Postgres Backups: Logical vs. Physical an Overview

Logical vs. Physical which to choose

Both are useful and provide different benefits. At smaller scale, say under 100 GB of data logical backups via pg_dump are something you should absolutely be doing. Because backups happen quickly on smaller databases you may be able to get out without functionality like point-in-time recovery. At larger scale, as you approach 1 TB physical backups start to become your only option. Because of the load introduced by logical backups and the time lapse between capturing them they become less suitable for production.

Hopefully this primer helps provide a high level overview of the two primary types of backups that exist as options for Postgres. Of course there is much deeper you can go on each, but consider ensuring you have at least one of the two if not both in place. Oh and make sure to test them, an un-tested backup isn’t a backup at all.