In Databases / Updated October 17, 2026

SQLite is an embedded database: the entire thing lives in a single file inside your server's files. It is the default shape most plugins use, and for most owners the honest summary is: nothing to configure.

What SQLite is, plainly

A SQLite database is a real database engine, embedded: the engine ships inside the software that uses it, and the database itself is one file on your disk. There is no server process to run, no address to point at, no port to wire up, no network step anywhere in it. The plugin opens its file, reads and writes tables inside it, and carries on.

If that sounds like the flat-file shape with a database engine inside it, that is exactly what it is, and it is why plugin authors like it: it gives them table storage without making you run anything.

Where it lives

Inside the plugin's own data, usually under plugins/<plugin name> . File names and subfolders differ from plugin to plugin, and we name no exact path here on purpose: your plugin's page and documentation are the record for those details, and they say what the plugin keeps and where. What holds for every one of them: the file sits in your server's file tree, it is visible in your file manager, and it copies with your server.

What it means for you

Nothing to configure. A plugin running on SQLite needs no host, no port, no database user, no password: those five values belong to external database setups, and this path needs zero of them. Install the plugin, restart, and it handles its own storage from that point on.

The file being one file also means the data moves like a file: take the plugin's folder with you when a world moves, and the storage rides along, the way the rest of the server's files do. No export steps, nothing to convert by hand, nothing that lives outside the files you already copy.

If your plugin's docs list SQLite and MySQL both, the docs are the ones to read about which way to run: some authors steer single-server worlds toward SQLite and point bigger or cross-server setups at MySQL, and they say it on their own pages in their own words.

One tie to backups, stated plainly

Your plugin's data sits in your server's files, so it saves and restores with the server's own backups: the same backup slots, the same restore control, nothing extra to set up. That is one of the quiet benefits of the file shape: the thing you care about never lives somewhere you cannot reach.

We do not sell database hosting: when a plugin needs an external database, you bring your own from a provider you choose.

Related reading: Flat files vs MySQL: how plugins store your data .

A data file surprises you, or a plugin misbehaves around its storage: open a ticket from your account with the plugin's name and what the console printed, and a person takes a look.