Tarsnap
The facts below are what the maker publishes about Tarsnap, checked and dated. Our editors have not written about it yet.
Plans and prices
From Tarsnap's own pricing page, checked 20 Sep 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Storage | $0.25 a month | Prepaid usage-based storage · Charged on encoded data after deduplication, compression, and encryption · $0.25 / GB-month |
| Bandwidth | $0.25 a month | Prepaid usage-based bandwidth · Charged on encoded data transmitted · $0.25 / GB |
| Pay-as-you-go bandwidth | $2,500.25, paid once | Encoded data transmitted after deduplication, compression, and encryption · no fixed or minimum monthly fees · Prepaid; usage based |
| Pay-as-you-go storage | $2,500.25 a month | Encoded data stored after deduplication, compression, and encryption · no fixed or minimum monthly fees · Prepaid; usage based |
The facts
Each one read from Tarsnap's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Account limit
- If the account balance stays below zero for more than a week, the account is permanently removed.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Backup scope
- filechecked 20 Sep 2026
- Computer backup
- Yeschecked 20 Sep 2026
- Deduplication
- The client removes duplicate variable-length data blocks before uploading archives, reducing storage and bandwidth use.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Encryption
- Tarsnap uses client key files containing separate authentication and encryption keys, and says the service cannot disclose or tamper with archive data even if compromised.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Integrations
- Tarsnap uses Amazon S3 for archived data and Amazon EC2 for its server, and uses Stripe and PayPal for payment processing.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Key protection
- Key files can be passphrase-protected using the scrypt key derivation function, and restricted key files can limit permitted actions.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Paid from
- 0.25checked 20 Sep 2026
- Payments
- Users must deposit $5 or more before using Tarsnap and can add money whenever they want.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Product
- Tarsnap is a secure, efficient command-line online backup service for Linux, BSD, macOS, and other UNIX-like operating systems.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Restore modes
- filechecked 20 Sep 2026
- Snapshots
- Each archive acts independently, and the site says there are no arbitrary limits on archive count, creation frequency, or retention duration.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Source code
- The client source code is available for review, but Tarsnap states that it is not distributed under an open source license.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Support
- The site lists documentation, an EFnet #tarsnap IRC channel, mailing lists, and contacting the author as support options.checked 11 Oct 2026
The company
- Company history
- The site says Tarsnap Backup Inc. was incorporated in British Columbia, Canada, in September 2011.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Founded
- Work on Tarsnap began in September 2006, according to the company’s about page.checked 11 Oct 2026
Where it runs
- Platform support
- The download page provides installation paths for Linux distributions, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, macOS, and Windows Subsystem for Linux.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Supported platforms
- linux,macos,windowschecked 20 Sep 2026
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