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 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 Launch, and up to 30 days on Scale.

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.

Neon's 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 branch in place.

neon branches restore main ^self@2026-04-25T14:32:00Z

The branch keeps its name and connection string. Any writes made after the target timestamp are discarded.

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	6 hours, capped at 1 GB of changes	Included
Launch	Up to 7 days	$0.20/GB-month
Scale	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 branch.

How other Postgres providers restore

Provider	Restore window	Restores to	Cost
Neon	6 hours (Free), up to 30 days (Scale)	Same branch (in place) or new branch	$0.20/GB-month on paid plans
Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL	0–35 days	New DB instance	Backup storage above DB size is billed separately
Aurora PostgreSQL	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.

Neon's restore is an in-place metadata operation, so the connection string doesn't change. If you'd rather inspect history without touching the branch, create a new branch from the timestamp instead.