By Partly fixable yourself. Switching backups on is easy, testing a restore is not
What you see. You have real customer data, nobody has ever restored anything, and you are not sure a backup exists.
Why it happens
Backups depend on where the data lives and which plan you pay for, and AI builders never mention it. On Supabase, daily backups cover Pro, Team and Enterprise projects, and Pro keeps the last 7 days. Free projects have no daily backups, so Supabase tells you to export regularly with the CLI. Database backups also do not include files stored through Storage.
Lovable Cloud backs up your project's database every day and keeps backups for roughly 14 days. Storage files are not included there either. Replit has two databases. The development one can be rolled back to an Agent checkpoint with up to 7 days of history. The production one gets point-in-time restore and one scheduled backup a day, kept 7 days on Core and up to 28 days on Pro. Restoring a database does not restore your code.
The real gap is that a backup nobody has restored is a hope, not a plan.
Fix it yourself
- Find where your data lives: a Supabase project, Lovable Cloud, or a Replit database. Check the plan on that account.
- Supabase: open Database > Backups. If the list is empty you are on Free. Upgrade to Pro, or set up a weekly
supabase db dumpexport kept outside Supabase. - Lovable: open More > Database > Manage > Backups to see the daily list. For a copy you own, use Manage > Settings > Export project data.
- Replit: open the Database tool, select the production database, go to Settings > Advanced > Scheduled backups and set Keep backups for.
- Download uploaded files separately. Supabase and Lovable both exclude storage files from database backups.
- Test a restore into a new, empty project, never over the live one. Check a handful of records and user accounts came back.
When to get an engineer
Hire an engineer when you cannot tell which plan you are on, when the data is split across several services, or when you want a restore tested without risking the live database. Tell them the platform, the plan, how much data you can afford to lose in hours, and whether users upload files. A one-off check that includes a restore test costs $49–$800. Ongoing care, with someone owning backups and uptime, runs $100–$5,000 a month.
Top-rated companies for Supabase apps
Ranked by our score: published prices, scope of work, AI tools named, timing and a low-risk first step. How we score.
- 1Redlab10.0/10Best for: A full rescue by one team that keeps buildingFree first step · from $490
- 2Vibe Code Rescue (Lev Arakelyan)9.0/10Best for: A one-off check and a cleanupFrom $299
- 3LazyCodeLab9.0/10Best for: A one-off check and a cleanupFrom $399
Check these
Database backups run automatically and a restore has been tested
Check what your database plan actually includes, then restore a backup into a test project once.
Errors reach you before users do
Add error monitoring and uptime alerts. If you learn about outages from customers, this is missing.
File storage is private where it should be
Upload a private file, copy its URL, and open it in a private window. If it loads, the bucket is public.
Questions
Is my GitHub repository a backup?
Only of the code. Your database, user accounts and uploaded files are not in the repository and need their own backup.
How often should backups run?
Daily is the standard on all three platforms. Supabase and Replit offer point-in-time restore on paid plans when hours of lost data would hurt.
Sources: Supabase docs: Database Backups; Lovable docs: Back up, restore, and export your project's database; Replit docs: Data recovery.