Barman vs Portabase
Barman
pgbarman.org
Portabase
portabase.ioSide by side
| Figure | Barman | Portabase |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $10/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 6 |
| Spec score · Database Backup Software | 8.8 (#3) | 7.5 (#19) |
| Encryption | Barman supports encryption of backups and WAL files using GPG, subject to configuration requirements. | The documentation says backups are protected with AES-GCM encryption. |
| Retention | Barman manages retention policies for backups and WAL files. | Retention policies include hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and yearly GFS tiers, keep-last-N and keep-for-X-days rules. |
| Support | Community support is available through a mailing list and GitHub bug tracker; EDB offers 24x7 production support, consulting, and training. | Dedicated assistance and managed infrastructure are available with 8×5 or 24×7 coverage options; pricing is discussed by contacting the organization. |
Plans
Portabase
- Supporter$10 a month
- Backer$20 a month
- Community Sponsor$100 a month
- Silver Sponsor$800 a month
- Gold Sponsor$1,600 a month
- Platinum Sponsor$3,200 a month
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.