Your guide to backup for Salesforce

Read the blog to learn the limitations of Salesforce’s native backup and restore tools and how to find the right backup solution for your business.

Salesforce has become an indispensable tool for businesses looking to boost sales, improve customer service, gain a deeper understanding of user behavior and enhance decision-making. The CRM platform serves as the central hub for customer data, financial information, sales and marketing campaigns and more.

While Salesforce is built on a highly secure and reliable infrastructure, data loss in cloud-based SaaS apps is not uncommon. According to The State of SaaS Backup and Recovery Report 2025, over 85% of respondents reported that their organization suffered SaaS data loss in the past 12 months.

In this blog, we’ll explore why having a dependable backup and recovery solution for Salesforce data is essential, what Salesforce’s native backup and restore tools are and what to look for in a robust backup solution.

Why you need a backup solution for Salesforce

Data loss in SaaS apps like Salesforce can occur due to multiple reasons. Having a reliable backup solution can help prevent costly breaches, build trust with customers and comply with industry regulations.

The shared responsibility model

Major CSPs like Microsoft, Google and Salesforce follow the shared responsibility model, a framework that outlines the roles and responsibilities regarding security and compliance between the CSP and the customer. Salesforce, like any leading SaaS provider, ensures its platform is secure, reliable and available at all times. On the other hand, customers are responsible for managing and protecting data in their Salesforce org. However, 60% of businesses using SaaS apps still falsely believe that CSPs are responsible for data protection, which can lead to data loss and impact business continuity.

Risks of inadequate protection

Using cloud platforms like Salesforce doesn’t mean your data is automatically protected. Without a reliable backup and recovery solution, your organization is at risk of costly data loss and operational downtime caused by:

Human error: Accidentally deleting a custom object or overwriting data could result in the loss of sensitive business information.

Sync error: Poorly configured third-party tools or sync errors can corrupt or delete Salesforce data.

Malicious activities: Insider threats or compromised accounts can result in data tampering or destruction.

Limitations of Salesforce’s native backup and restore tools

Salesforce offers several free and paid tools for backing up and recovering data. Let’s take a closer look at some of the options and their limitations.

Recycle Bin

Salesforce’s Recycle Bin temporarily stores deleted data for 15 days, allowing users or administrators to retrieve important files deleted accidentally. Salesforce also offers the “Extended Recycle Bin Retention” feature, allowing businesses to extend the retention period to 30 days. The data is permanently deleted from the Recycle Bin after the retention period and cannot be restored without a third-party backup and recovery solution.

Data Export Service

This feature allows Salesforce administrators to automate backups by scheduling weekly or monthly data exports, depending on the edition your organization has. Each export is delivered through an email containing a download link. However, if the recipient is out of the office or traveling, that email can easily slip through the cracks. And with the download link expiring in just 48 hours, you risk missing an entire week’s worth of data protection.

Report Export

This feature allows admins to capture snapshots of small datasets directly from the reports interface. The report results can be exported into Microsoft Excel (.xlsx or .xls) or comma-separated values (.csv) formats for analysis or offline access. However, users can export only five reports at a time, which makes it unsuitable for robust backup needs.

Full Copy sandbox

A Full Copy sandbox is a premium Salesforce feature that creates a replica of the production environment, including both data and metadata. While it offers a complete copy of your environment, it is not intended for backup purposes. You can only refresh it once every 29 days, which is far too infrequent for time-sensitive data protection. Refreshing a Full Copy sandbox is costly and time-consuming since it replicates everything from the live org.

Data Loader

Data Loader is a powerful tool for bulk operations like inserting, updating, deleting and exporting data. However, exports are limited to CSV files and attachments are not included. Extracting and restoring data is complex, especially when you need to preserve relationships between objects. While Data Loader is useful for data manipulation, it isn’t built for reliable or efficient backups.

Salesforce Backup & Recover

This is a paid add-on that offers automated daily backups and recovery features. While it aims to simplify backup and recovery, it may not be the best fit for organizations with high availability demands or strict compliance requirements.

Although backup data is stored separately from production, both are accessed through the same Salesforce platform. If Salesforce experiences a service disruption or outage, whether due to a technical failure or a regional incident, both your live and backup data could become inaccessible.

Storing backups within the same environment also increases security risks. A privileged user or a malicious actor with stolen credentials could potentially access or delete both production and backup data.

The service comes with a premium price tag, and its customer support model may not meet the expectations of businesses that require fast, responsive assistance during a data crisis.

Key features of an effective Salesforce backup solution

Choosing the right backup and recovery solution is critical to minimizing data loss and downtime and ensuring business continuity. Here are some key features to look for:

Restore capabilities

A reliable backup solution must offer fast, accurate restore — from a single field of a record to multiple records — while preserving relationships and structure.

Look for a solution that allows you to retrieve data from any point in time and restore both data and metadata (like Reports, Dashboards, Objects and Layouts) directly into Salesforce with no manual intervention.

To minimize downtime, your backup tool should deliver rapid RTOs through a simple, low-effort restore process that requires no specialized skills.

For added efficiency, choose a solution that supports cross-org restores, such as moving data and metadata between Production and Sandbox environments, to save valuable admin and developer time.

Comprehensive, transparent backup

A robust Salesforce backup solution must offer both granular protection and clear visibility into the backup process. Look for a backup solution that provides field-level file protection to ensure every object is protected individually so that an error affecting one object doesn’t corrupt your entire backup.

Your backup solution should give you full visibility into backup status so you can spot and resolve issues before they impact your ability to restore data. This level of insight builds trust and confidence in your data protection strategy.

Also, be mindful of hidden costs. Some providers charge extra for unlimited retention. Opt for a vendor that includes it at no additional cost.

Ease of use

Ease of use is essential for any effective SaaS backup solution. Look for a solution that’s easy to set up, manage and restore data. The ideal backup solution should be intuitive and require minimal to no training.

Choose a solution that automatically backs up to ensure continuous protection. It should also provide manual, on-demand backup to give you full control when needed. The best solutions will perform all of that in-app, so administrators never need to leave their Salesforce environment to manage and monitor backups.

Security and compliance

A dependable backup solution must prioritize security and compliance to protect sensitive data and meet industry regulations. Look for providers with recognized third-party certifications, like SSAE 16 SOC 2 Type II, which validate strong controls over infrastructure, software, access and data handling.

How to evaluate Salesforce backup vendors

When comparing SaaS backup vendors, keep the following evaluation criteria in mind:

Vendor reputation and support

Look for a vendor with a proven track record in Salesforce backup. Dependable customer support (24/7), onboarding assistance and SLAs are important for long-term success.

Deployment and setup

Make sure the solution integrates easily with your Salesforce environment. Solutions that require weeks to set up may slow your data protection strategy. Your solution should be easy to set up, manage and use.

Scalability and performance

Choose a backup solution that can grow with your organization and can handle complex orgs with large datasets and high customization.

Cost vs. value

Cost is an important factor to consider, but it shouldn’t be the only one. Assess the total value a solution provides. For instance, consider whether the pricing includes:

• Automated and on-demand backups
• Granular and full restore options
• Flexible data retention
• Security certifications and data encryption
• 24/7 customer support

References and case studies

Before you finalize the vendor, look for real-world stories of successful recoveries and use cases to validate the vendor’s capability and track record. This will give you confidence in your choice.

Think Salesforce data protection, think Spanning Backup

Your Salesforce data is one of your organization’s most valuable business assets. With the right backup and recovery solution, you can ensure your critical Salesforce data is protected, accessible, compliant and recoverable when you need it the most.

That’s where Spanning Backup for Salesforce comes in. Spanning provides enterprise-class, automated protection of your Salesforce records, metadata, standard and custom objects, attachments, reports, Chatter posts and more. Our industry-leading solution simplifies backup processes and offers flexible restore options for quick recovery in the event of a crisis.

Spanning Backup runs daily, non-intrusive backups automatically to ensure your Salesforce data is consistently protected without disrupting your workflow. We combine industry-leading security practices, including advanced encryption, intrusion detection and strict access controls to safeguard your data at every level.

Our platform is certified for compliance with key standards like SSAE 16 and HIPAA, giving you the confidence that your data protection strategy meets the highest regulatory and security benchmarks.

Explore Spanning Backup for yourself. Take a quick product tour to see if Spanning is the right solution for your business.