See how Proxmox Backup Server's free and subscription tiers work in 2026, including deduplication, incremental backups, and enterprise support pricing.
Proxmox Backup Server is an open-source enterprise backup product developed by Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH, founded in 2005 in Vienna, Austria by Martin Maurer and Dietmar Maurer. While the company is best known for Proxmox Virtual Environment, its virtualization platform, Proxmox Backup Server is a distinct, purpose-built product focused specifically on backing up and restoring virtual machines, containers, and physical hosts.
Development began in October 2018, with a public beta in July 2020 and the first stable 1.0 release in November 2020. Built entirely on Rust for performance and memory safety, the product has since progressed through several major versions, including version 4.0 in August 2025 and 4.2 in April 2026.
Proxmox Backup Server's core technical strengths are client-side deduplication and an incremental-forever backup model, meaning that after an initial full backup, only changed data blocks are transferred and stored, significantly reducing both backup time and storage consumption. Backups can be encrypted client-side before they ever reach the backup server, and the product integrates tightly with Proxmox VE for consistent VM and container snapshots.
Because it is open source under the AGPLv3 license, Proxmox Backup Server can be downloaded and run entirely free of charge with unlimited backup storage and unlimited backup clients, even without a paid subscription, via the community no-subscription repository. Paid subscribers gain access to the more thoroughly tested Proxmox Enterprise Repository and tiered technical support rather than any additional product features.
Proxmox Backup Server itself is free to download and use without any subscription, with no artificial limits on storage or number of backup clients. Organizations that want official support and access to the Enterprise Repository can purchase one of four annual per-server subscription tiers: Community at 560 euros/server/year (community support only), Basic at 1,120 euros (5 tickets/year), Standard at 2,240 euros (15 tickets/year, the most popular tier), and Premium at 4,480 euros/server/year (unlimited tickets, 2-hour response).
All subscription tiers include the same core feature set — unlimited backup storage and unlimited backup clients — with pricing differentiated entirely by support ticket volume, response time commitments, and access to remote SSH support or offline activation for air-gapped environments.
Yes, it can be downloaded and used entirely free of charge via the no-subscription repository, with unlimited backup storage and unlimited backup clients.
Paid subscriptions provide access to the more thoroughly tested Proxmox Enterprise Repository and tiered technical support, ranging from community-only support up to unlimited tickets with 2-hour response times on the Premium tier.
Subscriptions are priced per server per year: Community at 560 euros, Basic at 1,120 euros, Standard at 2,240 euros, and Premium at 4,480 euros.
It is built entirely on Rust, chosen for performance and memory safety.
It is developed by Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH, founded in 2005 in Vienna, Austria by Martin Maurer and Dietmar Maurer.
Yes, it performs client-side deduplication combined with an incremental-forever backup model to minimize storage and bandwidth use.
No, they are distinct products; Proxmox VE is a virtualization/hypervisor platform, while Proxmox Backup Server is a dedicated backup solution that integrates with it.