🔐 Vaultkeeper
Scheduled, encrypted database backups you actually own.
SimpleBackups charges $29–$99 a month to run pg_dump on a timer — and wants your production database credentials on their cloud. The DIY cron script is free but fails silently until the day you need the backup. Vaultkeeper fixes both: scheduled, encrypted dumps of Postgres, MySQL, SQLite and MongoDB, shipped to disk, S3 or FTP, pruned by retention policy, with alerts the moment a run fails. $39, once, on your own hardware.
Vaultkeeper, as it actually looks — a real screenshot, not a mockup.
Features
Four engines
PostgreSQL (pg_dump), MySQL/MariaDB (mysqldump), MongoDB (mongodump) — and SQLite via the online backup API, safe on live WAL databases with nothing installed.
Real scheduling
Cron expressions with presets, per-job timezone, next-3-runs preview, and a per-job lock so runs never overlap.
Encryption you can restore without us
age if installed, or built-in AES-256-GCM with a documented open format and a dependency-free decrypt script — your backups are never hostage.
Three destination types
Local disk, any S3-compatible bucket (AWS, Backblaze B2, Cloudflare R2, MinIO — multipart uploads), and FTP/FTPS.
GFS-lite retention
Keep last N, plus daily-for-X-days and weekly-for-Y-weeks — pruned automatically on the destination after every successful run.
Alerts that catch silent failures
Webhook (Slack/Discord-compatible) + SMTP email on failure, with the dump tool's stderr tail included so you know why.
Restore helper
One click generates the exact download, decrypt, gunzip, psql/mysql/mongorestore command chain for any stored run.
Secrets encrypted at rest
Connection passwords, S3 keys and passphrases are AES-256-GCM encrypted in SQLite, and passwords are never passed on argv. No telemetry, no cloud.
Vaultkeeper vs SimpleBackups
SimpleBackups at $29/mo runs roughly $348/year — $696 over two years. Vaultkeeper is $39, once.
| Vaultkeeper | SimpleBackups | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $39 once | $29–$99/mo ($348–$1,188/yr) |
| Cost over 3 years | $39 | $1,044+ |
| Postgres / MySQL / Mongo / SQLite | All four | Yes |
| Your DB credentials | Stay on your box, encrypted at rest | Stored on their cloud |
| Encryption format you can decrypt yourself | Documented VK1 + age, decrypt script included | Partial |
| Works fully offline | Yes | No |
| Failure alerts (webhook + email) | Yes | Yes |
| Source code | MIT, on GitHub | Closed |
SimpleBackups is $348+ per year. Vaultkeeper pays for itself in 6 weeks — then your backups run free, forever.
Three steps, no subscription
Buy once on Whop
One-time $39 for the packaged 1-click Windows installer with everything pre-wired, plus lifetime updates.
Run it anywhere
Desktop app for local databases, or docker compose up on a $5 VPS — the Docker image bundles all four engine CLIs and age.
Schedule, encrypt, sleep
Point it at your databases, pick a cron schedule and a destination. If a run ever fails, the webhook and email tell you immediately — with the actual error.
Honest answers
Is it really free on GitHub?
Yes — MIT source at github.com/bensblueprints/vaultkeeper, always. The $39 buys the packaged installer and funds development. One month of the competition, forever.
What happens to my backups if Vaultkeeper disappears?
They still open. The VK1 encryption format is documented in the README (AES-256-GCM, scrypt key derivation) and the repo ships a zero-dependency decrypt script — plus you can use age instead. Your backups outlive the software by design.
Do I need database tools installed?
For Postgres/MySQL/Mongo, yes — Vaultkeeper shells out to the official dump tools, and a tool-check panel shows what's found on PATH with install hints. SQLite needs nothing installed. The Docker image bundles all of them.
Is restore one-click?
Deliberately not. The restore helper generates the exact command chain — download, decrypt, gunzip, psql/mysql/mongorestore — so you can read every command before it touches your production database. SimpleBackups' managed one-click restores are genuinely more convenient; we chose transparency.
Why not just a cron script?
Because your script doesn't alert you when it silently breaks — the classic failure mode is a backup job that's been exiting 1 for six weeks. Vaultkeeper adds encryption, retention pruning, checksums, and loud failure alerts around the same dump tools you'd script by hand.
Deep-dive comparisons:
Own Vaultkeeper forever
$39 once. Deploy on your own server — your data never leaves it. No renewal, no account with us, no meter. Or build it yourself from the MIT source — it's the same app.