DumpCat
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DumpCat vs SimpleBackups

SimpleBackups is a hosted service that schedules and monitors backups of servers, databases and storage from its own infrastructure. DumpCat is a free, open-source backup manager that you run next to your database. Here is how they compare for MySQL and MariaDB.

Download DumpCat Source on GitHub

At a glance

DumpCatSimpleBackups
Price and licenseFree and open source (Apache-2.0). No account, no license key.Free plan: 1 job, 1 GB of SimpleBackups storage, daily runs, databases up to 1 GB. Paid plans from $49/month (Lite, 5 jobs) to $299/month (Max, 100 jobs); 20% off yearly. Storage you bring yourself is unlimited.
How it runsSelf-hosted: one binary with a web UI, running as a systemd or Windows service next to your database.Hosted SaaS. It reaches your server over SSH or through its agent, or runs the backup on its own serverless workers.
PlatformsLinux (amd64, arm64) and Windows (64-bit).Any server it can reach over SSH or with its agent, plus managed databases through serverless workers.
DatabasesMySQL 5.7, 8.0, 8.4, Percona Server, MariaDB 10.x and 11.x.MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis and PlanetScale / Vitess. No list of supported versions is published.
Backup methodsLogical with mysqldump / mariadb-dump or parallel mydumper; hot physical backups with XtraBackup / MariaBackup, including incrementals. No locks on InnoDB.mysqldump with default flags; the docs ask you to add --single-transaction yourself to avoid read locks. Physical backups only through your own XtraBackup script.
Point-in-time recoveryYes. Continuous binlog archiving; restore to a timestamp, a binlog position or just before a GTID.Partial: it can collect binlogs once you enable them, but replaying them is not documented.
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.About 35 providers, including S3, Backblaze B2, Cloudflare R2, Azure, Google Cloud Storage, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, SFTP and local volumes, or SimpleBackups' own storage.
Encryptionage encryption on your server before anything is uploaded; zstd compression; SHA-256 for every file.AES-256 with OpenSSL, using your RSA public key.
Scheduling and retentionCron-style schedules; retention per storage by count, age or GFS (daily / weekly / monthly).Frequency depends on the plan: daily on Free, every 12 hours on Lite, hourly on Plus, every 5 minutes on Max. Jobs, storage and database size are capped per plan.
RestoreFrom the web UI: restore under a new database name, test-decrypt every file before dropping anything, integrity checks after each run.The docs describe database restores as manual: download the backup and run the commands they give you. Automated MariaDB restores were announced in September 2026.
Where your data goesStraight from your server to the storage you choose. Nothing passes through a third party.With SSH or the agent, data goes from your server to your storage. With serverless workers it passes through SimpleBackups in transit. Credentials are stored encrypted by SimpleBackups unless you keep them in a .my.cnf file on your server.
NotificationsEmail, Telegram, Slack, Discord and HMAC-signed webhooks.Email, Slack, Discord, Teams, Telegram, Pushover and webhooks, plus anomaly detection.

Choose SimpleBackups if

  • You want nothing to install or keep running: SimpleBackups schedules and monitors from its own infrastructure, so you still get an alert when your server is down.
  • You back up several engines (PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis) or managed databases such as PlanetScale from one dashboard.
  • You need compliance paperwork such as ISO 27001, SSO or an SLA.

Choose DumpCat if

  • You need point-in-time recovery: DumpCat archives binlogs continuously and restores to a given second or just before a GTID.
  • Your databases are large: hot physical backups with XtraBackup / MariaBackup, incrementals, and no per-plan limits on jobs, database size or storage.
  • You want restores from the web UI, including into a new database name to compare before switching.
  • Credentials and data must stay inside your own infrastructure, or the server has no internet access.
  • You would rather not pay per job: DumpCat is free and open source.

Switching from SimpleBackups

  1. Install DumpCat on the database server, or on a machine that can reach it.
  2. Add the storage you already use with SimpleBackups (S3, B2, Google Drive…) as a DumpCat storage, in a new folder.
  3. Recreate each job with its databases, schedule, encryption and retention, then run it once and check the integrity result.
  4. Keep your SimpleBackups backups until DumpCat's retention covers the same period, then cancel the plan.

Sources

Facts about SimpleBackups 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. SimpleBackups pricing
  2. SimpleBackups docs: backup lifecycle and data flow
  3. SimpleBackups docs: MySQL backup FAQ
  4. SimpleBackups docs: hot backups with Percona XtraBackup
  5. SimpleBackups docs: enable the binary log
  6. SimpleBackups docs: notifications
  7. SimpleBackups docs: backup restore
  8. SimpleBackups changelog

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

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