Supabase PITR vs BackupDrill — cost and what each actually protects

These are different tools that get compared because they share a budget line. Point-in-Time Recovery is genuinely better at one thing — recovery granularity — and does not attempt several others. Here is the honest version, prices as of July 2026.

Side by side

	Supabase PITR	BackupDrill
Price (as of July 2026)	$100/month per project, per 7-day retention window	$0 (1 project, weekly) or $19/$49/$99/month — every paid tier covers multiple projects (Solo 5, Team 20, Agency 100)
Recovery granularity	Any point in time, down to the second. PITR wins this outright.	Scheduled snapshots — worst case you lose one interval of writes
Storage files	Not covered — database only, same as the built-in backups	Backed up alongside the database, per-file checksums in the manifest
Data location	Supabase-managed infrastructure	Your own S3, R2, or B2 bucket
Restore verification	None — you find out whether recovery works when you need it	Automated restore drills into a throwaway Postgres, with reports; failures emailed
Exportability	No export — recovery happens inside Supabase	Standard pg_dump archives plus files, in your bucket; restorable anywhere pg_restore runs

Choose PITR if

You need minute-level RPO. A high-write production database where losing even an hour is unacceptable needs second-level recovery points, and scheduled snapshots — ours or anyone’s — cannot deliver that.
Compliance explicitly requires point-in-time recovery. Auditors ask for the capability by name; a snapshot schedule is not the same checkbox.
The $100/month per project fits your budget and your data lives entirely in Postgres — no Storage files worth protecting.

Choose BackupDrill if

You can tolerate snapshot-interval RPO — for most apps, losing a few hours in a worst case is survivable; losing Storage files or a backup that will not restore is not.
Storage files matter. Neither PITR nor the built-in backups touch them — a database-only restore brings back storage.objects metadata pointing at files that may no longer exist. We back up the files themselves, together with the database.
You want copies off Supabase, in a bucket you own — your account, your retention, portable archives that restore with stock pg_restore (see restore & recovery).
You want proof, not hope. On your plan’s cadence — monthly on Solo, weekly on Team and Agency — the latest snapshot goes through a restore drill — restored into a throwaway Postgres, archive checksummed, table count verified against the manifest, populated tables confirmed non-empty — and failures are emailed.
You run several projects. Every paid plan covers multiple projects — 5 on Solo, 20 on Team, 100 on Agency; PITR is priced per project, so three projects is $300/month.

Running both is a valid answer

For a serious production app the strongest setup is PITR for recovery granularity plus BackupDrill for ownership, Storage files, and verified restores. They protect against different failures: PITR against fat-fingered writes ten minutes ago, BackupDrill against the backup itself being broken, files silently unprotected, or needing your data outside Supabase. Start with the quickstart — the free plan covers one project — or see the wider picture in every Supabase backup option compared. For the incident playbook itself — which failures each backup type can save you from, and the steps when one hits — see the disaster recovery runbook.

FAQ

Does Supabase PITR cover Storage files?

No. PITR recovers the Postgres database to a point in time — Storage files are not included, the same gap as the built-in backups. A restored database contains storage.objects metadata pointing at files PITR never captured. BackupDrill backs up the files themselves alongside the database.

How much does Supabase PITR cost?

$100 per month per project for each 7-day retention window, as of July 2026, on top of the Pro plan. The price is per project — three projects with PITR is $300/month.

Is there a cheaper alternative to Supabase PITR?

For second-level recovery points, no — nothing else recovers to an arbitrary second, and if you need that, PITR is the right choice. If snapshot-interval recovery is acceptable, BackupDrill is free for one project with weekly backups, and paid plans are $19, $49, and $99 per month, each covering multiple projects, with Storage files and restore drills included.

Can I run Supabase PITR and BackupDrill together?

Yes — for a serious production app it is the strongest setup: PITR for recovery granularity, BackupDrill for off-platform copies in your own bucket, Storage files, and drills that prove restores work.

Sources

Facts and prices last verified July 11, 2026 against the sources above. Written by the team behind BackupDrill.