If you are running a website these days, you need to have everything backed up. Nobody can predict or prevent hacker attacks and server errors. Without a backup, your hard work could all disappear in the blink of an eye. If you are using WordPress, here are some of the best WordPress backup plugins you should be looking at.
Content
- 1. UpdraftPlus (Best for Starters)
- 3. BackWPup (Best for Advanced Users)
- 4. JetBackup (Best for Free Unlimited Backups)
- 5. Duplicator (Best for Moving or Cloning a Site)
- Manual Back Up Your WordPress Without Plugins
1. UpdraftPlus (Best for Starters)
UpdraftPlus is a big favorite of many WordPress users, and this can be seen by the fact that the plugin is installed on more than three million WordPress websites.
It has a free version with many features and a premium version with many advanced options. This immediately sets UpdraftPlus apart, as many similar plugins heavily restrict the features on their free versions to push you toward the paid upgrades.
You can back up to external sources such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, Rackspace Cloud, FTP, DreamObjects, Openstack Swift, or email. If you need to restore your site, UpDraftPlus says it only takes three clicks, so this is an ideal backup solution if you are not all that tech-minded.
If you upgrade to the paid version, you get additional backup options such as Microsoft OneDrive, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Backblaze, SFTP, SCP, pCloud, and WebDAV. UpdraftPlus also has its own integrated storage option called UpdraftVault. However, you should be wary of keeping all your eggs in one basket. Having a separate storage location is just good insurance.
You can choose when to back up. You can do it manually every month, or you can schedule backups at various times, whether it is hourly, daily, weekly, or fortnightly.
2. Jetpack VaultPress (Best for Those Who Want to Keep Things Simple)
Users of the Jetpack WordPress plugin will be happy to learn that there is also a website backup service attached, called VaultPress.
It works like a charm, but there’s only one hitch. There is no free version and you have to pay for a full year up-front. The good news is that prices start from a mere $4.45 per month, the first year snags you a 50% discount, and Jetpack is probably one of the best WordPress backup plugins, so that $4.45 a month is a good investment.
Jetpack does real-time backups which is great if you’re tweaking your site and accidentally crash it. You can click a button and it rolls back to the previous version. You get 10GB of storage and 30 days of archive and activity logs.
If you jump up to the next paid level ($8.95 a month), you also get features like spam protection, a web firewall, and malware scanning.
If you’re using Jetpack anyway, it makes sense to take advantage of their integrated backup platform.
3. BackWPup (Best for Advanced Users)
BackWPup is a highly-rated WordPress backup plugin, but you need to have a fair amount of technical knowledge to use it. This includes knowledge of mySQL, Curl, FTP, and GZ. If you have no idea what those are, then this won’t be the backup solution for you.
Two of the great features of this plugin are that you can send backups and logs by email, and generate a file of all your installed plugins. The complete backup will also include the plugins, but if one of them is corrupted, having a list of the plugins is always good to refer back to.
They’re also pushing a Pro version as well, but the free version is likely more than enough for most people.
4. JetBackup (Best for Free Unlimited Backups)
Many WordPress backup plugins usually don’t include unlimited backups as part of the free plan. You usually have to pay to upgrade for that. But JetBackup (not to be confused with Jetpack) does offer unlimited backups for free, which is what immediately sets this one apart. The only hitch is that free backups have to be done manually, whereas automatic ones are only available on the free plan.
With JetBackup, you can download all of the backup files, both for migrating to a new site, and to simply have another backup of the backup. You can upload these backup files to your domain to restore your site instantly.
You can also cancel the backup while the process has started, and you can specify specific WordPress folders to be backed up, if you don’t want everything.
The premium version also includes things like transferring backups to cloud storage (although you could do that manually on the free plan), email notifications, 24-hour online support, and more.
5. Duplicator (Best for Moving or Cloning a Site)
If you have the technical chops to use Duplicator, then the most interesting thing about it is that, as well as performing site backups, you can also “bundle up an entire WordPress site for easy reuse or distribution.”
Backups have to be done manually if you’re on the free plan, so you need to set frequent reminders (“Backup Tuesdays” for example). It also says you can move your site from one domain to another with “zero downtime.”
For the backup features, it bundles all the backups into a zip file which you can email, download, or move to cloud storage. Automated backups and automated transfers to cloud storage require the paid plan.
I have used this plugin myself and it works smoothly and effortlessly. It is a backup solution along with the option to move it to another domain, if the need arises.
Manual Back Up Your WordPress Without Plugins
If you are not keen on using any plugins to back up your WordPress site, you can easily do a manual backup. All you need is a backup of the following files, and you can restore your WordPress anytime:
- wp-config.php file
- Database
- wp-content folder
Wrapping Up
With so many WordPress backup plugins on the market, there is no real excuse for not backing up your site. All it takes is one hacker or one tweak gone wrong for your site to irretrievably crash. Why take the risk for the sake of saving a few dollars a month? Think of it as an insurance policy against future disasters.
All screenshots by Mark O’Neill
Mark O’Neill is a freelance tech journalist, editor, and bestselling spy fiction author. Originally from Scotland, he now lives in Germany with his wife and his dog.
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