SQLite for self-hosted apps: when it is enough
SQLite is a whole database in one file, and for an application that runs on one server it is often all you need. Darkbeacon, the self-hosted EVE Online wormhole mapper we publish as open source, starts on SQLite and moves to PostgreSQL with a single setting.
What we do with SQLite
One file, no database server
Nothing to install or keep running next to the app. Darkbeacon keeps everything in one volume, so a single container is the whole deployment.
Backups the app takes itself
On SQLite, Darkbeacon backs its database up while it runs, on a schedule with retention, and the data is backed up again before an update migrates it.
A clear point to switch
Its docs give the measured limits and say when to point DATABASE_URL at PostgreSQL, including for several replicas. Starting small does not lock the project in.
Open source and docs
Our own packages and guides where SQLite does the work.
Other technologies
The rest of the stack, each with its own services and projects.
Building a tool that runs on one server?
Message usTell us who uses it and how much data it keeps. We will say whether SQLite is enough, or where it stops being so.
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