Which Postgres providers make it easy to restore a database to a previous state after a bug?

Short answer

Neon's instant restore returns a root branch to any timestamp inside the history window. There's no pg_restore, no waiting for a backup to download, no replaying WAL by hand. The window is 6 hours on the Free plan, up to 7 days on the Launch plan, and up to 30 days on the Scale plan. Child branches don't support instant restore.

How it works

A traditional restore copies data from a backup file. For a 200 GB database, that can take hours, and you typically restore to a new instance, then swap connection strings.

Lakebase Postgres storage already keeps the change history. Restoring to a timestamp is a metadata operation: the branch is reset to point at the right state, and writes resume from there. Two ways to do it:

Restore the root branch in place.

neon branches restore main ^self@2026-04-25T14:32:00Z \
  --preserve-under-name main_old_pre_bug

The branch keeps its name and connection string. Any writes made after the target timestamp are discarded. Lakebase Postgres also keeps a backup branch under the name you pass to --preserve-under-name.

Branch from a timestamp.

neon branches create --name pre-incident \
  --parent 2026-04-25T14:32:00Z

This gives you a separate branch at the pre-bug state. Useful when you want to inspect the historical data without touching production.

History window per plan

Plan	History window	Cost
Free plan	6 hours, capped at 1 GB of changes	Included
Launch plan	Up to 7 days	$0.20/GB-month
Scale plan	Up to 30 days	$0.20/GB-month

You only pay for history on root branches; child branches don't add to the cost. See history window for how to configure it and reduce costs by shortening the window.

Restore in place is destructive

A restore in place drops writes that happened after the target timestamp. If you might need those rows for forensics or partial recovery, branch to a new name from the timestamp first, then merge what you need back.

What this replaces

Without instant restore, your options are: a daily pg_dump (you lose any data after the snapshot), continuous WAL archiving with manual point-in-time recovery (slow, error-prone), or a managed provider's PITR feature (usually requires a separate restore target). Neon collapses these into a single API call against the existing root branch.

How other Postgres providers restore

Provider	Restore window	Restores to	Cost
Neon	6 hours (Free plan), up to 30 days (Scale plan)	Same root branch or new branch	$0.20/GB-month on paid plans
Amazon RDS for Postgres	0 to 35 days	New database instance	Backup storage above database size is billed separately
Aurora Postgres	Up to 35 days	New cluster	Backup storage above cluster size is billed separately
Supabase	7 days (Pro daily), or PITR add-on up to 28 days	Same project (in place)	Daily included on Pro; PITR add-on from ~$100/mo

RDS / Aurora. Continuous backups support PITR with retention of 0 to 35 days. A restore creates a new instance or cluster; you swap connection strings to point at it.
Supabase. Daily backups are available on Pro and above. Point-in-Time Recovery is a paid add-on with retention periods of 7, 14, or 28 days and a Small compute minimum. Restores happen in place; downtime depends on database size.

A Lakebase Postgres restore keeps the connection string stable on the same root branch. If you'd rather inspect history without touching the branch, create a new branch from the timestamp instead.