Contents
Introduction
One of the best things that one can do is regularly create backups for their WordPress site security. When your site is backed up, you are at peace.
This is because you know that if anything happens, you have nothing to worry about as the site is backed up.
In today’s market, there are multiple paid as well as free WordPress backup plugins. Many of these plugins are very simple to use.
Today we will discuss Some of the most demanded WordPress backup plugins.
Note: Many WordPress hosts offer backup services that are limited. We suggest that you shouldn’t rely completely on them. The bottom line is you are responsible for backing up your WordPress site regularly.
Currently, if you backup your WordPress site, then I suggest that you select anyone from the list created and published in this article.
This is your opportunity to start using a backup plugin right away and ensure that no data is lost.
Before we move on, I would like to point out that WordPress backup has major constituents that include;
Database
WP utilizes MySQL database in order to save all the data within site settings, pages, posts, and various other data.
Hence the database is a vital component for any backup. If you do not have it, restoring the site will not be possible.
Website Files
Backups are not complete without the necessary files. However, right now, we will focus on plugins that support complete backups.
The Importance of Backing Up the WP Blog
We have noticed a very common mistake that most bloggers tend to make. It is that their blog is not backed up, and sooner or later, they tend to regret it.
If you’re a blogger and making the same mistake, it’s time that you figure out a robust system for backing up your website. You cannot just depend on the backup being provided by your host. Doing so is definitely a major mistake.
Now, WP is a software that works on MySQL and PHP. So, all your files are saved on the server of the web hosting company.
We all know the thumb rule that things related to web hosting and computers can crash sooner or later. There are plenty of hackers lurking on the Internet, and they could hack into the server, maybe your website.
If you have multiple users that have access to your website, they could log in and erase the WP directory.
Whatever the scenario, there’s only one person here who would bear the brunt of it, and that is you. When such a thing happens, you would have a great sense of sorrow for not having a backup for your WordPress blog. Now all the hard work is erased in a single moment.
An important rule to remember:
- Always store your backup files in a reliable and remote location. The backup must never be stored on the server that hosts your blog.
I must say it is extremely easy to create automatic backups for your WP blogs using WordPress Backup Plugins. We will discuss 3 easy methods that will help you schedule backups that are automatic for your WordPress site.
It will also include the WP databases as well as all the files related to it, like images, plugins, and theme files.
You can, with much ease, also configure a total backup for the installation. Only a single file and a single folder is required as a backup that includes;
- WP content folder
- Database backup
WP content folder – so you can eliminate themes that are not being used. You can also exclude the WP database backup directory, especially if you’re storing old databases and utilizing another method to backup the WP database.
You must also compress the database files in order to decrease or reduce the size of the backup.
There are Certain Features that a Good WordPress Backup Plugin Must Have
Here are a few things that you can keep an eye out for in an excellent WordPress backup plugin. Also, let’s take a look at some of the best WordPress backup plugins below.
- They must have automatic or scheduled backups.
- They should also offer remote storage that is cloud-based as an option.
- They must also have the ability to create partial or full backups.
- Always check to see if they offer the real-time or incremental backup feature.
- The process to restore must be simple.
- Also, check for features like cloning and migration.
Best WordPress Backup Plugins
UpdraftPlus
They are extremely popular in terms of offering a free WordPress backup plugin, and this is freely available online. They are used by over 2 million sites.
UpdraftPlus permits their users to create a full backup for their WordPress websites. You can then download it to the computer or save it to the cloud.
UpdraftPlus supports backups that are scheduled and on-demand as well. It also gives you an option to select the file you wish to backup.
Your backups can also be automatically uploaded. It can be uploaded to your email, SFTP, FTP, Rackspace, S3, Google Drive, Dropbox, and various cloud storage solutions.
Apart from backing up the WordPress website, this plugin enables you to restore all your backups straight from the WP admin console.
UpdraftPlus also offers a premium service. This has been added to help you to clone or migrate your websites, replace and search database, multi-site support.
They have various other beneficial features as well. With the premium service, you will have access to their priority support.
Price
- Free backup plugin
- UpdraftPlus Premium is available for $70.
Overall Review
The UpdraftPlus Backup plugin is extremely popular and preferred by many WP users. As I mentioned earlier, they have more than two million users.
They also have an average rating of 4.9/5. The free service has plenty of features. However, we suggest upgrading from the free service to their premium solution in order to unlock multiple powerful features.
Jetpack Backup – VaultPress
The Jetpack backup is extremely popular among WordPress users as it is loaded with plenty of beneficial features. This plugin was created by the co-founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg.
Jetpack was initially launched and labeled as VaultPress. However, today, it is re-branded and re-designed to Jetpack Backups.
We have a big gun to move our websites onto the platform of the latest Jetpack backup as this new platform is updated.
This backup provides real-time and daily automated backups with a cloud solution. It also does not slow down the website.
Setting up this backup as well as restoring it is extremely straightforward. It can be done with a couple of clicks.
The top-level plans provide several powerful features and security scans. However, there are some disadvantages, especially for beginners;
- This plugin will add to your overall expenses as you would need to pay for each site. So if there are multiple WordPress sites, the expenses increase.
- Buying this plugin is pretty complicated because they emphasize installing the Jetpack plugin in order to buy a subscription. The bright side is that the features that are unnecessary or not useful to your business can be manually disabled, excluding backups. This avoids slowing down the website.
- All the backups are saved for 30 days, especially for the beginner plan. If your requirement is a backup archive that is unlimited, it will cost you a monthly fee of $49.95. I think this is pretty expensive for newcomers in comparison to the other service on our list.
I don’t know if you have noticed, but there are a couple of sites that still use VaultPress. This is due to the older price that seems to be very favorable.
But, with an increased price, Jetpack is totally worth it because of Automattic’s reputation. We always prefer to purchase backup plans in real-time.
We are OK with the high prices as well. This is because most of our sites are e-commerce stores, and we prefer strong protection.
Price
- Plans that offer daily backups are available at a monthly price of $9.95.
- Plans that offer real-time backup are available at a monthly price of $49.95.
Overall Review
If you are in search of a Premium backup solution, we suggest Jetpack backup, and they are available at Premium prices.
Suppose you are currently utilizing Jetpack to avail of various other features that include Jetpack CDN.
This is helpful for Elastic search, promotion on social media, as well as photographs. Then we suggest that you go in for the complete plan that offers an amazing value.
However, suppose you are interested in real-time backups for WP. In that case, we suggest that you take a look at BlogVault. They provide more economical prices that are particularly beneficial for starters.
BackupBuddy
This is also a plugin that is famous for its Premium WordPress backup plugin. They have almost half a million active users. This plugin offers monthly, weekly, and even daily backups that can be scheduled with much ease.
BackupBuddy allows you to store all your backups automatically onto their cloud storage solutions. This includes email, Stash, FTP, Rackspace, Amazon S3, and Dropbox.
If you decide to use their stash solution, then you will be able to conduct backups in real-time.
One of the advantages of utilizing this plugin is, this solution is not subscription-based. Hence you will incur no monthly charges. You can now utilize the plugin on various websites that are specified in the plan.
Users also receive access to their support forum that is Premium. They also provide stash storage of 1GB that helps you to save your backups.
You will also receive regular updates. That’s not all, and they have a popular feature called iThemes Sync. It allows you to handle 10 WordPress websites from one dashboard.
Users can also utilize this plugin to duplicate, restore and migrate their websites.
Price
They have a Blogger plan that is available for $80 (single site license).
Overall Review
BackupBuddy is definitely a very cost-effective WordPress backup plugin that you must consider. It contains a comprehensive set of tools.
This will assist you in moving, restoring, and backing up a WordPress site. Overall it is an extremely powerful alternative to VaultPress and UpdraftPlus.
These are our top three picks in the category of the best WordPress backup plugins. For those who aren’t satisfied with these, we have a few other options that you might want to consider.
BlogVault (BV)
This is also a very popular WordPress backup plugin for all WordPress websites. It is a SaaS solution and not just a simple WordPress backup plugin.
This plugin helps create backups offsite independently on the servers of BlogVault. Hence your servers will have absolutely no load whatsoever.
They also create backups that are automatic on the website every day. Also, they permit you to create unlimited backups on demand manually. They feature incremental backups.
This allows you to sync changes that are incremental, keeping the server load minimum. This makes sure that the website performance is optimal.
Apart from backups, it also helps to recover the website with much ease. All your backups are archived for 90 days on the lower plan.
However, backups are archived for one year on the higher plans. This gives you an opportunity to recover your website from mishaps.
It has an inbuilt staging site that allows you to test the website quickly. It offers a simple option when you decide to migrate your site.
The features that BlogVault offer seem to be extremely promising, especially for businesses of smaller size.
The real-time backup package is very affordable in comparison to Jetpack backups. In fact, I would say they are available at half the rate. But when compared to plugins that are self-hosted, like BackupBuddy and UpdraftPlus, the rate per website makes it very expensive.
Price
- A personal plan offers one website license, daily backups. It is available at an annual charge of $89.
- The real-time backups are available at an annual charge of $249.
Overall Review
BV is a straightforward WordPress backup plugin. They create backups offsite, and this minimizes the load on the website server that is majorly caused due to backups. When compared to the market, they offer economical prices.
This is suitable for businesses of small sizes. The ones that want backups in real-time and don’t wish to spend for Jetpack backups at extra prices.
BoldGrid (BG) Backup
This is a backup service that is automated for WordPress sites launched by BoldGrid. For those of you who are not familiar with BoldGrid, they are a site builder that is powered by WP.
You can create your site backups and also restore the site if it crashes. Many users utilize it to transfer their websites while changing hosts.
With BG, you can also set up backups that are automatic as well as manual with a single click.
BG Backup offers a fault protection feature that is automatic. It creates backups for the website before it can update. If there is a failure of an update, it will roll back to the previous WordPress site automatically. This is an amazing feature that helps protect your website against all update errors.
They allow you to save up to ten backup archives on the dashboard. You can also store more at a storage location that is remote, like SFTP, FTP, or Amazon S3.
Price
They offer a plan that has premium services and tools for an annual fee of $60.
Overall Review
BG backup is a very simple WordPress backup plugin. It is utilized to create website backups. This plugin offers the advantage of multiple powerful tools that you receive on purchase.
BackWPup
This plugin is available for free. It helps you create complete WordPress backups, no additional charges. You can also store it to the cloud service like Rackspace, Amazon S3, Dropbox. You can send it to your email or save it on the computer.
This plugin is also very straightforward. It allows scheduling backups that are automatic in accordance with the website’s update frequency.
If you wish to restore a WordPress website from the backup that you have created, it’s an extremely simple process.
They also have a pro version that offers priority support. It allows you to save your backups on the drive and offers various other beneficial features.
Price
As discussed in the beginning, this plugin is available at no extra charges. However, they also have a premium plan.
Overall Review
This plugin is utilized by 600,000 active websites. BackWPup is an excellent alternative to the WordPress backup plugins that we have mentioned on this list.
They also have a premium version that offers powerful features like quick and easy site restoration with a single app.
Duplicator
Well, the name says it all. It is extremely popular among multiple WordPress sites. Not forgetting, it also offers backup features.
Users of Duplicator are not allowed to create scheduled automated backups. This is inconvenient for anyone looking for a regular backup solution to maintain their website.
Price
Duplicator is available at no extra cost.
Overall Review
Duplicator allows you to create backups that are manual for your WordPress website with much ease. If your host creates backups regularly, then this plugin can be used to create backups for utilization in a staging environment. It is an amazing plugin for site migration.
Our Thoughts
Every WordPress backup plugin on this list has pros as well as cons. However, each one of them provides a total WordPress backup and a complete backup of the database. You can also check our article on The Top 3 CDNs for WordPress.
We prefer and utilize Jetpack because of the fact that it is very simple to utilize. It provides incremental backups in real-time.
This means that you don’t have to back up all the files every single day. You can simply back up the things that are updated.
This backup is done by them, and that too within a couple of minutes; it’s indeed very surprising! This is apt for businesses and websites that are large. This is because it enables you to utilize the resources of your server efficiently.
But, if you have a small or medium-sized site. You don’t like incurring monthly charges. Then, we suggest the very popular plugin – UpdraftPlus.
This plugin, of course, has various powerful features. They include ample cloud storage, backup transport that is encrypted as well as backup encryption.
No matter which WordPress backup plugin you decide to use. Our advice is don’t save the backups on the services similar to your website. If you do this, you will be jeopardizing all your site information.
This is the only reason why we strongly suggest saving all your backups onto an offsite storage solution. It can be Google Drive, Amazon S3, Dropbox, etc.
What’s Best for You?
Without hesitating, I would say UpdraftPlus is one of the best WordPress backup plugins that you could get for your site. This plugin is the total backup solution that you could get. This is because it offers plenty of essential features from the very beginning.
Above all, the free plan also provides ample features, even in comparison to the various Premium plugins.
But, if you plan to select a Premium WordPress backup plugin providing live backup as a file is changed, then we suggest you BackupBuddy.
They also permit you to repair and scan common problems. This is definitely a significant pro for us. The Stash feature allows you to save plenty of server resources.
That’s all for now, guys! I do hope that the list that we created has been informative and helps you make an informed decision. Do share your comments and feedback with us.