pgBackRest
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 19 backup tools by recommenders
Free PostgreSQL backup tool praised for physical standby backups, point-in-time recovery, and taking restore validation seriously. Main caveat: concerns about its future maintenance under a permissive license.
Free PostgreSQL backup tool praised for physical standby backups, point-in-time recovery, and taking restore validation seriously. Main caveat: concerns about its future maintenance under a permissive license.
38 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 32
- criticize it
- 6
- approval share
- 84%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 1 year
Median of the 4 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it carries the badge
- 32 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Reliable in production for years
“I use pgbackrest for some databases in production, and it has been VERY good.”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “Pgbackrest is no longer being maintained” “Has worked like a charm in the last two years”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “France Aiming to Replace Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc.” “pgBackRest have worked so well for me”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “Pgbackrest is no longer being maintained” - Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “Pgbackrest is no longer being maintained”
Easy setup with clear docs
“I picked pgBackRest over WAL-G because the documentation was clearer.”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “Pgbackrest is no longer being maintained” “We eventually moved to pgbackrest and it wasn't any harder to setup.”
Comment from 22 Jul 2026 in “The startup's Postgres survival guide” “Others have mentioned pgBackRest and that further enforces the ease with which you can set up these traditionally-complex setups.”
Comment from 21 Dec 2025 in “Go ahead, self-host Postgres” Backups from standby reduce load
“pgBackrest lets you do the majority of the backup from a physical standby, which is VERY nice for removing the load off production.”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “Pgbackrest is no longer being maintained” “it could offload full and incremental backups to a basically limitless and reliable medium”
Comment from 2 May 2026 in “Barman – Backup and Recovery Manager for PostgreSQL” Restore validation and point-in-time recovery
“It was the only solution that seemed to take restoring and validating as seriously as taking a backup”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “Pgbackrest is no longer being maintained” “Offers point-in-time recovery which is an improvement over a custom solution we used to have”
Comment from 22 Jul 2026 in “The startup's Postgres survival guide”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Future maintenance seems uncertain
“It's permissive license, which means it's dead Jim. Everyone using it will maintain their own forks privately.”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “PgBackRest is archived, what now?” “You pick a tool trust it, build around it, one day it stops.”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “Pgbackrest is no longer being maintained” “why also slam the door closed on someone taking over?”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “Pgbackrest is no longer being maintained” - Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “Pgbackrest is no longer being maintained”
Other backup tools people recommend
The four most recommended other backup tools, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| restic | 83 | 5 | 94% | 12 | — | Approved |
| pgBackRestThis page | 32 | 6 | 84% | 6 | 1 yr4 owners | Approved |
| Borg Backup | 30 | 8 | 79% | 12 | — | Approved |
| iCloud Photos Downloader | 18 | 4 | 82% | 2 | — | — |
| Barman | 17 | 3 | 85% | 6 | — | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 44 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“two well-defined, and thoroughly documented applications”
“pgBackRest backing up to their S3 buckets and a cloud volume”
“Setup pgbackreset or barman, use WAL archiving and setup block incremental backups”
“It's great, but it's not incremental like git, e.g. you do need to make a full backup periodically, unfortunately.”
“it puts you into best practices by default rather than having to work at it later”
“We eventually moved to pgbackrest and it wasn't any harder to setup.”
“It saved my last company a ton of money on storage while keeping good RTO/RPO.”
“Offers point-in-time recovery which is an improvement over a custom solution we used to have”
“If you're running pg yourself I highly recommend pgbackrest.”
“glad the creator/maintainer is not only getting recognition, but also dollars”
“pgBackRest handles a lot of details itself that's otherwise handled by Kubernetes”
“it could offload full and incremental backups to a basically limitless and reliable medium”
“It's permissive license, which means it's dead Jim. Everyone using it will maintain their own forks privately.”
“I'm assuming it will prevent me from upgrading to Postgres 19 in the future.”
“C over Golang is particularly nice when postgres wants to run on system without overcommit”
“I love pgbackrest and totally would have donated here”
“pgBackrest lets you do the majority of the backup from a physical standby, which is VERY nice for removing the load off production.”
“You pick a tool trust it, build around it, one day it stops.”
“pgbackrest is awesome, truly.”
“I believe its a very good project”
“It still works, you can just keep using it.”
“props to the author for such fine work”
“why also slam the door closed on someone taking over?”
“I picked pgBackRest over WAL-G because the documentation was clearer.”
“pgbackrest is the most versatile piece of backup technology for PostgreSQL”
“I use pgbackrest for some databases in production, and it has been VERY good.”
“It was the only solution that seemed to take restoring and validating as seriously as taking a backup”
“I have enjoyed using pgBackRest on”
“I have recently configured pgbackrest for our app.”
“pgBackRest have worked so well for me”
“We have been using this amazing project extensively”
“Because that rug pulls your users.”
“was really impressed by it”
“Well done for maintaining a successful project for so long.”
“how far self hosted PostgreSQL and pgBackRest can get you to a near-zero data loss high RPO, RTO setup”
“Has worked like a charm in the last two years”
“some backup and replication (e.g. PGBackrest and Patroni) are also generally recommended”
“Others have mentioned pgBackRest and that further enforces the ease with which you can set up these traditionally-complex setups.”
“pgBackRest and pgBouncer are your friends.”
“pgbackrest is also useful”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.