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SPECIFICTION
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Barman vs pgBackRest

Barman

pgbarman.org

pgBackRest

pgbackrest.org

Side by side

FigureBarmanpgBackRest
Price fromFreeFree
Free planYesYes
Free trial——
Open source——
LinuxYesYes
Self-hostedYesYes
Plans published11
Spec score · Database Backup Software8.8 (#3)7.4 (#21)
Current releaseThe homepage lists version 3.20.1, dated 29 September 2026.The site identifies v2.59.2 as the current stable release, released September 27, 2026.
EncryptionBarman supports encryption of backups and WAL files using GPG, subject to configuration requirements.pgBackRest can encrypt its repository to secure backups wherever they are stored.
PurposeBarman is an open-source Python administration tool for disaster recovery of PostgreSQL servers.pgBackRest is a backup and restore solution for PostgreSQL designed to scale to large databases and workloads.
SupportCommunity support is available through a mailing list and GitHub bug tracker; EDB offers 24x7 production support, consulting, and training.Bug reports can be submitted, and the site says sponsors offer products and services that include pgBackRest support.

Plans

Barman

  • BarmanFree

Barman pricing →

pgBackRest

  • pgBackRestFree

pgBackRest pricing →

In their own words

Barman

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.

Visit pgbarman.org

pgBackRest

pgBackRest has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.

Visit pgbackrest.org