Litestream Has a Free SQLite Replication Tool — Continuous Backups to S3

Litestream is a streaming replication tool for SQLite — continuously backup your SQLite database to S3, no downtime.

What You Get for Free

• Continuous replication — streams WAL changes to S3 every second
• Point-in-time restore — restore to any second in the past
• S3-compatible — works with AWS S3, Backblaze B2, MinIO
• Zero downtime — backups happen while your app runs
• Single binary — no dependencies, easy install
• Automatic failover — restore from S3 on startup
• Low overhead — minimal CPU and memory usage
• Retention policies — configurable backup retention

Quick Start

# Install
brew install litestream

# litestream.yml
dbs:
  - path: /path/to/app.db
    replicas:
      - url: s3://my-bucket/app.db

litestream replicate  # starts continuous replication

Why Developers Switch from PostgreSQL for Small Apps

PostgreSQL is overkill for apps with <100K rows:

• Zero ops — no database server to manage
• Backup = S3 — continuous, automatic, point-in-time
• Deploy anywhere — single file database, works on $5 VPS
• Performance — SQLite reads are faster than PostgreSQL for simple queries

A solo developer ran PostgreSQL on a $25/month server for an app with 10K users. After SQLite + Litestream: same app on a $5 VPS, backups to $1/month S3 bucket. 80% cost reduction.

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