Features
Everything Backup Chief does for your backups
A small agent on each Linux server backs up your folders and databases with restic, straight to your own storage. Here is everything Backup Chief does around that, and what it works with.
Backups
Back up the folders and databases that matter
Every backup job protects one source on one server, on its own schedule and with its own history. Mix files, MySQL and PostgreSQL across as many servers as your plan allows.
File backups
Up to 100 absolute directories per job, saved together in each backup. Skip what you do not need with patterns such as *.log or storage/cache.
MySQL and PostgreSQL
Back up all databases, or pick databases and even single tables. MySQL can include stored routines and scheduled events. Each database is saved as its own SQL file.
Schedules
From every 5 minutes up to once a day, at a start time in your own timezone. The Free plan runs daily backups. Start an extra backup with Run now whenever you need one.
Test before you save
Test a new source from the job form: the agent checks the directories or database credentials on the server itself and tells you what it found.
Deduplicated and compressed
restic only stores data it has not seen before, and compresses it. A database that changes a little every 15 minutes adds a few megabytes, not a full copy.
Gentle on your server
The agent runs backups at low CPU and disk priority, so your sites keep serving while a backup runs.
Recovery points
Keep the history you need, and see it is there
Every backup becomes a recovery point. You decide how long they are kept, and Backup Chief shows exactly what you can go back to and what it costs in storage.
Flexible clean-up
Keep the latest backups at full frequency, plus a number of hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and yearly recovery points. Old ones are cleaned up automatically, the newest is always kept.
Keep forever
Mark an important recovery point, such as the one before a big migration, and automatic clean-up will never remove it.
Extra copies
Keep a second copy at another storage destination. Existing recovery points are copied over, and every new backup is copied after it finishes.
Run history
Every backup and maintenance task with its trigger, runtime, files and bytes read, what it added and the storage used afterwards, with the log of each run.
Restore
Get back exactly what you lost
Browse a recovery point like a folder, take out a single file, or put a whole folder or database back. Restores on your own servers and with restic directly are always unlimited.
Browse files
Open any recovery point and browse its folders, filter them, and preview small files right in the browser.
Prepared downloads
Download a file, a folder or a database as a ZIP. Prepared downloads are private, can be shared with a link and expire 72 hours after they are ready.
Restore on the server
Copy one command to restore a recovery point, folder or database on the server, or export a ZIP there. It always restores into an empty directory, so you can check before you swap.
From any copy
Restore from the main copy or from an extra copy, whichever is closest or still available.
Databases
Restore one database, or all of them at once. Every database is a plain SQL file that any MySQL or PostgreSQL server can import.
Plain restic
Prefer the restic command line? Every restore screen shows the commands to do it yourself.
Security
Encrypted on your server, unlocked by you
Backups are encrypted by restic before they leave the server. Backup Chief runs them with its own key, and gives you a recovery password that only you keep.
Recovery document
Every job starts with a recovery document: the recovery password, where the backups are stored and the restic commands to restore them. You download it once, we cannot show it again.
Confirmed before it starts
A job only starts backing up after you enter the code from the document you saved, so nobody ends up with backups they cannot open.
Save to 1Password
Save the recovery document straight into 1Password instead of downloading a file.
One location per job
Each job gets its own encrypted location at your storage, with its own keys. A plain README beside it explains what it is to whoever finds it.
Data never passes through us
Backups go from your server straight to your storage. Only a download you prepare yourself is stored at Backup Chief, until it expires.
Team and server access
Invite your team to manage the same backups. Servers sign in with their own credential, which you can revoke at any time.
Monitoring
Know your backups work, without checking
The dashboard puts what needs you first. Integrity checks prove the backups are intact, and email tells you when something breaks, and again when it recovers.
Integrity checks
Regular metadata checks, plus data checks that read a different part of the stored backups each time, so problems with your storage show up before restore day.
Email alerts
Hear about failed backups, failed maintenance and servers that stop checking in, and again when they recover. Every team member picks the emails they want.
Needs attention
Failed backups, jobs that never completed one, offline servers, rejected configurations and storage credentials that are still rolling out are listed first.
Next runs
See what runs next across all jobs, and when every server last checked in.
Storage
Your storage, at the provider you choose
Connect object storage or an SFTP server you already pay for. We do not resell storage and never limit how much you keep there.
S3-compatible
Any S3-compatible object storage over HTTPS. Backup Chief checks it can write there before a job uses it.
SFTP
An SFTP server such as a storage box, with a password or an SSH key, and pinned host keys.
Credential rotation
Change storage credentials and see which servers still use the old ones, so you know when it is safe to revoke them.
Storage used
See how much storage every job, extra copy and storage destination uses, measured after each backup and clean-up.
The agent
Does the work, and stays out of the way
One static binary for Linux. Install it with one command, link it with a one-time token, and it keeps your backups running from then on.
- Outbound only
- The agent connects out over HTTPS to Backup Chief and to your storage. No open ports and no inbound access to your servers.
- Runs on its own
- Schedules are kept on the server. When Backup Chief cannot be reached, backups still run and their results are sent once it is back.
- Pinned restic
- A checksum-verified restic is built in, so backups never depend on whatever version the server has installed.
- Careful by design
- A new configuration is only applied after it validates, and old recovery points are never cleaned up while the outcome of a backup is still unknown.
- Updates itself
- New releases roll out in small hourly batches once running backups finish, and pause after failed installs. Turn it off per team or server.
- Open source
- Read every line on GitHub, or run the agent without Backup Chief from a configuration file you write yourself.
Plesk, teams and API
Fits the way you already work
Plesk
Connect a Plesk server to back up subscription files, local mailboxes, the Plesk configuration and every persistent MySQL database, kept in sync with the server's inventory.
Teams
Invite unlimited team members on every plan, and work in as many teams as you like.
REST API
Manage servers, storage and backup jobs, start backups, follow runs and prepare downloads. With a public API reference.
MCP server
Connect an AI assistant to check how your backups are doing, read a run log, start a backup or prepare a download. Learn more.
Supported platforms
What it works with
- Operating systems
- Ubuntu 14.04 and newer, Debian 8 and newer, CentOS and Red Hat 7, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux and CloudLinux 8 and newer, and Fedora
- Architectures
- amd64 and arm64, Linux 3.2 or newer, with systemd or SysV init
- Backup sources
- Directories, MySQL and MariaDB with the mysql and mysqldump clients, PostgreSQL with the psql and pg_dump clients, and Plesk
- Storage
- S3-compatible object storage over HTTPS, and SFTP
- Backup format
- Standard restic repositories, readable with the official restic command line
Not the features you are looking for? Tell us what you need!
No lock-in, by design
Trust us with your backups, without depending on us
Backup software you cannot leave is a risk of its own. Backup Chief makes running backups easy, and keeps every way out open.
Standard restic backups
Everything is stored in restic's open format in your own storage. The stock restic command line reads it, no Backup Chief required.
Restore without us
Your recovery document holds the password and the commands to restore every job, even if Backup Chief is gone.
Open-source agent
Review exactly what runs on your servers, report issues or build the agent yourself from GitHub.
Keeps going on its own
Schedules live on your server. If Backup Chief is unreachable, backups still run and report back later.
chieftools/backupchief-agent · powered by restic
Your first backup is ten minutes away
Connect your storage, install the agent and pick what to protect. The Free plan includes one server and one daily backup job, for as long as you like.