Litestream Has a Free SQLite Replication Tool — Production-Grade SQLite Backups

#sqlite #database #backup #go

Litestream is a streaming replication tool for SQLite — continuous backup to S3 or any storage.

What You Get for Free

Continuous replication — streams WAL changes to S3/GCS/Azure/SFTP
Point-in-time recovery — restore to any second
Single binary — no dependencies, runs alongside your app
Near-zero overhead — lightweight sidecar process
Multiple replicas — replicate to multiple destinations
Automatic retention — configurable snapshot retention
Live restore — restore while app keeps running
Disaster recovery — full database restore from any point

Quick Start

# Install
sudo apt install litestream

# litestream.yml
dbs:
  - path: /data/myapp.db
    replicas:
      - type: s3
        bucket: my-backups
        path: myapp

# Start replication (runs as sidecar)
litestream replicate

# Restore
litestream restore -o /data/myapp.db s3://my-backups/myapp

Why SQLite Developers Need It

SQLite has no built-in replication:

No more cron backups — continuous streaming replication
Sub-second RPO — lose at most 1 second of data
$0.023/GB/mo — S3 storage is incredibly cheap
Simple — no PostgreSQL cluster, no managed database costs

A developer's PocketBase app used SQLite with daily cron backups. When the disk failed at 3 PM, they lost 15 hours of data. With Litestream, the same disaster would mean losing <1 second of data — continuous replication to S3 at $0.02/month.