---
title: "LiteFS Cloud: Distributed SQLite with Managed Backups"
description: "LiteFS Cloud, launched in preview, adds managed backups and restores to LiteFS, an open-source distributed SQLite database that replicates data across application-cluster nodes. Existing LiteFS users had to create snapshots, choose retention, and accept restoration points limited by snapshot frequency; the service instead provides an equivalent snapshot every five minutes and restores within the last 30 days at five-minute granularity. Setup requires LiteFS 0.5.1 or later, a dashboard-created cluster, and an auth token, after which backups are automatic and dashboard restores use the latest snapshot before a selected timestamp. Its LTX format stores changed database pages, while multi-level compactions combine daily snapshots, hourly changes, and five-minute intervals so a restore can stream-merge a minimal set of files. To improve async replication’s durability trade-offs, the primary batches changes, LiteFS Cloud persists them in S3, and a high water mark prevents local transaction files from being removed before storage confirmation."
---

# LiteFS Cloud: Distributed SQLite with Managed Backups

[Fly.io](https://yomu.fyi/company/fly-io) · Jul 5, 2023

**Type:** Announcement

## Summary

LiteFS Cloud, launched in preview, adds managed backups and restores to LiteFS, an open-source distributed SQLite database that replicates data across application-cluster nodes. Existing LiteFS users had to create snapshots, choose retention, and accept restoration points limited by snapshot frequency; the service instead provides an equivalent snapshot every five minutes and restores within the last 30 days at five-minute granularity. Setup requires LiteFS 0.5.1 or later, a dashboard-created cluster, and an auth token, after which backups are automatic and dashboard restores use the latest snapshot before a selected timestamp. Its LTX format stores changed database pages, while multi-level compactions combine daily snapshots, hourly changes, and five-minute intervals so a restore can stream-merge a minimal set of files. To improve async replication’s durability trade-offs, the primary batches changes, LiteFS Cloud persists them in S3, and a high water mark prevents local transaction files from being removed before storage confirmation.

## Context

LiteFS provides local, asynchronously replicated SQLite for application clusters, but it does not include managed backups. Users previously had to build snapshotting and retention systems themselves, with restoration limited to available snapshot times.

## Approach / What changed

LiteFS Cloud automatically backs up LiteFS databases using LTX files, multi-level compactions, and S3 object storage. It batches transaction changes, tracks a high water mark for safe file retention, and supports dashboard restores to a selected timestamp within the last 30 days.

## Takeaways

- LiteFS Cloud is in preview and currently free; setup requires LiteFS 0.5.1 or later, a LiteFS Cloud cluster, and an authentication token.
- Multi-level LTX compactions use daily full snapshots, hourly change files, and five-minute intervals to minimize the files needed for point-in-time restoration.
- The LiteFS primary batches changes every second, while LiteFS Cloud periodically flushes compacted data to S3 and propagates the latest persisted transaction ID back to cluster nodes.

**Tags:** [LiteFS](https://yomu.fyi/topic/litefs), [Object Storage](https://yomu.fyi/topic/object-storage), [Replication](https://yomu.fyi/topic/replication), [SQLite](https://yomu.fyi/topic/sqlite)

- Source: [Fly.io](https://fly.io/blog/litefs-cloud)
- Source URL: https://fly.io/blog/litefs-cloud
- Ingested by Yomu: 2026-09-02T11:58:44.601Z

[Read original post](https://fly.io/blog/litefs-cloud)