Managed databases
Your database, ready for production.
Four engines, provisioned with credentials, TLS and encrypted storage — and reachable only from inside your workspace until you decide otherwise.
A managed database is not a container with Postgres in it. The difference is everything that happens after the first minute: who can reach it, what happens when the disk fills, whether last night's backup is a file you have actually restored, and what it costs when the answer to all three is "we will find out".
Dockup provisions PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB or Redis with credentials generated and injected into the services that need them, TLS on by default, and no public hostname at all. Your other services resolve it by name over the private network. There is nothing to firewall because there is nothing exposed.
- Engines
- PostgreSQL 17, 16, 15 · MySQL 8.4, 8.0 · MongoDB 8, 7 · Redis 7
- Reachable at
- main-db.internal:5432 — resolved by name over TLS, inside your workspace
- From the internet
- No route by default. Open one deliberately when an outside client genuinely needs it.
- Backups
- Daily, encrypted, seven retained, restorable to a new database rather than over the old one
- Access
- Read-only users scoped per person; browse and query from the dashboard
- Changing your mind
- Version, region, CPU, memory and storage change later without a rebuild — including moving region without a dump
What it costs to keep one running
Storage is $0.10 per GB-month and the database consumes CPU and memory at the same rates as anything else you run — $0.02778 per vCPU-hour, $0.01386 per GB-hour. A small always-on Postgres with half a core and 512 MB of memory works out at roughly $15 a month of infrastructure.
On the Pro plan the first $20 of that is included, which is why a database is usually the thing that makes Pro cheaper than Hobby. The arithmetic is on the pricing page, worked through to a total.
The part that matters at three in the morning
Every platform advertises backups. The question that separates them is whether a restore has ever been performed, and what it does to the database you still need. Dockup restores into a new database, so the broken one stays exactly as broken as it was while you look at the copy — which is the only sane way to debug a bad migration.
Guides in this section
- Managed PostgreSQLManaged PostgreSQL 17, 16 or 15 with credentials injected, TLS by default and no public hostname. Daily encrypted backups.
- Managed MySQLManaged MySQL 8.4 or 8.0 with credentials injected, TLS by default and no public hostname. Daily encrypted backups.
- Managed MongoDBManaged MongoDB 8 or 7 with credentials injected, TLS by default and no public hostname — the default that prevents exposure.
- Managed RedisManaged Redis 7 with credentials injected and TLS by default, for caching and job queues. Daily encrypted backups included.
Read next
- The managed PostgreSQL guideManaged PostgreSQL on Dockup: create a database, connect a service securely, inspect size and logs, back up data, restore safely, and add read-only users.
- Backups you have actually restoredUntested database backups fail in predictable ways: empty dumps, missing roles, wrong flags, no encryption key. Learn how to verify a restore so the file you are keeping is one that works.
- Point-in-time recovery vs. snapshotsPoint-in-time recovery vs snapshots comes down to one number: how much data you can afford to lose. Understand RPO, when nightly snapshots are enough, and when they quietly are not.
- Scaling a database that is already liveFrom vertical scaling to sharding: learn the strategies that will keep your database performant as you grow.
- Redis as a cache and as a queueRedis cache and queue patterns on Dockup: provision managed Redis, connect privately, define failure behavior, avoid data loss assumptions, and monitor usage.
- Persistent volumes and snapshotsPersistent volumes and snapshots on Dockup: choose mount paths, inspect usage, take and schedule snapshots, restore safely, and protect durable data.
Questions this page gets asked
Is the database reachable from the internet?
No, not unless you ask for it. There is no public hostname by default — your services resolve it by name over the private network, with TLS. You can open an external route deliberately when an outside client needs one.
Can I change the engine version or the region later?
Yes. Version, region, CPU, memory and storage are all changed after creation without rebuilding, and moving to another region does not require a dump and reload.
How are backups handled?
Daily and encrypted, with seven retained. A restore creates a new database rather than overwriting the existing one, so you can inspect the copy while the original stays untouched.
What does a small database cost per month?
Storage is $0.10 per GB-month plus metered compute and memory. A half-core, 512 MB always-on instance is roughly $15 a month of infrastructure — covered by the $20 included on the Pro plan.
Start on the free plan.
Ten dollars of infrastructure credit is already there, and no card is required.