DigitalOcean's native backup system covers five products across its platform. Of those five, two have no native backup at all, and the three that do have backups produce copies that sit inside the same account they're protecting. We back up DigitalOcean every day. The pattern we see consistently: teams discover what's missing from native backup at the worst possible moment, not during planning.
This list covers every serious tool in the category, including the ones that are better fits than SimpleBackups for certain setups. It covers what each tool protects, what it misses, what it costs, and which setup it actually suits.
What to look for in a DO backup tool
Before listing tools, a word on the criteria that matter. Not all of them are obvious.
Coverage across the full DO stack
DigitalOcean is not one product; it's five:
- Droplets (virtual machines)
- Block Storage Volumes (attached disks, not included in Droplet backups)
- Managed Databases (Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, Kafka)
- Spaces (S3-compatible object storage)
- DOKS (DigitalOcean Kubernetes Service)
A tool that protects Droplets but ignores Spaces and Managed DBs leaves gaps you won't notice until they matter. Before choosing, list which DO products you actually run. A mismatch on one product can mean starting over.
Off-site destination
The one thing that matters most
The most important feature in any backup tool isn't the schedule or the UI. It's whether the backup ends up somewhere that isn't DigitalOcean.
Every native DigitalOcean backup, including Droplet backups, snapshots, and Managed Database backups, lives inside the same DigitalOcean account as the resource it's protecting. Account compromise, suspension, a billing dispute, or a region-level outage takes the backup down with everything else.
For a deeper look at what the native system does and doesn't do, the article on how DigitalOcean native backup works has the full picture. The short version: native backup is not a substitute for off-site.
Scheduling and automation
Manual backups are better than nothing. Automated backups are what you actually rely on at 2am. Any tool worth using runs on a schedule without you touching it.
Restore speed and testability
A backup you can't restore quickly is a slower disaster. Check whether the tool lets you test a restore before you need one, and whether it takes minutes or hours.
Alerting on failure
Silent failures are the category's most common problem. If a backup fails at 3am and nobody gets an alert, you may not know for weeks.
Evaluate based on which DO products you actually use. A tool that covers everything is wasted money if you only run Droplets.
SimpleBackups
SimpleBackups is the tool we built, so we'll be direct about what it does and doesn't do.
What it covers
SimpleBackups covers the full DO stack: Droplets (file-level backups), Managed Databases (Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis), Spaces (bucket backup and replication), and Block Storage Volumes. DOKS coverage is available via database and volume backup, though Kubernetes manifest backup is handled separately.
Backups go off-site: AWS S3, Backblaze B2, Wasabi, Google Cloud Storage, DigitalOcean Spaces (as a destination from a different account), SFTP, or any S3-compatible target. That off-site step is the point. Your backup sitting on the same platform as your data is not a backup in any meaningful sense for disaster scenarios.
Scheduling and automation
Scheduling runs from a simple UI: hourly, daily, weekly, monthly. No cron syntax required, but cron expressions are supported if you prefer them. Alerts on failure go to email or Slack. You can configure restore-test runs and get notified on those too.
Restore
Restore is available through the UI or via the API. For database backups, you download the dump directly and restore from there. Droplet file-level backups restore via rsync or archive extraction to the target.
What it misses
SimpleBackups does not generate Droplet snapshots (the DigitalOcean-native snapshot format). If you need point-in-time snapshots integrated with the DO snapshot API, you'll want to supplement with a script or use the DO native snapshot feature alongside SimpleBackups.
For Kubernetes: SimpleBackups handles the data layer (databases, volumes), but if you need full cluster-state backup including manifests and secrets, Velero is the more complete answer for DOKS.
Pricing
SimpleBackups starts at $9/month [verify current tier]. The entry plan covers a small number of backup sources with daily scheduling and off-site storage. Higher tiers unlock more sources, shorter schedules, and retention depth. There is a free trial; no credit card required to start.
Who it suits
Teams running a mixed DO stack (Droplets plus databases plus Spaces) who want coverage without writing and maintaining scripts. Compliance-driven setups that need SOC 2, GDPR, or ISO 27001 alignment. Teams who have gotten burned by silent native-backup gaps and want failure alerts.
SnapShooter (Acquired by DigitalOcean)
SnapShooter started as an independent backup tool for DigitalOcean and was acquired by DigitalOcean in 2022. Its current standalone status is worth clarifying. [verify current availability as a separate product]
What it was
SnapShooter specialized in automating DigitalOcean's own snapshot and backup mechanisms. It could schedule Droplet snapshot creation and deletion, enforce retention policies, and send notifications when snapshots completed or failed. It also added database backup on top of native DO functionality.
Status after acquisition
Post-acquisition, DigitalOcean has integrated SnapShooter's core scheduling capabilities into the DO control panel (specifically, automated backups on Premium Droplets gained daily scheduling). Whether SnapShooter remains a separately purchasable product with its original feature set is something you should verify directly at DigitalOcean's current pricing page, as the offering has evolved. [verify]
What it still doesn't do (if available)
SnapShooter, even at its peak, kept backup copies inside the DigitalOcean ecosystem. Snapshots created through SnapShooter or the native DO API are not downloadable and not transferable to a different provider. The same-host risk that applies to native DO backup applies equally here.
For more on how native-vs-SimpleBackups stacks up across every product, the DigitalOcean native vs. SimpleBackups comparison has the full breakdown.
Who it suits
Teams already using DigitalOcean Premium Droplets who need more control over snapshot scheduling than the base control panel offers, and who are comfortable with all backups staying on DigitalOcean.
Restic + scripts (DIY path)
Restic is an open-source backup tool, command-line based, with no UI. It's fast, deduplicates across snapshots, encrypts everything before upload, and supports a wide range of backends including S3, B2, SFTP, and DigitalOcean Spaces.
What it covers
Restic backs up files and directories. If you can mount it or read it as a filesystem path, Restic can back it up. That covers Droplet files, Volume mount points, and database dumps (if you run pg_dump or mysqldump first and pipe the output into a Restic backup command).
# Example: back up a Postgres dump to Restic on Backblaze B2
export RESTIC_PASSWORD="your-encryption-key"
export B2_ACCOUNT_ID="your-b2-account-id"
export B2_ACCOUNT_KEY="your-b2-application-key"
pg_dump
--host=localhost
--username=postgres
--format=custom
postgres | restic backup
--repo b2:your-bucket-name:/postgres
--stdin
--stdin-filename postgres-$(date +%F).dump
For automated Droplet and Volume snapshot workflows built on top of the DO API (as distinct from file-level Restic backups), the existing guide on how to automate DigitalOcean server and volume snapshots walks through the scripting approach in detail.
What it misses
Restic has no concept of Managed Database backup natively. You write the dump step yourself, schedule it yourself, test it yourself, and handle failure alerting yourself. Same story for Spaces: backing up Spaces bucket contents with Restic requires a sync step (typically rclone) before Restic sees the files.
Restic also has no UI, no alert system, and no retention management beyond what you wire up in cron or systemd. For teams with a strong scripting culture, that's fine. For everyone else, it means backup maintenance becomes a recurring engineering task.
Restic is genuinely excellent at what it does. The risk isn't the tool itself. It's the scaffolding around the tool: the cron job nobody monitors, the alert that never got added, the script that worked for six months and broke silently after a Droplet resize.
Pricing
Restic is free. You pay for the storage backend (Backblaze B2 is ~$0.006/GB/month [verify], AWS S3 standard at ~$0.023/GB [verify], DigitalOcean Spaces at $5/month for 250 GB [verify]). Engineering time to build and maintain the scaffolding is not free.
Who it suits
Teams with a devops engineer who enjoys this kind of work, small budgets, and a stack limited to Droplets and file-level backups. If your team reaches for custom scripts before SaaS tools by default, Restic is the best open-source engine to build on.
Velero (Kubernetes only)
Velero is the standard open-source tool for backing up Kubernetes clusters. It was built by Heptio (acquired by VMware) and is now a CNCF project. If you run DOKS, Velero is the reference implementation for cluster backup.
What it covers
Velero backs up Kubernetes resources: namespaces, deployments, services, configmaps, secrets, PersistentVolumeClaims, and PersistentVolumes. It uses the Kubernetes API for resource snapshots and the cloud provider's volume snapshot API (in DO's case, the CSI driver) for PV data. Backups go to an object store, typically AWS S3, Wasabi, or DigitalOcean Spaces.
A schedule like this runs a full cluster backup every day:
velero schedule create daily-full
--schedule="0 3 * * *"
--ttl 720h
For a complete walkthrough of Velero on DOKS including PVC snapshot setup and restore testing, the guide on backing up DigitalOcean Kubernetes goes through every step.
What it misses
Velero is Kubernetes-only. It does not back up Droplets, Managed Databases, Spaces buckets, or Block Storage Volumes outside of PVCs. If your DOKS workloads write to a DigitalOcean Managed Database (common for stateful apps), Velero does not protect the database itself. You need a separate database backup solution alongside it.
Velero also requires familiarity with Kubernetes to install and maintain. The Helm chart is straightforward, but debugging a failed PVC snapshot restore takes Kubernetes-level knowledge.
Pricing
Velero is free. You pay for storage (Spaces, S3, etc.) and, optionally, for enterprise Velero support from vendors like Kasten (now Veeam).
Who it suits
Teams who run DOKS and need cluster-state backup: manifests, secrets, PVCs, and PV data. Not useful for non-Kubernetes workloads.
Duplicati (open source)
Duplicati is an open-source backup tool with a web UI, AES-256 encryption, deduplication, and support for a long list of backends including S3, Backblaze, Google Drive, SFTP, and DigitalOcean Spaces. It runs as a background service with a local web UI on Windows, Linux, and macOS.
What it covers
Duplicati backs up files and directories, similar to Restic but with a point-and-click interface. Install it on a Droplet, point it at the directories you want to protect, configure a Spaces (or any S3) destination, and it handles scheduling, encryption, deduplication, and retention.
What it misses
Duplicati has no native database backup. Like Restic, you need a pre-backup dump script if you want the database contents rather than just the raw data directory. Backing up Postgres by pointing Duplicati at /var/lib/postgresql/ without stopping the database first will produce a corrupt backup.
Duplicati's web UI is also known to be slow and resource-heavy on small Droplets. On a $6/month Droplet, the backup UI alone can spike CPU noticeably. [verify based on Droplet size context]
Intellectual honesty
Duplicati is a reasonable choice if you're already running a server that can host the UI, you back up files only, and you want a free tool that doesn't require shell expertise. It is not the right choice if you need database-native backups or a SaaS-grade alerting experience. We'd rather you pick the right tool for your stack than over-sell what any single option does.
Pricing
Duplicati is free and open source. No paid tiers.
Who it suits
Self-hosters comfortable with Linux server management who want a file-level backup tool with a UI and don't want to write cron scripts. Teams with simple stacks (one Droplet, files only).
The comparison table
Feature coverage by DO product
| Tool | Droplets | Volumes | Managed DBs | Spaces | DOKS | Off-site | Scheduling | Failure alerts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SimpleBackups | Yes | Yes | Yes (native) | Yes | Partial (data layer) | Yes | Automated | Yes |
| SnapShooter [verify] | Snapshots | Via DO API | Limited | No | No | No (DO only) | Yes | Yes |
| Restic + scripts | Files | Files | Via dump | Via rclone | Via dump | Yes (any) | DIY (cron) | DIY |
| Velero | No | No | No | No | Yes (full) | Yes | Yes | Limited |
| Duplicati | Files | Files | Via dump | As destination | No | Yes (any) | Yes | Limited |
| DO Native | Backups/snapshots | Snapshots | Daily backups | None | None | No | Limited | Limited |
Pricing comparison
| Tool | Free tier | Entry price | What's included | Per-resource pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SimpleBackups | Trial only | ~$9/month [verify] | Multiple sources, daily, off-site alerts | By plan tier |
| SnapShooter | Unknown [verify] | Unknown [verify] | Snapshot scheduling, notifications | Unknown [verify] |
| Restic | Free (OSS) | Storage cost only | File backup, encryption, dedup | None (pay storage) |
| Velero | Free (OSS) | Storage cost only | K8s backup, PVC snapshots | None (pay storage) |
| Duplicati | Free (OSS) | Storage cost only | File backup, UI, encryption | None (pay storage) |
| DO Native (Droplet backups) | No | 20% of Droplet price | Weekly (standard), daily (Premium), 4-week retention | Per-Droplet add-on |
Our recommendation (honest version)
There is no single "best" tool. The right answer depends on your stack and your team.
If you run a mixed DO stack (Droplets, Managed Databases, and/or Spaces), you need a tool with native database backup support and off-site storage. SimpleBackups and a Restic-based DIY setup are the two realistic options. SimpleBackups is faster to set up and ships with alerting. Restic is cheaper if someone on your team will maintain the scripting.
If you run DOKS, add Velero. It's not optional if you care about cluster state. Whether you combine it with SimpleBackups or handle the database layer separately is up to you.
If you only run Droplets with file-level backups, Restic or Duplicati both work. Restic is faster and has better deduplication. Duplicati has a UI if you prefer that.
If you're currently using DigitalOcean native backup only, the gap is off-site coverage. Native backup is useful as a fast rollback mechanism (a Droplet restore from a DO snapshot takes minutes). It is not a substitute for an independent copy on a different provider.
For a fuller picture of what native backup leaves uncovered, the article on what DigitalOcean native backup doesn't cover goes through the gaps product by product.
For teams that need to satisfy compliance requirements, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, and ISO 27001 all require off-site backup storage. Native DO backups alone don't satisfy that requirement. The DigitalOcean off-site compliance guide covers how to structure your backup stack for audit readiness.
The combination most teams end up with
Most teams running a real production stack on DigitalOcean end up with something like:
- DigitalOcean native backups or snapshots enabled on critical Droplets (fast rollback, stays on platform, easy to use from the DO control panel).
- A separate off-site backup tool running database dumps and file-level backups to a different provider.
- Velero, if they run DOKS.
The native backup layer and the off-site backup layer serve different purposes. The native layer gives you a fast, same-region rollback. The off-site layer protects you from account-level and platform-level failures.
What to do tonight
If you don't currently have any off-site backup running: pick one tool from this list and set it up for your most important resource. One database. One Droplet's files. Test a restore.
Don't start with the full migration. Start with one resource, run a restore test, and confirm you can actually get data back. That test run teaches you more about your backup posture than any planning document.
The reason we built SimpleBackups for DigitalOcean is exactly the gap this article describes: native backup covers the easy part, and none of the hard part. If you want off-site Droplet, database, and Spaces backup without writing any of it yourself, that's what it does.
Keep learning
- How DigitalOcean native backup works
- What DigitalOcean native backup doesn't cover
- How to automate DigitalOcean server and volume snapshots
- Backing up DigitalOcean Kubernetes
- The complete guide to DigitalOcean backup
FAQ
Does DigitalOcean have a built-in backup tool?
Yes, partially. DigitalOcean offers automated backups for Droplets (a paid add-on at 20% of the Droplet price, weekly on standard Droplets and daily on Premium), daily automated backups for Managed Databases (included, 7-day retention), and on-demand snapshots for Droplets and Volumes at $0.06/GB/month. Spaces and DOKS have no native backup. All native backup copies stay inside the DigitalOcean platform and are not downloadable or transferable to other providers.
Is SnapShooter still available as a standalone product?
DigitalOcean acquired SnapShooter in 2022. Some of SnapShooter's scheduling capabilities were integrated into the DO control panel, particularly for Premium Droplets. Whether SnapShooter remains available as a separate purchasable product with its original feature set has evolved since the acquisition. Check the current DigitalOcean marketplace or SnapShooter's own site to confirm what's available today. [verify]
Can I use Velero for non-Kubernetes DO backups?
No. Velero is a Kubernetes-native tool. It backs up Kubernetes resources (manifests, secrets, PVCs, PV data) and knows nothing about Droplets, Managed Databases, or Spaces. If you run DOKS alongside other DO products, you need a separate tool for the non-Kubernetes components. Velero and SimpleBackups are designed to run alongside each other.
What's the cheapest DigitalOcean backup solution?
Restic or Duplicati, both open source and free, with storage costs only. You'll pay roughly $0.006/GB/month on Backblaze B2 [verify] for the off-site storage. The real cost is engineering time: building the scheduling, alerting, and restore-testing scaffolding yourself. For small setups with a technically confident team, that's a reasonable tradeoff. For teams where backup maintenance would compete with product work, a managed tool at $9–$20/month often costs less total when you factor in time.
Do I need different tools for Droplets vs. databases vs. Spaces?
You might, depending on how you want to approach it. Some tools cover all three (SimpleBackups), some only cover one category well (Velero for DOKS, Restic for file-level). The native DigitalOcean backup system uses different mechanisms for each product: snapshot API for Droplets and Volumes, a managed service for databases, and nothing for Spaces. A tool that provides a single interface across all three products reduces operational overhead, but only matters if you actually run all three.
This article is part of The complete guide to DigitalOcean backup, an honest, practical reference from the team that backs up DigitalOcean every day.