documentation2
- Man pages; wiki largely unmaintained
- Community and packaging2.5
- Still packaged by Linux distributions; forums quiet
Alternatives to Amanda
Questions about Amanda
Is Amanda any good?
Amanda ranks #16 of 16 open-source backup tools in the Open-Source Backup Ledger 2026, with a Ledger Index of 31.6 out of 100. Its weakest are databases and applications, new-platform support (vmware exit), cyber resilience.
What are the best alternatives to Amanda?
The closest by Ledger Index are BackupPC (33.9), Burp (35.2), UrBackup (46.7), Bacula (51.8).
How is Amanda licensed and sold?
No active maintainers.
How much lock-in does Amanda bring?
Amanda scores 5 out of 25 on technical lock-in (lower is better). Export path: Restorable with dd and tar, without Amanda.
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