Barman vs pg_probackup

Barman is an open-source Python administration tool for PostgreSQL disaster recovery, designed for organizations managing business-critical databases. It supports remote backups of multiple PostgreSQL servers and local or remote recovery, including point-in-time recovery. Backup management includes catalogs, incremental and parallel operations, retention policies, and WAL archiving or streaming. Synchronous WAL streaming supports zero data loss (RPO=0). Remote transfers can use rsync over SSH or pg_basebackup; recovery can run locally or over SSH. Barman integrates with PostgreSQL and standard archiving tools such as tar, and can compress WAL files with bzip2, gzip, or a custom method. GPG encryption for backups and WAL depends on configuration. Immutable storage is supported with a required grace period in the current implementation. Its experimental cloud-streaming method is limited to S3-compatible destinations and does not support encryption or direct restores in Barman. It runs on Linux and UNIX-like systems, uses an INI configuration file, and stores metadata locally. Barman costs nothing and is distributed under GPL-3.

pg_probackup is a free utility for backing up and recovering PostgreSQL database clusters. It supports full backups and page-level incremental DELTA, PAGE, and PTRACK modes, along with incremental and partial restores. Point-in-time recovery uses WAL archives. The utility can check data consistency automatically, validate backups on demand, and verify PostgreSQL instances with checkdb. Retention policies can use recovery time, backup count, or a time-to-live value; expired backups can be merged or deleted. Backup, restore, merge, delete, validation, and checkdb tasks can run on multiple threads. It supports remote PostgreSQL instances and backups from standby servers. Postgres Pro Enterprise edition supports S3 storage through MinIO, Amazon S3, and VK Cloud. The repository lists compatibility with PostgreSQL 13 through 18. Linux packages and Windows installers are available. Remote backup over SSH is not supported on Windows, and SSH operations require matching local and remote pg_probackup versions. The license permits use, copying, modification, and distribution without a fee, but disclaims maintenance, support, updates, and warranties.