Azure Backup
An Azure backup service that provides built-in management at scale.
Difference in Azure Snapshot, Backup and Restore Points
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(0, 7.000000000000001%, 10%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EAP%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Apurva Pathak
755
Reputation points
Hello folks,
Can someone please help me understand the difference in Azure Snapshot, Backup and Restore Points, and when shall I prefer one to another.
Thanks in advance!
Azure Backup
{count} votes
-
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(236.8, 68%, 32%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EBY%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Bharath Y P 80 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator2025-08-08T17:17:10.62+00:00 Hello Apurva Pathak,
You are looking for differences between Azure Snapshot, Azure Restore Point, and Azure Backup, and guidance on which one to prefer.
Azure Snapshot:
Manage point-in-time copies of managed disks, native blobs, or other snapshots. Also azure snapshot is a full, read-only copy of a virtual hard disk (VHD). It can be used as a point-in-time backup or to troubleshoot virtual machine (VM) issues. Snapshots can be taken for both operating system (OS) and data disk VHDs. With snapshots, you can back up your managed disks at any point in time. These snapshots exist independently of the source disk, and you can use them to create new managed disks.
You can use azure snapshot when you need a fast, on-demand backup of one disk, also Before making quick, manual changes to a single disk (e.g., patching, updates), you can use snapshot for cloning or migrating individual disks.
Reference link: Create an Azure snapshot of a virtual hard disk - Azure Virtual Machines | Microsoft Learn
Azure Backup: The Azure Backup service provides simple, secure, and cost-effective solutions to back up your data and recover it from the Microsoft Azure cloud.
You can use azure backup before major maintenance or upgrades impacting the whole VM (e.g., OS patching, application upgrades) and when you want a fast rollback option for the whole VM state.
Reference link: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/backup-overview
Restore Points:
An individual VM restore point is a resource that stores VM configuration and point-in-time application-consistent snapshots of all the managed disks attached to the VM. You can use VM restore points to easily capture multidisk-consistent backups. VM restore points contain a disk restore point for each of the attached disks. A disk restore point consists of a snapshot of an individual managed disk.
Restore Points can be used for ongoing, scheduled backups of production VMs. when compliance, retention policies, and disaster recovery capabilities are needed. Also If you require file-level or application-consistent backups.
Reference link: Use virtual machine restore points - Azure Virtual Machines | Microsoft Learn
Please let me know if you face any challenge here, I can help you to resolve this issue further.
-
Apurva Pathak 755 Reputation points
2025-08-11T10:26:22.52+00:00 Thanks for your comments @Bharath Y P .
So, If I understand this correctly. Azure Backup is just a wrapper service of Azure Restore Points with added automation. Backup also works same in the backend; it is just Azure Backup can be used to take automated backups (restore points). Where, Azure Restore Point can be used to take manual app/crash consistent backup.
Please confirm if my understanding this correct.
Thanks a lot!
-
Bharath Y P 80 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
2025-08-11T17:35:06.63+00:00 Hello Apurva Pathak,
Thanks for taking a moment to go through my comment.
Azure back is not just a simple wrapper on top of azure restore points, although both services utilize snapshots at the backend to create point-in-time backups, Azure Backup offers a fully managed and comprehensive backup solution. It builds on recovery points by adding advanced features such as automation, retention management, and enhanced security. While both services enable point-in-time recovery, their scope, capabilities, and operational models are fundamentally different.
Azure backup automates the creation of recovery points and manages retention policies with support for scheduling and integration features such as incremental backups, immutability, and protection against accidental deletion. Backup data is stored in a Recovery Services Vault, and the service offers recovery options including application-consistent, crash-consistent, and file-level restoration. It also integrates seamlessly with automation and governance tools to enhance operational efficiency and compliance.
Azure restore point offer a low-level method for manually creating point-in-time snapshots of VM disks. They support both crash-consistent and application-consistent backups, but lack built-in features such as policy management, scheduling, automation, and retention. Users are responsible for manually creating and deleting restore points as needed.
Your understanding is close, but it's important to note that Azure Backup doesn't just add automation, it also introduces robust management, retention, security, and recovery capabilities that make it a comprehensive backup solution, not just an enhancement of restore points.
Sign in to comment
Sign in to answer