DumpCat
ENVI

DumpCat vs AutoMySQLBackup

AutoMySQLBackup is the bash script many servers still run from cron. Its original SourceForge project last released in 2011; Debian still packages version 2.6 and a GitHub fork keeps it alive. DumpCat does the same job with a web UI, remote storage and point-in-time recovery.

Download DumpCat Source on GitHub

At a glance

DumpCatAutoMySQLBackup
Price and licenseFree and open source (Apache-2.0). No account, no license key.Free and open source (GPL-2.0 or later).
How it runsSelf-hosted: one binary with a web UI, running as a systemd or Windows service next to your database.A bash script started by cron.
PlatformsLinux (amd64, arm64) and Windows (64-bit).Linux and Unix.
DatabasesMySQL 5.7, 8.0, 8.4, Percona Server, MariaDB 10.x and 11.x.MySQL and MariaDB through the mysqldump client installed on the machine.
Backup methodsLogical with mysqldump / mariadb-dump or parallel mydumper; hot physical backups with XtraBackup / MariaBackup, including incrementals. No locks on InnoDB.mysqldump, with --single-transaction optional. The sixhop fork adds diff-based differential backups.
Point-in-time recoveryYes. Continuous binlog archiving; restore to a timestamp, a binlog position or just before a GTID.No.
StorageLocal disk / NFS, S3 and compatibles, Google Drive, OneDrive, SFTP, FTP / FTPS, WebDAV, Backblaze B2, Azure Blob, Dropbox and every rclone backend; several per job.A local directory only.
Encryptionage encryption on your server before anything is uploaded; zstd compression; SHA-256 for every file.gzip, bzip2, xz or zstd compression; OpenSSL or GPG encryption in the fork.
Scheduling and retentionCron-style schedules; retention per storage by count, age or GFS (daily / weekly / monthly).Whatever cron runs; daily, weekly and monthly rotation.
RestoreFrom the web UI: restore under a new database name, test-decrypt every file before dropping anything, integrity checks after each run.Manual, for example zcat backup.sql.gz | mysql.
Where your data goesStraight from your server to the storage you choose. Nothing passes through a third party.Stays on the machine; copying it elsewhere is up to you.
NotificationsEmail, Telegram, Slack, Discord and HMAC-signed webhooks.Email with the log or the backup attached.

Choose AutoMySQLBackup if

  • You want the smallest possible thing: one script and a cron line on a server where a local copy is enough.
  • It already runs, and you only need nightly local dumps.

Choose DumpCat if

  • You want backups off the server: S3, Google Drive, OneDrive, SFTP and more, several per job with their own retention.
  • You want to restore from a web UI, into a new database name, with every file test-decrypted first.
  • You need point-in-time recovery or hot physical backups for large databases.
  • You want failure alerts on Telegram, Slack or Discord and a project that is actively maintained.

Switching from AutoMySQLBackup

  1. Install DumpCat on the server; the Linux installer also installs the backup tools that match your database.
  2. Add a local storage pointing to a new directory, plus at least one remote storage.
  3. Create a job with the same databases; set retention to match your daily / weekly / monthly rotation (GFS).
  4. Run it once, check the integrity result, then remove the AutoMySQLBackup cron line.

Sources

Facts about AutoMySQLBackup were checked on October 18, 2026 against the sources below. Products change: if something here is out of date, please open an issue on GitHub.

  1. AutoMySQLBackup on SourceForge (release feed)
  2. AutoMySQLBackup in Debian
  3. AutoMySQLBackup fork by sixhop on GitHub

AutoMySQLBackup is a trademark of its owner. DumpCat is an independent open-source project and is not affiliated with it.

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