Pay for Restic backup
with Bitcoin

Why pay for backup with Bitcoin

The argument for Bitcoin-paid backup hosting is the same as the argument for self-custody more broadly. You should be able to acquire critical infrastructure services without exposing your identity or relying on a payment processor that can cut you off.

• Privacy:Stripe sees your name, billing address, card number, and IP. With on-chain BTC, the only thing we receive is an invoice payment. We never learn who you are at the payment layer. Combined with Restic client-side encryption, we know less about your backups than any other Restic host.
• Censorship resistance:Card networks can and do drop legitimate businesses for arbitrary reasons. If our Stripe account were ever closed, our Bitcoin customers would still be paying and our vaults would still be running. Bitcoin gives you a backup payment rail when fiat infrastructure fails.
• No chargeback risk:Bitcoin payments are final. There is no chargeback dispute, which means we never need to freeze your vault to resolve a payment fight. Your backups stay online.
• Sovereignty:You hold the keys to your wallet. We hold the keys to ours. The payment is a direct value transfer between two self-custodial parties. No third party can reverse, freeze, or surveil the transaction.

How ServerCrate Bitcoin payments work

We run our own BTCPay Server node on dedicated infrastructure inside our LAN. BTCPay is open-source software any business can self-host to accept Bitcoin without a payment processor. Most "Bitcoin-accepting" merchants use a hosted service like BitPay or Strike, which means a third party still sees the transaction. Self-hosted BTCPay removes that intermediary entirely.

The payment flow

From signup to first backup, the entire process takes under a minute.

1. Sign up with just an email address. No phone, no ID.
2. Pick a plan: Free 10 GB, Starter $5, Standard $15, or Pro $29.
3. Click "Pay with Bitcoin" at checkout. A BTCPay invoice opens.
4. Send BTC on-chain or scan the Lightning invoice with your wallet.
5. Your vault provisions the moment the invoice settles.
6. Initialize Restic against your private SFTP endpoint:

   restic init --repo sftp:user@vault.servercrate.net:22150:/data

What we do not do

• No fiat conversion:We hold received BTC in our own custody. No auto-conversion to USD at our end. The payment never touches an exchange or processor that would link your wallet to your identity.
• No KYC:Email only. No identity verification, no government ID, no proof of address.
• No wallet analytics:We do not run chain analysis tied to your wallet address. Payment data stays inside our own BTCPay node.
• No third-party data sharing:Transaction data is not shared with BitPay, Strike, Coinbase, or any other custodian. Our BTCPay node is the only thing that sees your invoice.

Plans available in Bitcoin

Every ServerCrate plan can be paid in BTC or Lightning. Prices are quoted in USD and locked to spot BTC at invoice creation for 15 minutes.

• Free:10 GB, 1 device, 7-day retention. No payment required at all. Real zero-cost tier for trying Restic over SFTP before committing.
• Starter, $5/month:100 GB, 1 device, 30-day retention. Payable in BTC per cycle.
• Standard, $15/month:500 GB, 3 devices, 60-day retention. Payable in BTC per cycle.
• Pro, $29/month:1 TB, 5 devices, 90-day retention. Payable in BTC per cycle.

Renewal mechanics: Bitcoin has no native auto-debit primitive. Each renewal cycle we email you a BTCPay invoice a few days before your billing date. Pay it before the period ends and your vault continues uninterrupted. Miss the payment and your vault enters a 30-day grace period before suspension. Data is retained for the full grace window.

How we compare on payment options

If you are shopping Restic and Borg hosts and want a Bitcoin payment option, this is the current landscape:

• ServerCrate:On-chain BTC via self-hosted BTCPay. Lightning supported. Stripe optional for those who prefer cards.
• BorgBase:Stripe only. No BTC, no Lightning. Card required.
• rsync.net:Stripe and wire transfer. No BTC.
• Tarsnap:Stripe and ACH. No BTC.

This is not a moral judgment of competitors. BorgBase and rsync.net are excellent operators. We just made a different bet: that the homelab and self-hosting community contains a meaningful subset of users who specifically want a Bitcoin-payable backup destination as part of a broader self-custody stack.