FusionAuth Cloud Hosting FAQs: Backups, Upgrades, Domains, and Version Changes

[wesley]

We currently use a developer FusionAuth instance on Starter and Basic hosting but are planning to add a second, more production-ready instance on Starter and Business hosting. Before proceeding, we have several questions:

1. What does “3 nightly backups” mean under Business hosting? How often are backups created, how long are they retained, and what’s the recovery process?
2. Can we make our own backups under Basic or Business hosting?
3. Can we upgrade hosting from Basic to Business, or from Business to High Availability? How long does the process take, and how much downtime should we expect?
4. Can we downgrade the FusionAuth software version on hosted instances? If so, what’s the process and impact on downtime?
5. Our current Basic hosting lacks custom domain support. Can we migrate to new infrastructure to gain support for a custom domain?
6. Is it possible to change our current hosted domain name (https://CUSTOM_NAME.fusionauth.io) for our Basic hosting instance?

[wesley]

1. For Business hosting, FusionAuth creates daily database snapshots around midnight Mountain Time. Three days’ worth of backups are kept. Additionally, a snapshot is taken before any FusionAuth software upgrade and retained for 30 days.
2. Direct database access isn’t available on hosted deployments, so you can’t create traditional database backups yourself. However, most user and configuration data can be retrieved via the FusionAuth API. Some sensitive data, like password hashes or one-time codes (MFA, email verification, magic links), cannot be extracted.
3. Yes — upgrades from Basic to Business or Business to High Availability are possible. A FusionAuth support team member coordinates the process, which typically takes 60–90 minutes and may involve up to 45 minutes of downtime. New deployments use our updated infrastructure, which offers additional features.
4. Downgrading FusionAuth is technically possible but complex and rare. It requires manual intervention by FusionAuth support and can involve significant effort. Downgrades requested within 30 days of an upgrade are simpler and involve less disruption, but the exact downtime is difficult to estimate.
5. Yes — Basic hosting now supports a single custom domain on the new infrastructure. We can help migrate your deployment to the newer model, enabling you to add a custom domain for easier integration.
6. Yes — it’s possible to change your current hosted URL when migrating to the new infrastructure.

More details on hosting plans and capabilities are available here: https://fusionauth.io/docs/get-started/run-in-the-cloud/