How to Backup Your WordPress Site (5 Easy Ways)

Unexpected events like malware attacks or accidental plugin deletions can seriously harm your website. That’s why having a backup of your WordPress site is so important.

When you regularly backup WordPress, you can protect your data from security risks and human errors. If something goes wrong, you will be able to restore a saved version of your site easily.

Over the years, our team has managed countless websites and relied on backups to recover from various problems. So, we know firsthand how important it is to protect your hard work and prevent costly downtime.

In our experience, using a plugin like Duplicator to create your site backups is the easiest and most straightforward approach. But if you’d rather back up your site manually, there are several ways to do that, too.

That’s why in this article, we will show you how to back up your WordPress site using five different methods.

Why Back Up Your WordPress Website?

As a WordPress website owner, you need to protect your data from unexpected events. Creating a website backup is one way to do this.

Security threats like hackers, malware, and phishing attacks can compromise your site. Additionally, human errors, plugin conflicts, and server failures can also put your site at risk. Without a backup, recovering your site can be challenging.

A WordPress backup saves a copy of your site’s important files, folders, and databases. This includes your content, plugins, themes, images, videos, settings, and other information. You can easily use the backup to restore your website in case you get locked out because of an error or cyberattack.

However, WordPress doesn’t offer any automatic backups. You can either manually back up using your hosting provider’s cPanel or an FTP client. Personally, we recommend using a plugin as it is much easier and gives you more control, making it a beginner-friendly solution.

WordPress Backup Best Practices for a Secure Website

Regularly backing up your WordPress site is crucial for maintaining security, preventing data loss, and avoiding issues from plugin or update failures. Backups act as a safety net, allowing you to quickly restore your site if anything goes wrong.

However, before you begin creating backups for your website, it’s important to understand WordPress backup best practices. The following tips will help you streamline the backup process, ensuring it’s both effective and smooth:

1. Choose the Right Backup Solution: You should always use reliable backup plugins such as Duplicator or UpdraftPlus. These tools can automate the backup process and provide options for both manual and scheduled backups.
2. Back Up Regularly: It is crucial to schedule regular backups (daily, weekly, or monthly) based on how frequently you update your site. For high-traffic or frequently updated sites, we recommend daily backups.
3. Store Backups in Multiple Locations: You should never rely on a single backup location. It’s best to store backups in multiple locations, such as cloud storage (Google Drive, Dropbox, or Amazon S3) and a local hard drive. This ensures you can recover your site even if one WordPress backup fails.
4. Include Both Files and Database: You’ll want to ensure that your backup includes your WordPress files (themes, plugins, uploads) and your database (content, settings, user information). Doing this will help you restore your site fully if something goes wrong.
5. Test Your Backups: It is important to regularly test your backups by restoring them to a staging environment. This practice confirms that your backups are working correctly and that you can rely on them in case of an emergency.
6. Secure Your Backups: You should protect your backup files with strong passwords and encryption, especially if they contain sensitive information. Ensure that access to backup locations is restricted to authorized users only.
7. Schedule Backups During Low Traffic Hours: Another important WordPress backup best practice is to schedule backups during low-traffic times to minimize the impact on your site’s performance.
8. Stay Updated: You must always keep your WordPress core, themes, and plugins updated. Regular updates reduce vulnerabilities that could compromise your site and make backups more effective.

That said, let’s see how you can back up WordPress using different methods. You can click the links to jump ahead to your preferred method:

Method 1: Backup a WordPress Site Using a Plugin (Recommended)

The easiest way to create backups is by using Duplicator. It is the best WordPress backup plugin that’s used by over 1,500,000 professionals. With Duplicator, you’ll be able to easily back up, migrate, and clone your WordPress website.

For this tutorial, we’ll use the premium plan because it includes more features, such as scheduled backups, disaster recovery links, cloud storage integration, migration tools, and more. However, you can also use the free version to get started.

First, you will need to install and activate the Duplicator Pro plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, visit the Duplicator Pro » Settings page from your WordPress admin panel and switch to the ‘General’ tab. Go ahead and enter the license key, which you can find in the account area.

Next, head over to the Duplicator Pro » Backups page from the WordPress dashboard.

From here, simply click the ‘Add New’ button at the top.

On the next screen, you will need to enter a name for your Duplicator backup. For this, you can use dynamic tags provided by the plugin. For instance, you can add the date and time to your backup’s name using tags to make recognition easy for you.

This will help you find the folder when you need to restore your website.

After that, expand the ‘Storage’ section to add another storage location for your backup. The plugin will use the default location to save your WordPress backup files.

For this tutorial, we will use the default location. However, you can click the ‘Add Storage’ link and add a new location like Dropbox or Google Drive.

Next, expand the ‘Backups’ tab. Here, you will need to choose the ‘Full Site’ option as the preset. This will ensure you create a backup of your entire WordPress site, including the database, plugins, themes, media, and more.

However, if you want to exclude specific files, simply check the ‘File Filter’ option. Then, add the file’s name and location to remove it from the backup.

Next, you can scroll down to the ‘Installer’ section. These are optional settings that are filled in when the backup is installed.

You can simply click the ‘Next’ button and leave this section as it is.

The plugin will now perform a scan and make sure everything is in order to create a Duplicator backup of your site.

It will show a ‘Good’ evaluation if everything checks out or show a warning so you can quickly fix the issue before backing up the website.

Next, you can click the ‘Create Backup’ button at the bottom.

Duplicator will now start building your site’s backup.

Once it’s done, you can visit the Duplicator Pro » Backups page from the dashboard to view it. Here, go ahead and click the ‘Download’ option and then select the ‘Both Files’ option.

This will download the zip file and the installer file onto your computer. You can then use these files as backup and easily restore your site in case of a cyberattack or a critical error.

Create a Disaster Recovery Link to Restore Your Website

Another advantage of using Duplicator is that it lets you set up a disaster recovery link for your website. This link helps you restore your backup if your website experiences a massive failure. In a worst-case scenario, you will still be able to easily return to the last functioning version of your website.

To do this, you need to visit the Duplicator Pro » Backups page from the WordPress admin panel and click the plus icon in the corner to expand the backup details. After that, simply click the ‘Disaster Recovery’ option.

This will open a new prompt on the screen.

Go ahead and click the ‘Set Disaster Recovery’ button from here.

Duplicator will now set up disaster recovery for your site. Once that is done, you will see a notice at the top of the page where you have to click the ‘Download Launcher’ button.

Now, in case of an emergency, you can easily recover a restored version of your site by clicking on this downloaded file on your computer. You can even click the ‘Copy Link’ button to copy the recovery URL.

We recommend storing this URL in a secure location

To recover your site, you will have to enter the recovery URL in the browser. This will automatically launch the recovery wizard. You can then follow the steps to restore your site from the backup.

Automatically Scheduling WordPress Website Backups

With Duplicator Pro, you can also automatically schedule backups for your website. This way, you will always have the latest website backup to work with. Plus, it helps save time as you don’t have to manually create a backup.

To start, go to the Duplicator Pro » Schedule Backups page from the WordPress dashboard and click the ‘Add New’ button.

After that, you can enter a name for your backup schedule.

The plugin also lets you select a template, which allows you to customize your backup and choose which files to back up. If you want a full backup, then we recommend leaving the template setting to default.

Next, you can scroll down and select the storage location for your scheduled backups. The plugin will use the default location, but you can add another location, like Dropbox, OneDrive, or Google Drive.

You can also select the frequency of backups. For instance, you can set up automatic backups on an hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly basis. For this tutorial, we’ve set the backup repeats to weekly.

After that, you can select a start time for your backup.

You’ll also need to ensure that the ‘Enable This Schedule’ checkbox is selected.

Once that’s done, simply click the ‘Save Schedule’ button.

Duplicator will now automatically back up your WordPress site on the set day and time. This way, you’ll have a fresh backup to restore if anything goes wrong.

Method 2: Manually Backup a WordPress Site Using cPanel

If you want to manually back up your WordPress site using your WordPress hosting service’s cPanel, then this method is for you.

We will be using Bluehost for this tutorial because it is our preferred provider, and we have a lot of experience using it. Plus, it’s officially recommended by WordPress.

Keep in mind that the settings may vary depending on the hosting service you are using.

First, you will need to log in to your hosting provider’s cPanel. In Bluehost, you can find it under your site’s Advanced settings. Just find the ‘cPanel’ section and click on the ‘Manage’ button.

Once the cPanel opens, go to the ‘Files’ section.

Then click the ‘File Manager’ option.

In a new tab or window, the file manager will now open.

Next, you have to select the public_html folder from the menu on the left and click the ‘+’ button to expand it.

From here, choose the folder with your website name and click the ‘Compress’ option at the top.

A new window will now pop up. Go ahead and select the ‘Zip Archive’ option and then click the ‘Compress Files’ button.

Your website files will now start to compress into a zip file.

The hosting service will also show a compression result. After that, you can simply click the ‘Close’ button.

Then, choose the zip file that you just created. It will be located in the public_html folder.

Next, simply click the ‘Download’ option at the top.

You can then save the compression file in a secure location.

Now, whenever your site goes down due to an error or security issues, you can use the compressed file as a backup and easily restore your content.

Method 3: Manually Backup WordPress Databases

Using your WordPress hosting services’ cPanel, you can also back up different WordPress databases. However, this is a time-consuming process because you’ll need to import multiple tables manually.

We will be using Bluehost for this tutorial, but keep in mind that steps will vary depending on your web host.

First, log in to your hosting service’s cPanel. Next, head to the cPanel from your site’s settings and click the ‘phpMyAdmin’ option.

Once phpMyAdmin opens, you have to select a database from the menu on your left.

Then, choose the tables you’d like to back up and click the ‘Export’ button at the top.

On the next screen, you can keep the ‘Export method’ as ‘Quick’ and select ‘SQL’ for the ‘Format’ section.

Once that’s done, go ahead and click the ‘Go’ button.

You can now save the SQL file on your computer in a secure location as a backup.

To restore a database, you’ll just need to import the SQL file into the phpMyAdmin panel. For more details, see our tutorial on how to make a WordPress database backup manually.

Method 4: Manually Backup a WordPress Site Using FTP

If you don’t want to use a backup plugin or access the cPanel, then you can back up a WordPress site using an FTP client.

There are many FTP clients you can use for Mac and Windows. For this tutorial, we will use FileZilla.

First, you’ll need to connect to your site using the FTP software. You can see our guide on what is FTP and how to use it for more details.

Once you’re connected, simply head to the root directory of your website from the panel on your right. This is where you’ll find folders like wp-content, wp-admin, and other important files like wp-config and .htaccess.

Next, you can right-click any folder or file you want to back up.

After that, simply click the ‘Download’ option.

You can save the files and folders from a live website to your local host or computer as backups.

This way, you can easily recover your website by uploading the saved files using the FTP client.

Method 5: Use WPBeginner Maintenance Services for Site Backups

If you are a beginner and the methods above seem too complex, then you may want to opt for WPBeginner’s Maintenance Services instead.

With over 16 years of experience in creating and managing WordPress sites, our team of experts can handle all the behind-the-scenes work to keep your website running smoothly.

We offer 24/7 support, continuous uptime monitoring, and regular updates to the WordPress core, themes, and plugins. Additionally, we back up your site to the cloud regularly, so if anything goes wrong, we can quickly restore it to a previous version.

Beyond that, we remove malware, prevent slow loading times, and focus on optimizing your site’s performance. WPBeginner’s Maintenance Services provide an all-in-one solution to protect your website, manage backups, perform updates, and much more.

With affordable pricing, we are a great choice for small businesses. For more information, check out our WPBeginner Pro Services page.

Bonus: How to Restore a WordPress Site From Backup

Now that you’ve created a WordPress site backup, the next step is to restore it in case you encounter a critical error or your site is compromised.

To do this, you will first need to clean your site and delete all the WordPress files. You can do that by connecting an FTP client and removing all the folders and files. After that, you have to install WordPress again and log in to your site.

Once that is done, you are now ready to restore your WordPress backups.

If you are using the Duplicator Pro plugin, then it is very easy to upload the backup. Simply head to the Duplicator Pro » Import Backups page from your WordPress dashboard and drag and drop the backup file.

From here, simply follow the steps in the import wizard to recover your website. You can also see our step-by-step guide on how to restore WordPress from a backup to learn more.

We hope this article helped you learn how to back up your WordPress site. You may also want to see our guide on how to back up a WordPress site to Dropbox and our tutorial on how to connect Google Drive to your WordPress media library.

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