Barman vs WAL-G
Barman
pgbarman.orgWAL-G
github.comSide by side
| Figure | Barman | WAL-G |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Database Backup Software | 8.8 (#3) | 7.5 (#20) |
| Compression | It can compress WAL files using bzip2, gzip, or a custom method. | WAL-G supports LZ4, LZMA, ZSTD, and Brotli compression, and uses multiple processors. |
| Configuration | Barman uses a simple INI configuration file and stores metadata locally. | WAL-G can be configured with environment variables or a config file, including JSON, YAML, and envfile formats. |
| Encryption | Barman supports encryption of backups and WAL files using GPG, subject to configuration requirements. | The documentation describes encryption options using libsodium, OpenPGP, and Yandex Cloud KMS; encryption is disabled by default. |
| License | Barman's code is distributed under GNU General Public License 3. | The project is licensed under Apache License 2.0, while LZO support is licensed under GPL 3.0+. |
| Purpose | Barman is an open-source Python administration tool for disaster recovery of PostgreSQL servers. | WAL-G is an archival and restoration tool for databases in the cloud. |
Plans
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.
WAL-G
WAL-G is a free, open-source archival and restoration tool for databases in cloud environments. It supports continuous backups and point-in-time recovery, with documented support for PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, and MS SQL Server; MongoDB and Redis are marked beta. Other listed database targets include Greenplum, Cloudberry, FoundationDB, and ETCD. Compression options are LZ4, LZMA, ZSTD, and Brotli, using multiple processors. PostgreSQL users can take non-exclusive base backups. Operators configure backup storage and interact with it through storage tools commands. Configuration accepts environment variables or JSON, YAML, and envfile formats. Encryption can use libsodium, OpenPGP, or Yandex Cloud KMS, but is disabled by default; envelope PGP configuration currently supports only Yandex Cloud KMS. Metrics can be sent best-effort over UDP to statsd or statsd_exporter. WAL-G runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows builds.