Rowsafe vs running pgBackRest, WAL-G or Barman yourself

Q: Does pgBackRest test restores?

It has verify, which checks the repository's checksums and WAL, and check, which confirms archiving works. Neither restores a backup. A scheduled test restore is something you script yourself, or let Rowsafe run every week.

pgBackRest, WAL-G and Barman are mature open-source tools that give you WAL archiving and point-in-time recovery at no software cost, and Rowsafe itself uses pgBackRest. Running one yourself means you also own the configuration, schedules, retention, monitoring, alerts and restore tests. Rowsafe does those for you and leaves standard pgBackRest backups in your own bucket, so you can always restore without it.

Checked on September 24, 2026. Sources are listed at the end.

Rowsafe and pgBackRest, WAL-G or Barman on your own, side by side

Rowsafe compared with pgBackRest, WAL-G or Barman
Feature	Rowsafe	pgBackRest, WAL-G or Barman
Point-in-time recovery	Yes, to any second in the recovery window (about 1 to 2 weeks by default, adjustable), or to a Mark you saved by name	Yes, all three
Data you can lose	Up to about a minute of writes on a quiet database, less on a busy one	Depends on your settings, such as `archive_timeout`. Comparable to Rowsafe when set up the same way
Automatic restore tests	Yes, every week (Proof): a full restore on your server, started and checked database by database. Needs free disk of about 1.3 × the database size	No built-in scheduled restore test. Integrity checks only: pgBackRest `verify`, WAL-G `wal-verify`, Barman `verify-backup`
Backups in your own bucket	Yes: any S3-compatible bucket you own, such as Cloudflare R2, Amazon S3, Backblaze B2 or MinIO	Yes: S3, Azure and Google Cloud Storage, and more
Client-side encryption	Yes: `aes-256-cbc` on your server before upload. The passphrase and bucket keys never leave it	Yes, when you turn it on: pgBackRest `aes-256-cbc`, WAL-G libsodium or OpenPGP, Barman GPG (3.14 and later)
Monitoring and alerts	Yes (Pulse): health score, disk forecast, slow queries, locks and WAL archiving. Alerts by email, Slack, Discord or webhook	Partial: status commands such as `pgbackrest check`, `pgbackrest info --output=json` and `barman check`. Alerting is yours to build
AI-agent restore points (MCP)	Yes (Guard): an MCP server and a Claude Code hook save a Mark before risky changes	No
Open source	Yes: agent, CLI and installer are Apache-2.0, with signed releases and SLSA provenance. The hosted control plane is not open source	Yes: pgBackRest MIT, WAL-G Apache-2.0, Barman GPL-3.0
Databases supported	PostgreSQL 13 to 18. MySQL, MariaDB and MongoDB in beta. Redis is planned, not available	pgBackRest and Barman: PostgreSQL. WAL-G: PostgreSQL, MySQL and MariaDB, SQL Server and more
Lock-in	None: backups are a standard pgBackRest repository you can restore with pgBackRest alone	None
Setup	One command on the server, then one PostgreSQL restart when it suits you	You write the configuration, schedule backups, set retention, wire up alerts and script restore tests
Price	Free for 1 server, 3 databases. Pro $39/month (5 servers), Business $149/month (25 servers). Every plan has every feature. Storage is billed by your bucket provider	Free software. You pay for storage and your time

Which one should you use?

Choose Rowsafe if

You want pgBackRest's recovery without owning its configuration, schedules and retention.
You want a full restore tested every week, and an alert when a test fails.
You want backup alerts and PostgreSQL health monitoring in one place, without running a monitoring stack.
You look after several servers and want one dashboard, CLI and API for all of them.
AI coding agents work on your databases.

Choose pgBackRest, WAL-G or Barman on your own if

You have a DBA or platform team who already runs one of these tools well, with restore tests in place.
You need a setup Rowsafe doesn't manage, such as a dedicated backup server (Barman's model).
You also back up MySQL, MariaDB or SQL Server and want one tool for all of them (WAL-G).
You can't use a hosted control plane at all, even one that sees metadata only.
You'd rather spend time than money: the tools cost nothing.

The details

Rowsafe is built on pgBackRest: Rowsafe writes the pgBackRest configuration, sets archive_command so PostgreSQL archives WAL through pgBackRest, and schedules full and differential backups. PostgreSQL archives WAL itself, so archiving keeps working while Rowsafe's agent or service is down. Restores are pgBackRest restores, run for you from the dashboard or by hand following the restore guide.
What Rowsafe adds on top: A weekly restore of the latest backup plus all archived WAL into an isolated scratch copy, checked database by database (Proof); a protection status that turns red when archiving, backups or Proof fall behind; monitoring and alerts (Pulse); named restore points for people and AI agents (Marks and Guard); and one dashboard, CLI and API across servers.
Checks are not restores: pgbackrest verify, wal-g wal-verify and barman verify-backup check that files, checksums and WAL are intact. They are worth running, but only a restore shows that PostgreSQL starts on the result, that every database is there, and how long it takes.
Already running one of these?: Rowsafe won't replace an existing archive_command unless you pass --force, because one database should have one WAL archiver. If yours works and you test restores, you may not need Rowsafe. If you switch, keep the old repository until its backups age out.
pgBackRest's maintenance: In April 2026 pgBackRest's maintainer announced the project would no longer be maintained. On May 18, 2026 the project announced it will continue, funded by a group of sponsors, and new releases followed (2.59.0 in July, 2.59.1 in August 2026).

Questions

Is Rowsafe just pgBackRest?

Rowsafe uses pgBackRest for backups and WAL archiving. It adds the parts you would otherwise build: setup, schedules, retention, weekly restore tests (Proof), monitoring and alerts (Pulse), named restore points (Marks) and tools for AI agents (Guard).

Can I restore Rowsafe backups without Rowsafe?

Yes. The bucket holds a standard pgBackRest repository. With the bucket settings and your encryption passphrase, pgbackrest restore works on any server with the same PostgreSQL major version. The restore guide shows every step.

Does pgBackRest test restores?

It has verify, which checks the repository's checksums and WAL, and check, which confirms archiving works. Neither restores a backup. A scheduled test restore is something you script yourself, or let Rowsafe run every week.

pgBackRest, WAL-G or Barman: which is best?

All three give you point-in-time recovery. pgBackRest focuses on PostgreSQL with parallel, incremental backups and built-in encryption. WAL-G also covers MySQL, MariaDB and SQL Server. Barman fits a central backup server managing many PostgreSQL servers. Pick the one your team knows.

Is pgBackRest still maintained?

Yes. After a maintenance scare in April 2026, the project announced on May 18, 2026 that it will continue with sponsor funding, and released 2.59.0 and 2.59.1 afterwards.

Sources

Facts about other products come from their own public pages, checked on September 24, 2026. Products change: if something here is out of date, tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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