Native data export versus third-party backup
Key Takeaway
The native Data Export Service runs at most weekly and gives you CSV files to download. For a copy no more than a day old and a restore of just the data an incident changed, use the paid Salesforce Backup & Recover add-on, because it backs up daily and can recover specific subsets of data.
Salesforce keeps backups of its own infrastructure, but it can't restore your business data after user error. So admins need their own backup plan. The native Data Export Service saves your org's data as CSV files on a weekly or monthly cycle. Paid options back up more often and also restore data. Paid options include Salesforce Backup and third-party apps on AppExchange.
Why admins need their own backup
Data protection is a shared responsibility between Salesforce and you. Salesforce hosts encrypted data across multiple data centers. Salesforce also keeps backups for infrastructure-level disaster recovery. However, Salesforce can't restore business-level data outside that kind of event. So recovering from user error or data loss depends on your own backup plan.
User error is the most likely cause of data loss. Examples include mistakes during mass imports, incorrect automation or integration deployments, and accidental deletions by users or admins.