Your SaaS runs on self-hosted Postgres 15 — one VPS, nightly pg_dump cron. That suffices until corrupted disk where dump was truncated for three weeks. Alternative: RDS or Scaleway Database at €80/month with PITR. CFO asks: how much risk do we outsource?
Managed vs self-managed Postgres is not performance comparison — it is operational insurance comparison.
Risk allocation
| Risk | Self-managed VPS | Managed cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Minor/major patches | You | Provider |
| Backup + PITR | You test | Provider + you test restore |
| Failover | You (often none) | Multi-AZ SLA |
| Query tuning | You | You |
| Disk corruption | Your restore | Managed restore |
| Vendor lock-in | Low | Moderate (vendor API) |
Managed does not carry business risk of poorly planned schema migration — only underlying infrastructure.
Self-managed: rational if…
Someone can run quarterly restore drill. pg_dump + WAL archive or restic backup to object storage. Monitoring (pg_stat, disk alerts, replication lag). Extensions or OS tuning unavailable on entry managed.
Otherwise you under-insure the stack's most critical database.
Managed: rational if…
Small team without DBA. DB uptime SLA above plausible DIY. Geo read replica need without building Patroni. Compliance requiring documented encrypted backups.
Compare 24-month TCO including ops hours and estimated incident cost.
The climax: the risk you keep is always the data
Decide and move forward without blind spots
Note date and duration of last restore test. Document RPO/RTO for database. List required extensions vs managed allowlist. Compare European managed databases via directory and comparator.
Frequently asked questions
Does managed Postgres include tested backups?
Automatic snapshots yes — restore testing remains yours. Require PITR, documented RPO/RTO, and annual drill, even managed.
When to self-manage Postgres on VPS?
DBA or Postgres ops team, stable load, custom extensions need, tight budget and documented backup process — not "to save €30 without skill".
Extensions (PostGIS, pgvector) in managed?
Often available on RDS, Scaleway, Aiven, Supabase — verify allowlist before platform choice.
Hidden managed cost?
Growing storage, provisioned IOPS, read replica egress, oversised instances "for comfort".
Managed or self-managed Postgres: decide on who answers at 3 a.m. — and with what proven runbook.