Moving from Slackdump to SlackVault
Slackdump's README lists a Slack Export format, and that's the one to use. Its own archive and SQLite formats aren't something SlackVault's importer reads.
The steps
- Set up SlackVault: Slack app setup, then Firebase setup, then the browser extension. The first sync is covered in Syncing & your archive.
- Convert or create your archive in Slackdump's Slack Export format. Its README has the commands.
- Unzip the result and merge it. We haven't tested this on a Slackdump file, so check the counts on the Import page:
SlackVault's Import page reads one JSON file, not a ZIP, so a Slack export needs merging first. Unzip it and run this
inside the folder that holds users.json and channels.json, with jq installed:
jq -n --slurpfile users users.json --slurpfile channels channels.json \
--slurpfile msgs <(for c in $(jq -r '.[] | "\(.id):\(.name)"' channels.json); do
jq -s --arg id "${c%%:*}" '{($id): add}' "${c#*:}"/*.json
done) \
'{users: $users[0], channels: $channels[0], messages: ($msgs | add)}' > slackvault-import.json
Then upload slackvault-import.json on the Import page of the web app, as described in
Search & export. Merge mode adds new records and updates
existing ones. Private channels and DMs need their own export files, which this command doesn't cover.
- Run a sync. From then on the extension copies new messages while your browser runs, with no terminal involved. Keep your Slackdump archive: it holds real file copies on your disk, and SlackVault's file handling is different (see the limits below).
Last checked November 7, 2026. Check Slackdump for yourself. SlackVault is not affiliated with or endorsed by Slack.
Which one suits you
Choose Slackdump if you are comfortable on the command line and want a free, local, scriptable archive with its own viewer, search and format converters, no browser extension or cloud account involved.
Choose SlackVault if you want the archive to keep itself current in the background from a browser extension and to be readable by the whole team in a web app, without anyone running a terminal.
Prices
| Plan | Price | Terms as listed | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open source | $0 / one time | GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 | Their page |
Side by side
| What you need | SlackVault | Slackdump |
|---|---|---|
| Saves public channel messages | Yes | Yes Their page |
| Saves private channel messages | Yes | Yes Their page |
| Saves direct messages and group DMs | Yes | Yes: private conversations Their page |
| Saves thread replies | Yes: A thread that fails to save is skipped, not retried | Yes Their page |
| Saves shared files | Yes: File details always; copies only at a public link on our storage, when switched on | Yes Their page |
| Runs on its own on a schedule | Yes: Every 15 minutes, while the browser runs | Not stated on the pages we checked |
| Copy lives in storage you control | Partly: Messages in your Firebase project; file copies are not in your storage | Yes: saved locally Their page |
| Search across the saved history | Yes: The most recent page of messages, up to 50 per query | Yes: search mode for messages and files Their page |
| Export to open file formats | Yes: JSON, CSV, HTML and Markdown | Yes: Slack Export, Mattermost mode, dump, SQLite or json+gz archive Their page |
| Works without workspace admin rights | Partly: No admin scopes, though a workspace can require approval for new apps | Yes Their page |
| Puts records back into Slack | No: No way yet to send records back into Slack | Not stated on the pages we checked |
| Free plan with no time limit | Yes | Yes Their page |
What SlackVault does not do
- Messages, channels, members and file records go to your own Firebase project. Supabase is not supported yet.
- Files do not go to your Google Drive or your Firebase project. When file copying is switched on in our extension build, each file uploads to our file storage with its visibility set to public: the link is hard to guess, but anyone holding it can open the file without signing in. Where no storage key is set in the build, no copy is made, and your archive keeps the file’s details and Slack’s link, which works only while Slack serves that file.
- There is no way yet to send records back into Slack.
- The sync runs in a browser extension, every 15 minutes, only while that browser is running.
- SlackVault can copy only what Slack’s API still returns, so anything older than your plan’s window is out of reach unless an earlier sync already saved it.
- If saving one thread fails, the sync logs it and moves on without retrying those replies.
- Search checks the most recent page of messages, up to 50 per query, not the whole archive.
- The extension and the Android app have no store listing yet, and the source code is in a private repository.