Back up Heroku Postgres, and prove it restores
Restore-tested backups of your Heroku Postgres, written to storage you control. Use a dedicated credential that Heroku won't rotate away, and every backup can prove it restores.
- Spin up a throwaway database
- Restore the backup
- Check the data came back 48 of 48 tables
- Delete the throwaway database
A second copy, outside Heroku
An off-site backup is the one you can still reach when something goes wrong with the platform or the account. Norcube keeps it outside Heroku, in storage you control, and proves it restores.
Off-site, in storage you control
Norcube runs a full pg_dump on your schedule and writes the encrypted archive to Norcube-managed storage in Frankfurt or to your own S3-compatible bucket.
Proven to restore
Every backup can be restore-tested: Norcube restores it into a throwaway database and confirms your schemas, tables and rows come back.
Yours, in a standard format
Download any backup and restore it with standard Postgres tools, independent of Norcube. No proprietary format, no lock-in.
Connect Heroku, step by step
The Heroku-specific settings, from the connection string to network access. Everything after that is the standard Protect form: schedule, retention and restore testing.
Create a dedicated credential
Heroku can rotate
DATABASE_URLduring a failover, a credential rotation or maintenance. Create a stable credential instead:heroku pg:credentials:create <database> --name norcube_backup -a your-app.Get its connection URL
Run
heroku pg:credentials:url <database> --name norcube_backup -a your-app. A dedicated credential persists until you destroy it.Grant it read-only access
Give the
norcube_backuprole schemaUSAGEandSELECTon your tables, plus default privileges so new tables are readable too.Paste it into Norcube with SSL required
Choose Protect a database, pick PostgreSQL, paste the URL and set SSL mode to
require. Don't useverify-full, which fails on Heroku's standard certificates. There's no IP allow list to configure on standard plans.
What Norcube adds
Restore testing
Prove each backup restores, not just that the dump ran. A Passed badge per backup and a restore-health score per database show recoverability at a glance.
Failure and missed-backup alerts
Get notified when a backup fails, a restore test can't confirm your data, or a schedule silently stops. By email, Slack or a signed webhook, on every plan.
Your own bucket
Keep backups in Norcube-managed storage in Frankfurt, or in your own Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2, Wasabi or MinIO bucket.
Standard archives
Every backup is a standard pg_dump archive, gzip-compressed by default. Download it any time.
Heroku backups, answered
The questions that come up when backing up Heroku Postgres. The full guide is in the docs.
Why not just use DATABASE_URL?
DATABASE_URL on its own during a failover, a credential rotation or maintenance, and a saved string then fails authentication. A dedicated credential doesn't get rotated out from under your backups.What if backups start failing authentication?
Can I back up Private or Shield-tier databases?
Why SSL mode require and not verify-full?
require encrypts the connection, which is what Heroku recommends for third-party tools.Your Heroku data, backed up and tested
Start on the Free plan. No credit card required. Connect Heroku, pick a schedule and let the first restore test prove it.
- Free plan
- No credit card
- Standard formats
- Restore-tested