pgBackRest is no longer being maintained: What now?

If you’ve been running PostgreSQL at scale, you’ve likely relied on pgBackRest for years. It was the gold standard for parallel backups, delta restores, and WAL management. But as of April 2026, the project has been officially archived. The maintainer has stepped away, and the repository is now read-only.

This isn't just another open-source project going quiet; it’s a significant shift in the PostgreSQL ecosystem. If your infrastructure depends on it, you’re probably wondering how to handle the transition. Here is the reality of the situation and how you should approach your backup strategy moving forward.

The Reality of Open Source Burnout

Most guides get this wrong by suggesting you should just "fork it and keep going." That’s a dangerous oversimplification. Maintaining a project as complex as pgBackRest—which handles block-level backups, streaming compression, and intricate WAL archiving—is a full-time job.

The maintainer’s decision to stop wasn't about a lack of interest; it was about the lack of sustainable funding and the reality of professional burnout. When a project of this scale hits "end of life," you have to accept that the security patches and feature updates you’ve relied on are gone. You are now effectively running legacy software.

Your Immediate Action Plan

You don't need to rip out your entire backup architecture tomorrow, but you do need a plan. Here is how to manage the risk:

1. Audit your current setup: Identify exactly which versions of pgBackRest you are running and document your current retention policies.
2. Evaluate the alternatives: Look into PostgreSQL backup tools that are currently under active development. Tools like Barman or pg_probackup are the most logical successors for enterprise-grade needs.
3. Assess the fork landscape: Keep an eye on the community. It is highly likely that a fork will emerge, but don't jump to it immediately. A new project needs time to build the same level of trust and security vetting that the original project had.
4. Test your restores: If you haven't performed a full disaster recovery drill in the last quarter, do it now. You need to ensure your current backups are valid before you even consider a migration.

Why Most Migrations Fail

The biggest mistake I see teams make is rushing a migration to a new tool without fully understanding their own recovery time objectives (RTO). If you switch to a new backup solution, you aren't just changing a binary; you are changing your entire recovery workflow.

This next part matters more than it looks: ensure your new tool supports the same level of parallel processing and WAL management you’ve grown accustomed to. If you move to a tool that doesn't handle high-write volumes with the same efficiency, you’ll see your backup windows balloon and your system performance degrade.

Moving Forward

The end of pgBackRest is a reminder that even the most "reliable" tools are built on the labor of individuals. If you are currently using pgBackRest, don't panic, but do start your migration planning. The goal is to move to a supported, actively maintained solution before you hit a critical failure that requires a restore you can no longer perform.

How are you planning to handle your database backups now that pgBackRest is no longer being maintained? Share your migration strategy or the alternatives you are testing in the comments below.