AWS Backup vs SnapShooter
SEPT 2026 auditA comparison of AWS Backup and SnapShooter built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
The short answer
Choose AWS Backup if…
Backing up AWS services from one console with nothing bought in advance. There is no minimum fee and no setup charge, and the rate is per GB-month per service, so a small estate genuinely pays a small bill.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Choose SnapShooter if…
Protecting a handful of servers or DigitalOcean resources without paying for a platform: $14 a month covers three, with daily runs, 10 GB included and unlimited bring-your-own storage on every tier including the free one.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Consider something else if…
- AWS Backup: Your estate is not all AWS, or disaster recovery means a copy in another region. Cross-region transfer is billed as its own line where rsync.net and BorgBase charge nothing to move data at all, and anything moved to cold storage is committed for 90 days whether you keep it or not.
- SnapShooter: You need backups encrypted or rotated. Backup encryption is listed from the $79 Business plan and weekly and monthly retention from $39, so the entry tier keeps daily copies in whatever state they arrived.
4 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.
Pick the criteria you care about. The chart counts how many of them lean toward each provider — the same read as scanning the bars below, just totalled for the ones you chose.
AWS Backup 0
SnapShooter 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | AWS Backup | SnapShooter |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| What the free plan includes | Backup storage free tiers exist for EBS, DocumentDB and Neptune. The pricing page names them only in passing, to say they do not apply inside a logically air-gapped vault, and never states how large they are — so the allowance is confirmed to exist here and its size is not sourced from here. | One backup job, daily, with daily retention and 500 MB of included storage. The card is titled Free and its call to action is Register rather than the Try for free used on paid cards — but it also prints $14 a month, which is the Lite price, and the page shows Lite at both $14 and $13 elsewhere. Recorded as printed; the $14 on a plan called Free is not resolved here. |
| Entry paid plan | None. There is no minimum fee and no setup charge, so the smallest possible bill is the cost of whatever is actually stored — the only member of this category without a floor to clear. | $14 a month for Lite, covering up to 3 backup resources with 10 GB of included storage and daily runs. |
| Pricing model | Pure consumption, with no plan and no floor: backup storage held, cross-region transfer, data restored, and backup evaluations. Nothing is bought in advance, which is the opposite end of the category from the job-count and resource-count plans. | Per backup resource — 3, 20, 50, then 250 — with included storage at each step and unlimited bring-your-own storage throughout. As with SimpleBackups the tier also buys frequency, from daily to twice daily to every 5 minutes, so the plan is really priced on how much you protect and how recently. |
| Compliance | ||
| Encryption at rest | Yes, and independently of the source: a backup can carry a different encryption method from the resource it was taken from, so an unencrypted volume can still produce an encrypted recovery point. Only resource types supporting full AWS Backup management get this; others inherit the source resource encryption. | Listed as a feature of the $79 Business plan and above, so the two cheapest paid tiers do not name it. |
Where they differ.
What the free plan includes
- AWS Backup
- Backup storage free tiers exist for EBS, DocumentDB and Neptune. The pricing page names them only in passing, to say they do not apply inside a logically air-gapped vault, and never states how large they are — so the allowance is confirmed to exist here and its size is not sourced from here.
- SnapShooter
- One backup job, daily, with daily retention and 500 MB of included storage. The card is titled Free and its call to action is Register rather than the Try for free used on paid cards — but it also prints $14 a month, which is the Lite price, and the page shows Lite at both $14 and $13 elsewhere. Recorded as printed; the $14 on a plan called Free is not resolved here.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- AWS Backup Pricing ↗
“Backup storage free tiers for Amazon EBS, Amazon DocumentDB, and Amazon Neptune are not considered”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
- SnapShooter Pricing ↗
“1 backup job Backup daily Daily retention Unlimited bring your own storage 500 MB included storage”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
Entry paid plan
- AWS Backup
- None. There is no minimum fee and no setup charge, so the smallest possible bill is the cost of whatever is actually stored — the only member of this category without a floor to clear.
- SnapShooter
- $14 a month for Lite, covering up to 3 backup resources with 10 GB of included storage and daily runs.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- AWS Backup Pricing ↗
“There is no minimum fee and there are no setup charges.”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
- SnapShooter Pricing ↗
“Lite $ 14 /mo For individuals, or developers with basic needs.”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
Pricing model
- AWS Backup
- Pure consumption, with no plan and no floor: backup storage held, cross-region transfer, data restored, and backup evaluations. Nothing is bought in advance, which is the opposite end of the category from the job-count and resource-count plans.
- SnapShooter
- Per backup resource — 3, 20, 50, then 250 — with included storage at each step and unlimited bring-your-own storage throughout. As with SimpleBackups the tier also buys frequency, from daily to twice daily to every 5 minutes, so the plan is really priced on how much you protect and how recently.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- AWS Backup Pricing ↗
“pay only for the backup storage you use, backup data transferred between AWS Regions, backup data you restore, and backup evaluations”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
- SnapShooter Pricing ↗
“Up to 50 backup resources”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
Encryption at rest
- AWS Backup
- Yes, and independently of the source: a backup can carry a different encryption method from the resource it was taken from, so an unencrypted volume can still produce an encrypted recovery point. Only resource types supporting full AWS Backup management get this; others inherit the source resource encryption.
- SnapShooter
- Listed as a feature of the $79 Business plan and above, so the two cheapest paid tiers do not name it.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Encryption for backups in AWS Backup ↗
“AWS Backup offers independent encryption for resource types that support full AWS Backup management”
Read 2026-09-15 · official docs
- SnapShooter Pricing ↗
“Unlimited team members Backup encryption”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.
Documented by only one.
These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing.
Questions this comparison answers.
Entry paid plan: AWS Backup or SnapShooter?
AWS Backup: None. There is no minimum fee and no setup charge, so the smallest possible bill is the cost of whatever is actually stored — the only member of this category without a floor to clear.
SnapShooter: $14 a month for Lite, covering up to 3 backup resources with 10 GB of included storage and daily runs.
Should I choose AWS Backup or SnapShooter?
Pick AWS Backup if Backing up AWS services from one console with nothing bought in advance. There is no minimum fee and no setup charge, and the rate is per GB-month per service, so a small estate genuinely pays a small bill.
Pick SnapShooter if Protecting a handful of servers or DigitalOcean resources without paying for a platform: $14 a month covers three, with daily runs, 10 GB included and unlimited bring-your-own storage on every tier including the free one.