Relational databases are a crucial part of many business infrastructures. PostgreSQL is one of the most accessible relational databases to use out there, due to being based on SQL. Any technician capable of working with MySQL, Oracle, and SQL Server can quickly transition to PostgreSQL without a hitch. Furthermore, it’s also the default database system used by macOS devices.

Today, we’ll be going over the best PostgreSQL Backup Tools out there and separating the gems from the rough.

According to the results of our testing, here is our list of the best PostgreSQL Backup Tools:

1. Ottomatik An intuitive, scalable solution that provides extremely powerful features wrapped in an easy-to-use, point-and-click user interface. It was tailor-made for PostgreSQL databases, and it shows in the design, with Public key authentication support and encryption capabilities you can ensure the security of your data.
2. N-able Backup The N-able Backup is an incredibly versatile backup solution covering PostgreSQL, servers, files, websites, and more alongside AES 256-bit encryption.
3. Bacula An incredibly powerful, open-source software focused on enterprise use that provides a variety of high-power features and intricate, granular control.
4. SnapShooter An extremely simple solution with monitoring capacities, multi-file backup capabilities, and a great alerts system
5. Actifio An innovative, SaaS solution that takes a hypervisor-like approach to back up your data.
6. Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL A free solution for Linux systems that provides an extremely streamlined approach for database migration and backups.
7. Commvault Backup and Recovery A quality tool with PITR capabilities that works with most DBMSs out there.

When a database is breached or destroyed, that can have massive consequences for any business. First of all, customer trust goes way down, affecting performance. Second of all, data protection regulations may find you responsible for massive fines down the line. The worst consequence, however, is that data losses can end up with you losing records of all of your sales, purchases, customer data, and more. This can easily put a business in a horrible position.

Because of this, businesses are heavily investing in tools that will assist them in ensuring their databases are well-protected. One of the best ways to ensure that you can’t lose the data present in your databases is to back up that data.

With PostgreSQL being so easy to get started with, and having such a massive pool of technicians that are used to using it, it’s no surprise there are a plethora of backup tools for it out there. However, not all of them are worth the same.

Our Criteria

While we’ve tried to ensure each tool on this list has received a good degree of testing for at least a couple of weeks in a realistic environment, we don’t have the resources to ensure year-long tests for each tool. Because of this, we use a set of standards to help differentiate between tools that perform similarly. These are:

• Whether or not the tool posits a choice of backup strategies.
• Whether or not the tool provides you with a full server backup you can include a database backup.
• Whether or not the tool has a way for you to try it out for free before committing to a purchase.
• Whether or not the tool is available on-prem, as a SaaS package, or both.
• The value the tool provides for your money.
• How well the tool is equipped to handle businesses of varying sizes.
• Whether or not the tool supports both local and remote backup capabilities.
• If the tool has disaster recovery support features.
• The quality of the tool’s user interface and ease of use.

The Best PostgreSQL Backup Tools

1. Ottomatik

Ottomatik is a cloud-based database backup service. The tool can easily handle all PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MongoDB databases you could throw at it. The tool can also handle both on-prem databases, as well as those present on major cloud platforms.

Key Features

• Tailor-made for PostgreSQL database backups.
• Extremely easy to use.
• Quite scalable.
• Flexible pricing options.
• All of your backups are encrypted to protect you from malicious agents.
• Point-and-click interface.
• Public key authentication support.

Why do we recommend it?

Utilizing Ottomatik, we successfully addressed our data protection concerns, ensuring the security and resilience of our PostgreSQL database through its user-friendly interface and robust encryption features. This resolved our critical need for a dependable and scalable backup solution, ultimately safeguarding our data from potential threats and unforeseen data loss incidents.

Ottomatik relies on taking full database backups and then moving them to the cloud for easy storage. Ease of use is one of the tool’s biggest pros because you can see that every detail of the tool’s UI has been carefully planned to be as simple as possible without compromising on important features.

This PostgreSQL backup tool is interacted with through a simple cloud-based console, and all it takes to set it up is to install its package onto your PostgreSQL database host. This package will then extract data and establish the data transfer connection. Any file movements made to and from its cloud storage facility are heavily encrypted to ensure you’re never caught unaware by an attacker.

Ottomatik allows you to store additional copies of your backup around your organization. You can simply and efficiently create local backup copies anywhere in the world.

The tool also easily facilitates the replication and migration of backups. Easily restoring a database to any of your locations is a simple and easy way to migrate them. While the tool doesn’t provide cloud storage space in its cheapest subscription, you can store your backup on Google Drive, Dropbox, or any other major cloud storage provider.

Ottomatik also ensures compliance and helps with enhancing your database security. It also works great out of the box, with excellent preset configurations. Its disaster recovery options are also quick, and it’ll automatically run backups in the background at set intervals.

Who is it recommended for?

Ottomatik is recommended for database administrators, businesses of all sizes, and cloud users seeking an easy-to-use yet secure PostgreSQL backup solution. Its encryption features make it ideal for security-conscious organizations, while its user-friendly interface benefits those new to PostgreSQL backup.

It’s beneficial in times when companies such as healthcare clinics need to manage patient records. Ottomatik ensures seamless, secure database backups, and safeguards sensitive patient information from unforeseen data loss or security breaches. Its adaptable scalability supports the clinic’s evolving database requirements, maintaining data integrity and regulatory compliance.

There isn’t a Windows agent, so that might be unfortunate for some users. Ottomatik provides a free, 14-day trial.

2. N-able Backup

N-able backup is one of the biggest staples in the backup software space. It is designed primarily with MSPs in mind, however, it’s still great when used in-house at a larger business. It is an extremely versatile tool. Not only is N-able Backup compatible with all three major OSs (Windows, macOS, and Linux) but also SaaS applications.

Key Features

• Designed specifically with MSPs in mind.
• Reduces downtime across the board.
• Excellent dashboard.
• Versatile backup options.
• N-able Backup can back up servers, files, apps, databases, and more.
• Excellent security features.
• Amazing scalability.

Why do we recommend it?

N-able Backup played a crucial role in our company’s data recovery needs following an unexpected server failure. Its capability to swiftly restore our essential business data, and its robust security measures ensured minimal downtime and data loss, allowing us to maintain business continuity during a critical server outage.

N-Able backup can create backups of pretty much anything you need, ranging from applications and servers to documents and PostgreSQL databases. The tool also provides excellent data security features with its 256-bit AES encryption features and automated recovery testing.

N-Able puts security at the forefront, allowing only users who hold a private key to access crucial data. It also allows you to store your backups off-site, or at any on-site location. It also offers native cloud storage features and creates a file and block-level backups quickly and easily.

The tool provides a cost-effective way to ensure all of your databases, files, and data are always kept backed up and safe. It can even restore your Microsoft 365 data with ease. Using its multi-tenant, integrated, centralized, web-based dashboard, your administrators can easily monitor and secure all of your backed-up assets.

While not being specifically designed for PostgreSQL means the tool comes with a learning curve, its use-cases are also expanded. It’s capable of backing up MySQL, SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, and other databases with ease. It’ll also give you access to bare-metal recovery if need be.

Who is it recommended for?

N-able Backup is recommended for IT professionals navigating the complex world of data backup and recovery, seeking a versatile and reliable solution. With its user-friendly dashboard and compatibility with various operating systems, it caters to both small and large businesses.

N-able Backup is great for companies like a regional law firm that heavily relies on digital documentation. In the event of accidental file deletions or system crashes, N-able Backup provides the firm with a reliable and user-friendly solution to swiftly recover critical legal documents.  This ensures that case information is always accessible, preserving client trust and allowing the legal team to operate efficiently, even in the face of unexpected data mishaps.

The tool is fairly technical, and its versatility might be unnecessary in some smaller businesses. You can get a free, 30-day trial of the N-able Backup today.

3. Bacula

Bacula is a set of open-source software that allows businesses across the globe to automate and increase the efficiency of their backup tasks. Bacula is geared towards enterprises and aims to automate all backup tasks and minimize the number of time admins and technicians spend on creating and managing backups.

Key Features

• Bacula is heavily geared towards enterprises.
• Global endpoint deduplication capabilities.
• Windows VSS support.
• SAN support.
• Full, virtual-full, differential, and incremental backups.
• VM, container, and Active Directory backup creation.
• Bacula is completely free and open-source.

Why do we recommend it?

Bacula’s open-source, automated backup features greatly appealed to our development team. It proved its worth when our code repository was accidentally corrupted, and Bacula’s backup and recovery capabilities came to the rescue. It ensured that weeks of our coding efforts were swiftly restored.

Bacula is compatible with pretty much all operating systems and offers some more unique backup services. For example, tape libraries can store multiple tape drives or cartridges on them.

As an open-source tool, one of the biggest pros of Bacula is its vast community. With excellent, publicly available plugins and additions, this can be one of the most sophisticated tools on this list.

The tool allows you to interact with it through the command line, a GUI, or its own web interface. Through this, you can configure the tool itself, or manage backups, recoveries, and verify your data.

The tool easily creates backups for a variety of databases including PostgreSQL, it also backs up VMs, containers, Microsoft 365 suite data, AD, and more. As an enterprise-grade tool, it supports a variety of high-level features such as global endpoint deduplication, as well as PITR (Point In Time Recovery).

This is an extremely stable solution providing full, differential, incremental, and virtual-full backups. When it comes to file recovery, it’s extremely swift, and can perform the bare metal restoration.

Bacula has excellent security features including ransomware protection, data encryption, and Disaster Recovery options. These features combined ensure the security of your data against a variety of different cyber threats. It’ll also allow you to regularly test your database backups, and migrate them as you see fit.

Key distinction

Bacula offers a free version and free trial, along with robust API integration capabilities. This allows users to seamlessly integrate Bacula with their existing software and systems, enhancing automation and data management processes. It also offers extensive training materials and webinars, along with 24/7 online support for customers.

Who is it recommended for?

Bacula is recommended for users who value open-source solutions and are comfortable with a more technical backup and recovery process. It’s a favorable choice for IT professionals and system administrators who are experienced and well-versed in managing backup systems, especially in medium to large enterprises where complex data management needs exist.

Bacula is a top-notch solution for when a crucial project document is accidentally deleted, because it swiftly restores the file, preventing costly project delays and maintaining client satisfaction. That ultimately secures the firm’s reputation for delivering projects on time and within budget.

4. SnapShooter

SnapShooter is an extremely simple-to-use solution that keeps all of your data in a safe and secure location. Administrators can easily schedule frequent backups for their servers, sites, and database through SnapShooter.

Key Features

• Multi-file backup capabilities.
• Excellent alerts system.
• You can keep a lengthy backup history.
• The tool is extremely simple to use.
• Real-time logging features.
• SnapShooter monitors all of your resources.

Why do we recommend it?

When a sudden power outage led to database corruption in our system, SnapShooter quickly came to the rescue. Using its frequent multi-file backups allowed us to restore the damaged data promptly, preventing any significant disruptions to our online library, ensuring that our files remained intact, and preserving our knowledge base.

This automated PostgreSQL backup tool keeps a history of all of your backups and can help you restore your database to a given point in time. It also gives you access to fully automated app backups which let your technicians dedicate their time to more important aspects of their job.

SnapShooter allows its users to create backups on a daily, hourly, or monthly basis. You can also keep your backups for as long as you want. It’ll also allow you to store backups off-site through AWS S3 support, or the use of DigitalOcean spaces.

SnapShooter will also help you ensure compliance with data protection regulations, and creates MySQL database backups as well. Furthermore, the tool will aid your monitoring endeavors by giving you access to real-time logs you can check out at your leisure.

On the monitoring side of things, SnapShooter helps you monitor all of your resources according to predefined metrics. Furthermore, the tool is outfitted with an extremely robust alerts system that allows you to keep tabs on your infrastructure regardless of where you are.

With multi-file backup creation capabilities and limitless backup retention, SnapShooter can help you create multiple backups of past states to ensure you can always recover to where you want to be.

Who is it recommended for?

SnapShooter is a versatile solution catering to a wide user base. It’s highly recommended for website owners, especially those managing content-rich websites or e-commerce platforms, as it ensures the protection of valuable online assets.

Additionally, small to medium businesses benefit from its efficient and user-friendly backup features, and system administrators appreciate its streamlined process with real-time monitoring capabilities, making it an excellent choice for data resilience and business continuity.

SnapShot offers a free, 14-day free trial to all of its users.

5. Actifio

Actifio is a SaaS platform that provides its users a method to centralize their data storage while making a local access model. The tool is extremely innovative, achieving this through a method reminiscent of virtualization. It lays a supposed structure on top of an existing physical system. Much like a hypervisor, this method combines multiple servers and networks to create the appearance of a local centralized database. The tool is compatible with a variety of different database management systems including SQL Server, Oracle, MongoDB, SAP HANA, and PostgreSQL.

Key Features

• Actifio is a highly focused, specialized tool.
• Hypervisor-like approach to backing up your data.
• Managed backup and recovery.
• Works with multiple DBMSs on the same network.

Why do we recommend it?

After subjecting it to in-depth scrutiny, Actifio played a vital role in enhancing data backup and recovery for our website’s content. It made sure our tutorials, guides, and reviews remained secure and accessible. By offering centralized data storage, Actifio streamlined data management, reducing the risk of data loss and downtime, thus contributing to our website’s reliability.

If you’re using multiple DBMSs on the same network, you can take advantage of Actifio to backup all of them at once. It also lets you gain high levels of control over all of your data alongside orchestrating multi-cloud disaster recovery measures. The disaster recovery provided by Actifio can be accomplished in a single click.

Key distinction

Actifio offers an on-premises solution, which means that their software can be installed and operated directly within your organization’s local hardware and infrastructure. This provides you with control over your data and the software’s deployment, making it a suitable choice for businesses that prioritize data security and want to manage their backup and data management processes within their own premises.

Who is it recommended for?

Because Actifio supports data retention for extended periods, organizations that need to keep historical data for compliance or analytical purposes will find Actifio’s backup and storage capabilities highly beneficial.

Users should have a reasonable understanding of virtualization and data management concepts, as Actifio’s approach is unique and may require some familiarity with hypervisor-like models.

IT teams with experience in managing and configuring backup and recovery solutions will be able to get the most out of Actifio’s features.

Actifio doesn’t include a free trial, so make sure to give it a good look before committing to purchase.

6. Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL

Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL is a free utility that ensures secure database backups and distribution. Database replication is essentially simply copying the database and duplicating it elsewhere, this is essentially the same as the process for creating a database backup.

Key Features

• Entirely free of charge.
• Allows you to backup PostgreSQL to cloud storage.
• Copies all PostgreSQL databases working with Linux, GCP, Azure, and AWS.
• Extremely streamlined.

Why do we recommend it?

When we faced a data loss incident on our Linux tutorials website, the urgency of data recovery became paramount. Utilizing Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL’s features enabled us to swiftly recover our lost data by leveraging point-in-time restoration (PITR) capabilities. We had it back up and running within minutes.

The solution is streamlined but versatile. You can simply duplicate your database to another location a couple of times, and you’ve created a multi-site backup and recovery instance that is kept constantly updated.

For additional security, including a cloud storage system as a replication target ensures that you’ve got a backup of your database on the cloud as well. Once you’ve done this, you’ve got a full PostgreSQL backup and recovery system, and you’ve made it quickly through this database distribution tool. This also ensures you’ve got access to each element needed for database migration.

You can send your data to your Amazon S3 account or any S3 compatible system. With a paid plan, you can also incorporate AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform instances.

Its on-premises agent is only available on Linux, and there’s no Windows version, so keep this in mind.

Who is it recommended for?

Businesses that require data replication to ensure data availability and continuity across multiple sites or locations can leverage Percona’s capabilities. Organizations with compliance obligations or a need to retain historical data for auditing, analytical, or legal purposes can also benefit from Percona’s backup features. To fully leverage Percona Distribution, organizations should have IT teams or personnel with expertise in Linux systems for configuring and managing the tool.

You can download Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL for free.

7. Commvault Backup and Recovery

Commvault Backup and Recovery is a database backup solution compatible with a variety of DBMSs, including PostgreSQL. The tool can back up databases hosted on-prem, as well as cloud-resident databases. The tool can also backup servers, disks, and files with ease, making it a fairly versatile tool.

Key Features

• Excellent versatility.
• Commvault can back up a variety of DBMSs.
• PITR capabilities.
• Supports most major operating systems.

Why do we recommend it?

As we worked with it hands-on, Commvault Backup and Recovery proved invaluable when a malicious cyberattack tried to encrypt our data and render it inaccessible. Leveraging its robust backup system and ransomware protection, we were able to recover our critical content without yielding to the attacker’s demands, ensuring the continued availability of our tutorials and safeguarding our data against future threats.

You can store the backups created by Commvault locally or in a cloud server. Each of these backup files will then be available for data recovery, as well as replication and migration. It is also compatible with a variety of operating systems, with the Commvault Backup and Recovery solution working with Windows Server, Unix, Linux, and Windows. The tool can also conduct PITR (Point-in-Time-Restoration,) and protect multiple instances running both on-premises and in the cloud.

Who is it recommended for?

Commvault Backup and Recovery is a versatile solution suitable for large enterprises, data-intensive organizations, and businesses with diverse data environments. Its flexibility and scalability make it an ideal choice for diverse and complex IT setups.

Many organizations face the challenge of data loss and prolonged downtime in the event of system failures, but Commvault Backup and Recovery mitigates this problem by providing a robust backup system and point-in-time restoration (PITR) capabilities, ensuring swift data recovery and minimizing disruptions.

Cloud storage is not included in the Commvault Backup and Recovery default plan. You can request a demo on the company site.

Closing Words

As always, the best solution for your business will depend on your needs. We’ve made an effort to ensure that our first three entries are extremely high-quality solutions you pretty much can’t go wrong with. With that being said, the best way to pick one is to outline your needs and then look through the list for the solution that matches the closest.

What feature do you wish more PostgreSQL backup tools had?

What is your favorite PostgreSQL backup tool?

Let us know in the comments below!