01 / Why

Three things nothing else does at once.

One binary.

Built with bun build --compile for Linux, macOS and Windows. No native deps, no sidecar, no companion daemon.

Real SQL tables.

Every collection is a real table: vb_posts, vb_users. SQLite by default (open it with sqlite3), Postgres (beta) when you outgrow the box. Index it. Migrate it.

Logic in the browser.

Hooks, routes, cron and queue workers, written in the admin UI with autocomplete typed to your real schema. Save it. The next request runs it.

02 / Measured, not projected

One small box, zero errors.

A 4 vCPU VPS running the default install behind nginx. Measured over the internet against a 100,000-record collection, re-run before every release.

1,200+ req/s

record reads, realistic mix

3,000+ req/s

single-record fetches

1,600+ req/s

record writes

1,000 req/s

mixed, 80 % reads · 20 % writes

Every figure is a sustained rate with no failed request and p95 under 400 ms end to end, round trip included. Setup, method and scripts: how we measure →

03 / Replaces

Six services at $140 a month. Or one $5 box.

BEFORE · 6 SERVICES

Managed database $25/mo

Auth0 / Clerk $23/mo

S3 + signed URLs $8/mo

Pusher / Ably $49/mo

Inngest / Trigger.dev $20/mo

Backend host $15/mo

Total $140/mo

AFTER · 1 BINARY

./vaultbase

SQLite
Auth
Files
Realtime
Hooks
Queue
MCP

$5/mo VPS. One process, one port, and one folder you can scp as a backup.

04 / In the box

Eight systems. Zero add-ons.

No plugins, no Pro tier. All of it ships in v0.27.1.

16 FIELD TYPES · 3 COLLECTION KINDS

Collections + REST

Real SQL tables with typed, validated fields. REST with filter, sort, expand and projection. ETag optimistic concurrency. Edit a field and get an ALTER-style schema diff.

relation · select · json · file
editor · geoPoint · vector
base · auth · view
ETag-aware writes

GET /api/v1/posts

?filter=status="published"
&sort=-created
&expand=author
&fields=id,title,author.name

15 OAUTH2 PROVIDERS + OIDC

Auth

Email and password, OAuth2 with PKCE (Google, GitHub, Apple, Microsoft, Discord and more, plus generic OIDC), OTP and magic links, MFA/TOTP, anonymous sessions and admin impersonation.

JWT, configurable expiry
Recovery codes
No account-enumeration leaks
Multi-admin

providers

google · github · apple
microsoft · discord · +10
generic OIDC

MFA / TOTP  ✓
magic link  ✓

WEBSOCKET + SSE

Realtime

Subscribe to a collection, a single record, one kind of event, or * for everything. SSE fallback included. Every stream is checked against your API rules.

Record subscriptions
Event-type topics
Wildcard topics
Auth-gated streams

ws://localhost:8091/realtime

subscribe  posts
subscribe  posts/abc123
subscribe  posts.create
subscribe  *

LOCAL · S3 · R2

Files

Local disk by default, one-click S3 and R2 presets. On-the-fly thumbnails, MIME and size validation, and per-field protection with one-time, IP-bound tokens. Every download is audited.

?thumb=300x200
Per-field viewRule
One-time + IP-bound tokens
Download audit log

GET /api/v1/files/posts/abc123/cover.jpg

?thumb=300x200
&token=one-time·ip-bound

→ files.download audit row

HOOKS · ROUTES · CRON · QUEUES · FLAGS · WEBHOOKS · PUSH

Server-side logic

Six hook points, custom HTTP routes, UTC cron, queue workers, HMAC-signed webhooks, feature flags with rollout, and push via OneSignal or FCM. All edited live in the browser with Monaco autocomplete.

Edit live, no redeploy
helpers.notify(userId, payload)
helpers.flags.isEnabled
helpers.http with retries

helpers

sql · fs · http · security
template · cron · mails
flags · webhooks · notify

AUDIT · HISTORY · BACKUPS · COSIGN

Operations

Request log viewer with rule-eval inspection, admin audit log, per-collection record history with point-in-time restore, scheduled backups (a file copy on SQLite, pg_dump on Postgres), AES-GCM at rest, and session revoke. Every release is keyless-signed with a CycloneDX SBOM.

Admin audit log
Point-in-time restore
Active sessions + revoke
Sigstore signatures

shell

$ vaultbase backup --to s3://bucket
✓ snapshot data.db
✓ uploaded 41.2 MB

LOCKOUT · CORS · HIBP · METRICS

Security

Per-email and per-IP brute-force lockout, CORS allow-list, password policy with an optional Have I Been Pwned check, SSRF egress guard for hooks, and Prometheus metrics with optional bearer auth.

Brute-force lockout
Password policy + HIBP
SSRF egress guard
Update checker

GET /api/v1/metrics

vaultbase_requests_total
vaultbase_step_duration_microseconds
vaultbase_database_bytes
vaultbase_uptime_seconds

FIRST-PARTY MODEL CONTEXT PROTOCOL

MCP for AI agents

A built-in MCP server for Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, Zed and any other client that speaks the protocol. Tools are generated per collection, gated by token scopes, and every call is audited.

5 tools per collection
Scope-gated tokens
Every call audited
Read-only mode

transports

stdio
HTTP + SSE
stateless POST

npx @vaultbase/mcp  # remote bridge

05 / Admin UI

Schema, rules and code. Live.

No migrations folder. No redeploy. Edit, save, done.

DATA

Collections

Logs

API preview

LOGIC

Hooks 4

Cron 2

Queues 1

posts 12 fields · 3 indexes

title text min 3 · max 120 REQ

slug text unique · ^[a-z0-9-]+$ UNIQ

author relation → users · single REQ

status select draft / published / archived

cover file image/* · 5 MB · thumb 300x200

FIELD OPTIONS · TEXT

NAME

title

LENGTH

3

120

Required

Encrypted

06 / Compare

How it stacks up.

Built for solo devs and small teams on one host. If you need multi-region, use something else.

	Vaultbase	PocketBase	Supabase	Firebase
Single binary, self-hosted	Yes (Supported)	Yes (Supported)	No (Not supported)	No (Not supported)
Database	SQLite or Postgres (Supported)	SQLite only (Partial)	Postgres (Supported)	Firestore (NoSQL) (Partial)
Logic editable in the browser	Yes (Supported)	File-based (Not supported)	Edge Fns (Partial)	Deploy only (Not supported)
Queues + cron built in	Native (Supported)	Cron only (Partial)	Extensions (Partial)	Cloud Tasks (Partial)
Realtime	WS + SSE (Supported)	SSE only (Partial)	WebSocket (Supported)	Proprietary (Supported)
Record history + restore	Yes (Supported)	No (Not supported)	DIY (Not supported)	No (Not supported)
First-party MCP server	Yes (Supported)	No (Not supported)	No (Not supported)	No (Not supported)
Open source	MIT (Supported)	MIT (Supported)	Apache 2.0 (Supported)	Proprietary (Not supported)
Multi-region	No (Not supported)	No (Not supported)	Yes (Supported)	Yes (Supported)

07 / Install

Running in under a minute.

First run opens a setup wizard that creates your admin account.

ONE-SHOT · SIGNATURE-VERIFIED

$ curl -fsSL https://get.vaultbase.dev | sudo sh -s -- --verify-sig
✓ Latest release: v0.27.1
✓ SHA-256 verified
✓ Cosign signature verified (Sigstore Fulcio)
✓ Installed /usr/local/bin/vaultbase
# Linux · macOS · needs cosign on PATH · systemd service on Linux

WINDOWS · POWERSHELL

> irm https://get.vaultbase.dev/install.ps1 | iex
✓ Latest release: v0.27.1
✓ SHA-256 verified
✓ Installed %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Vaultbase
# no admin rights · adds vaultbase to your PATH

FROM SOURCE · BUN

$ bun install
$ bun run build  # → ./vaultbase
$ ./vaultbase    # → :8091
# open localhost:8091/_/ → setup wizard

08 / Architecture

One process. Your data is files.

TypeScript end to end. No second asset server, no native module.

INBOUND

HTTP · :8091

WebSocket · /realtime

Admin UI · /_/

./vaultbase ~90 MB

bun
elysia
bun:sqlite
Bun.sql
drizzle
react 19
monaco
queue engine
oauth2 · jwt
aes-gcm

ON DISK

data.db

uploads/

logs/*.jsonl

NOT FOR V1.0

Multi-region deployments
Sharding
A managed cloud (it is on the roadmap for later)
100k+ concurrent connections

Starts as one file on one box. Outgrow it, and point it at Postgres (beta) to run several servers. Need more than that from your backend? Vaultbase isn't for you, by design.

Your whole backend.
One file.