Side by side
Each row says whether the feature exists; hover or tap a mark for the details. The table below has the full answers, with sources.
| Feature | DumpCat | Portabase |
|---|---|---|
| Cost and platform | ||
| Open source | YesApache-2.0 | YesApache-2.0 |
| Every feature free | YesNo paid tier | Yes |
| Runs on your own servers | YesOne binary | YesDocker, Kubernetes or its CLI |
| Linux | Yesamd64, arm64 | YesWith Docker |
| Windows | YesNo mydumper there | ?Not documentedDocs list Linux and macOS |
| Web interface | Yes | Yes |
| Backup | ||
| MariaDB | Yes10.x and 11.x | Yes10 and 11 |
| Logical dumps (mysqldump) | Yesmysqldump, mariadb-dump | Yesmysqldump |
| Parallel dumps (mydumper) | Yesmydumper, on Linux | Nomysqldump only |
| Hot physical backups | YesXtraBackup, MariaBackup | Nomysqldump only |
| Incremental backups | YesPhysical and binlogs | Nomysqldump only |
| Recovery | ||
| Point-in-time recovery | YesTo the second or a GTID | Nomysqldump snapshots only |
| Restore from the tool | YesAlso under a new name | YesNot for Redis / Valkey |
| Automatic backup check | YesEvery run, plus drills | ?Not documentedNot documented |
| Storage and security | ||
| Cloud storage (S3 and more) | YesS3, Drive, OneDrive, 70+ | YesS3, GCS, Azure, Drive, SFTP, rclone |
| Several copies per backup | Yes | Yes |
| Encryption | Yesage, before upload | YesAES-GCM |
| Data skips the vendor | YesServer to your storage | Yes |
| Databases behind a firewall | ||
| Agent, no inbound port | YesOutbound HTTPS only | YesAgent polls the dashboard |
| Built-in VPN tunnel | YesWireGuard, built in | NoNone; the agent dials out |
| Operations | ||
| Built-in scheduler | YesCron | YesCron or intervals |
| Automatic retention | YesCount, age or GFS | YesIncl. GFS |
| Chat and webhook alerts | YesSlack, Telegram, Discord… | Yes |
| MCP for AI assistants | YesRead-only by default | YesOpt-in (MCP_ENABLED) |
- Yes
- $Paid plan
- Partly
- No
- ?Not documented
In detail
| DumpCat | Portabase | |
|---|---|---|
| Price and license | Free and open source (Apache-2.0). No account, no license key. | Free and open source (Apache-2.0), with no per-database licensing; presented as a non-profit initiative. |
| How it runs | Self-hosted: one binary with a web UI, running as a systemd or Windows service next to your database. | Self-hosted in two parts: a dashboard (a web app running as Docker containers) and an agent on each server that holds databases. The agent contacts the dashboard, so no inbound port is opened. Installed with its CLI, Docker, Kubernetes (Helm), Coolify, Dokploy or Unraid. |
| Platforms | Linux (amd64, arm64) and Windows (64-bit). | Wherever Docker runs. The requirements list Linux and macOS; Windows is not mentioned. The agent is installed with the CLI or Docker. |
| Databases | MySQL 5.7, 8.0, 8.4, Percona Server, MariaDB 10.x and 11.x; PostgreSQL 10 and newer; Microsoft SQL Server 2012 and newer (Windows, Linux, containers). | MySQL 5.7, 8 and 9; MariaDB 10 and 11; also PostgreSQL 12 to 18, MongoDB, SQLite, Redis and Valkey (backup only), Firebird, SQL Server 2017 to 2022 and Azure SQL, Docker volumes and files. |
| Backup methods | Logical with mysqldump / mariadb-dump or parallel mydumper; hot physical backups with XtraBackup / MariaBackup, including incrementals. No locks on InnoDB. PostgreSQL: pg_dump (tables in parallel) and pg_basebackup (the whole cluster). SQL Server: native full and differential backups (BACKUP DATABASE, no client tools). | Logical only for MySQL and MariaDB: the agent runs mysqldump and restores with mysql. No parallel dumps, physical or incremental backups are documented for MySQL. |
| Point-in-time recovery | Yes. Continuous binlog archiving; restore to a timestamp, a binlog position or just before a GTID. PostgreSQL: continuous WAL archiving; restore to a timestamp, a restore point or a WAL position. SQL Server: scheduled log backups; restore to a timestamp, a marked transaction or an LSN. | Not for MySQL or MariaDB: backups are mysqldump snapshots, and no binlog archiving is documented. |
| Storage | Local disk / NFS, S3 and compatibles, Google Drive, OneDrive, SFTP, FTP / FTPS, WebDAV, Backblaze B2, Azure Blob, Dropbox and every rclone backend; several per job. | Local storage on the server, S3-compatible (AWS S3, MinIO, RustFS…), Google Drive, Azure Blob Storage, Google Cloud Storage, SFTP and rclone. The same backup can go to several destinations at once. |
| Encryption | age encryption on your server before anything is uploaded; zstd compression; SHA-256 for every file. | AES-GCM. |
| Scheduling and retention | Cron-style schedules; retention per storage by count, age or GFS (daily / weekly / monthly). | Cron expressions or fixed intervals, plus manual runs. Retention per database by GFS tiers (hourly to yearly), keep the last N or keep for X days. |
| Restore | From the web UI: restore under a new database name, test-decrypt every file before dropping anything, integrity checks after each run. | Restores from the dashboard for the supported databases (not Redis or Valkey). Automatic restore checks are not documented. |
| Where your data goes | Straight from your server to the storage you choose. Nothing passes through a third party. | Your own infrastructure: from the agent next to your database to your storage, coordinated by the dashboard you host. |
| Notifications | Email, Telegram, Slack, Discord and HMAC-signed webhooks. | Email, Slack, Discord, Telegram, Ntfy, Gotify and webhooks; organizations and projects, owner / admin / member roles, OIDC and OAuth2 sign-in, a REST API and an MCP server. |
Choose Portabase if
- You back up more than SQL databases: MongoDB, Redis / Valkey, SQLite, Firebird, Docker volumes and plain files from the same dashboard.
- You deploy on Kubernetes, Coolify, Dokploy or Unraid and want an official chart or template.
- You back up Azure SQL Database: DumpCat supports SQL Server 2012 and newer on your own servers, but not Azure SQL Database.
- You want organizations and projects to keep several teams' databases apart.
Choose DumpCat if
- You need point-in-time recovery: DumpCat archives MySQL / MariaDB binlogs, PostgreSQL WAL and SQL Server log backups, and restores to a second, a GTID, a restore point or an LSN.
- Your MySQL databases are large: parallel
mydumperand hot physical backups with XtraBackup / MariaBackup, including incrementals. - You do not want Docker: DumpCat is one binary, installed as a systemd service or a native Windows service, and it runs on Windows hosts.
- You want every backup read back right after it is written, and scheduled restore drills that restore into a sandbox and compare every table's row count.
Sources
Facts about Portabase were checked on October 23, 2026 against the sources below. Products change: if something here is out of date, please open an issue on GitHub.
- Portabase: MySQL backup & restore
- Portabase documentation: introduction (databases, storage, notifications, encryption)
- Portabase documentation: MySQL agent (mysqldump)
- Portabase documentation: requirements
- Portabase documentation: installation
- Portabase documentation: FAQ
- Portabase home page (retention, scheduling, OIDC, REST API & MCP)
- Portabase on GitHub
- Portabase documentation: MCP server
- Portabase documentation: MCP tools reference
- Portabase documentation: agent environment (polling)
Portabase is a trademark of its owner. DumpCat is an independent open-source project and is not affiliated with it.