pgAdmin is the official, free administration tool for PostgreSQL, and many people already have it. It isn't really a competitor to PostgresBackup. It's a full database IDE that can make backups, while PostgresBackup does only backups, clones and restores, but does them on a schedule without anyone at the keyboard. Plenty of people use both.
Backing up in pgAdmin
Right-click a database → Backup…, choose a file name and format (Custom is the default), and click Backup. pgAdmin runs pg_dump for you with the options you picked. Restore… works the same way with pg_restore. For a one-off backup before a risky migration, it's quick and good.
Scheduling in pgAdmin needs pgAgent
pgAdmin has no built-in "run this backup every night". The scheduler that pgAdmin manages is pgAgent, a separate program:
- Install pgAgent (separately; it doesn't come with pgAdmin).
- Run
CREATE EXTENSION pgagent;in a database on the server. That database stores the jobs. - Run pgAgent as a service that stays connected to that database.
- In pgAdmin, create a job with a batch step that calls
pg_dump, plus a schedule.
Because the job definitions and the agent live with a PostgreSQL server, this suits a self-hosted server you administer. It doesn't fit hosted databases (Supabase, Neon, RDS, Azure) where you can't install extensions like pgagent or run services next to the server. And you still write the backup command, password handling and cleanup yourself.
Side by side
| pgAdmin | PostgresBackup | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, open source | Free for clones, restores and manual backups; scheduled backups $9.99 once (launch price; $24 from January 1) after a 14-day trial |
| What it is | Full PostgreSQL IDE: queries, schema design, monitoring, backups | Backup, clone and restore app only |
| One-off backup / restore | Yes | Yes |
| Scheduled backups | Through pgAgent (separate install, extension, service, your own script) | Built in, from a Windows background service |
| Works with hosted databases on a schedule | Only if you run pgAgent somewhere | Yes, anything pg_dump can reach |
| Retention (delete old backups) | You script it | Keep last N plus hourly/daily/weekly/monthly/yearly |
| Copy a database to another server | Backup, then restore, by hand | One-step Clone |
| Backup history and log | No | Yes |
| Runs on | Windows, macOS, Linux, or as a web app | Windows 10 and 11 |
| Backup files | Standard pg_dump formats | Standard pg_dump custom format |
When to use pgAdmin
- You need an all-round PostgreSQL tool and backups are an occasional task.
- You run your own PostgreSQL server and are comfortable setting up pgAgent jobs.
- You're on macOS or Linux.
When PostgresBackup is the better fit
- You want backups to happen on their own every night (or hourly) without writing or maintaining anything.
- Your database is hosted (Supabase, Neon, RDS, Azure, Cloud SQL, DigitalOcean…) and you want copies on your own Windows machine.
- You want old backups pruned with a sensible policy, a history of what ran, and restores and clones that don't involve remembering pg_restore flags.
They share the same file formats, so a backup made by either restores with the other.