COMPARE / SIMPLEBACKUPS ↔ OFFSITEDB
OffsiteDB vs SimpleBackups
A BROAD SUITE VS A POSTGRES SPECIALIST — PICK ON SHAPE, NOT MARKETING
SimpleBackups is a good product and the established name in this space — a backup suite covering servers, websites, volume snapshots, and several database engines, with bring-your-own-storage like ours. If you're comparing the two, the honest answer isn't “one is better”; it's that they're different shapes. This page maps which shape fits what you run.
When SimpleBackups is the right choice
- You run more than Postgres. MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, file and server backups, storage snapshots — if your estate is mixed, one suite with one dashboard beats a specialist per system.
- You're an agency or ops team with a fleet. Many servers, many client sites, many backup jobs — suite pricing and management amortize well there.
- You want server-level coverage too. A database specialist will never back up your web roots and config directories. A suite will.
When OffsiteDB fits better
- Your product is a Postgres app — on Supabase, Neon, Railway, Render, RDS, or anything with a postgres:// URL — and the database is the asset you're protecting.
- You want restores proven, not assumed. Every snapshot is restore-drilled into a real Postgres cluster and row-counted before it's marked good; your ledger says proven · 184 tbl · 9.2M rows · 94s, and a monthly report turns that into evidence for auditors and enterprise reviews.
- Migrations are your scariest moment. The checkpoint API and GitHub Action seal a tagged, drilled snapshot seconds before each deploy — and block the migration if the checkpoint fails. This is the feature the others don't shape their product around.
- You want one flat, small bill. Three tiers sized for a product company's handful of databases, not a fleet.
Side by side
SimpleBackups
- Breadth: servers, sites, snapshots, multiple database engines.
- One dashboard for a mixed estate; agency-friendly.
- Bring-your-own-storage, like us.
- Priced for fleets and job counts.
OffsiteDB
- Depth: Postgres only, built around restore proof.
- Every snapshot drilled on real Postgres + monthly evidence reports.
- Pre-migration checkpoints from CI that gate the deploy.
- Table-level anomaly alarms (mass-delete detection between snapshots).
- Flat $9/$29/$79, sized for a product's databases.
The honest decision rule
Count your systems. If protecting your business means backing up servers, sites, and three database engines, buy the suite — genuinely. If it means one thing — the Postgres database your customers' data lives in, provably recoverable, with a checkpoint before every migration — that's the entire product here. Either way both write standard dumps to a bucket you own, so the cost of choosing wrong is an afternoon, not a migration project.
FAQ
Is OffsiteDB cheaper than SimpleBackups?
For one or a few Postgres databases, usually — OffsiteDB is three flat tiers ($9/$29/$79) sized for exactly that. Suites price for breadth (servers, sites, many backup jobs), which amortizes well across a fleet and less well for a single production database. Check both against what you actually run; the structural difference matters more than any snapshot of pricing pages.
SimpleBackups supports Postgres too — including Supabase. So why OffsiteDB?
It does, and if you also need MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, or file/server backups, a suite is genuinely the better fit — one dashboard for everything. OffsiteDB trades that breadth for depth on a single engine: every snapshot is restore-drilled into a real Postgres and row-counted before it's marked good, the checkpoint API seals a tagged backup before each migration, and table-level stats catch mass-delete anomalies between snapshots.
What does 'restore-drilled' add over backup verification?
Verification typically confirms the artifact exists and is intact. A restore drill actually performs the recovery: the dump is restored into a throwaway Postgres cluster, tables and rows are counted, and the result is recorded with timings. It's the difference between 'the file is valid' and 'the restore works, took 94 seconds, and here's the evidence' — which is also exactly what auditors ask for.
Am I locked into either product?
No — and this is a genuine similarity, not a difference. Both ship standard database dumps to a bucket you own. An OffsiteDB artifact is a gzipped pg_dump custom-format archive; if you leave, it restores with stock pg_restore. Choose on fit, not exit cost.
What's the one-line difference?
SimpleBackups is a Swiss Army knife: many systems, many engines, one dashboard. OffsiteDB is a scalpel: Postgres only, built around proving restores work — drills on every snapshot, monthly evidence reports, and pre-migration checkpoints.
Keep reading
- Supabase native backups vs off-site — the other comparison everyone asks for
- OffsiteDB vs a cron job running pg_dump — the DIY option, taken seriously
- The monthly restore-drill report — what “proven” looks like on paper