Create Your Free Database

Peak keeps your business records in a database that belongs to you, not to us. If you ever leave, your data is already yours. Peak connects with its own limited logins and doesn't keep admin access.

The free option makes a Postgres database at Neon, a database company. Neon's free plan includes 1 GB of storage per database and doesn't need a credit card.

Only the workspace owner can do the last step, because the database moves into the owner's own Neon account.

1. 1On Basecamp, open the step "Create my free database", or go to "Connect your database".
2. 2Click "Create my free database". A checklist ticks off as Peak builds it, usually in under a minute. You can leave the page. It picks up where it stopped.
3. 3On "Last step: make it yours", click "Sign in to Neon to keep it", then "Open Neon".
4. 4Sign in to Neon (Google works), pick where to keep it, and tap Accept.
5. 5Come back to Peak. The page moves on by itself. You'll see "Your database is connected".

Accept it at Neon soon. An unclaimed free database is deleted after a few days, and Peak stores none of your business data in it until you accept. The Neon link works for 15 minutes; after that, click "Get a new Neon link".

If Peak asks for "One more paste", open your project in Neon, tap Connect, copy the connection string and paste it in, then click "Reconnect".

1. 1Choose "I already have a database", then "Paste a connection string".
2. 2Paste the owner or admin connection string. Peak uses it once to create its own logins, then forgets it.
3. 3Click "Test connection", then "Use this database".

It needs to be Postgres 14 or newer.

Your Database page shows a status like "Up to date" or "Update available". When Peak ships a change that needs your database updated, the owner clicks "Update now". Other members can click "Let them know" to ask the owner.

• "Not reachable": free databases fall asleep when they sit idle. Click "Wake it up".
• "Access removed": Peak's login stopped working. Click "Reconnect".
• "Plan limit reached": you've hit Neon's free plan limit. Click "Upgrade at Neon".

On the Database page, click "Export everything". You get a ZIP file with one spreadsheet (CSV) per table and the table structure, for every Peak tool. Peak makes it from your database when you ask and keeps no copy.

Only the owner can export, one export at a time. A big database can take a few minutes.