Are you looking for the best WordPress backup plugin for your website?
Since we manage several different WordPress websites, we have had the opportunity to use and evaluate various WordPress backup plugins for our websites.
Through our hands-on experience with these plugins, we have gained a comprehensive understanding of their features, pros, and cons.
With this article, our goal is to help readers make informed decisions about choosing the right backup plugin for their WordPress website.
Important: While many WordPress hosting providers offer limited backup services, we always recommend that our users not rely solely on them. At the end of the day, it is your responsibility to keep regular backups of your website.
How We Test and Review Backup Plugins
Here’s how we reviewed different WordPress backup plugins:
1. Real-World Experience: Our team actively manages several WordPress websites, giving us firsthand experience with different backup plugins. We have used and tested these plugins extensively to ensure they meet our high standards of reliability, ease of use, and security.
2. Comprehensive Research: We conduct thorough research to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in WordPress backup technology. We regularly evaluate new plugins and update our recommendations accordingly to ensure readers have access to the best options available.
3. Reader Feedback: We value feedback from our readers who have used the plugins we recommend. We actively monitor comments, reviews, and discussions to gain insights into the real-world experiences of website owners using these plugins.
Why Trust WPBeginner?
At WPBeginner, we’re a dedicated team of people with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, design, and online marketing. We are committed to providing high-quality content and resources to our readers by extensively testing and reviewing the plugins that we use. To learn more, see our complete editorial process.
| Best For | Price | Free Version | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🥇 | Duplicator | Scheduled backup and migration | Starts at $49.50/yr | ✅ |
| 🥈 | UpdraftPlus | Popular freemium plugin | Starts at $70/yr | ✅ |
| 🥉 | Jetpack VaultPress Backup | Premium backups and security | $4.95 per MONTH | ✅ |
| 4 | Solid Backups | Original backup plugin (since 2010) | Starts at $99/yr | ❌ |
| 5 | BlogVault | Affordable real-time cloud backup | Starts at $149/yr | ✅ |
| 6 | BoldGrid Backup | Simple backups for BoldGrid users | $2.50 per MONTH | ✅ |
| 7 | BackWPup | Free cloud backup | Starts at $69 | ✅ |
1. Duplicator Pro
Duplicator Pro is a powerful and user-friendly WordPress backup plugin used by over 1.5 million website owners. It makes it easy to back up, migrate, and clone your WordPress site, even for beginners.
You can create manual or scheduled WordPress backups and safely store them on popular cloud services like Dropbox, Google Drive, FTP, OneDrive, and Amazon S3.
You can also view all of your backups right from your WordPress dashboard, which makes backup management simple.
When you need to restore a backup, the Duplicator Recovery Wizard will walk you through restoring your backup files, step by step.
Duplicator comes with all of the backup features you need, including complete WordPress files & database backups, recovery points, archive encryption for enhanced security, and more.
It also offers advanced site migration features such as an easy migration wizard, a streamlined installer, server-to-server imports, multisite network migrations, customizable pre-configured sites, large site support, and more.
At WPBeginner, we have used Duplicator for various website migrations, and it’s super reliable, especially for complex migrations.
Pricing: Starts at $49.50 per year for unlimited backups for up to 2 sites. There’s also a free version of Duplicator that you can use to get started.
Review: Duplicator Pro is a top-rated WordPress backup and migration plugin. It has over 1.5 million active installs and an average 4.9 out of 5 star rating. The free version has everything you need to get started. But we recommend upgrading to the premium version to access features like cloud storage, scheduled backups, and more.
To learn more, see our detailed Duplicator review.
2. UpdraftPlus
UpdraftPlus is the most popular free WordPress backup plugin available on the internet. It is used by more than 3 million websites.
UpdraftPlus allows you to create a complete backup of your WordPress site and store it on the cloud or download it to your computer.
The plugin supports scheduled backups as well as on-demand backups. You also have the option to choose which files you want to backup.
It can automatically upload your backups to Dropbox, Google Drive, S3, Rackspace, FTP, SFTP, email, and several other cloud storage services (see our step-by-step guide on how to backup & restore your WordPress site with UpdraftPlus).
Besides backing up each WordPress website, UpdraftPlus also allows you to easily restore backups directly from your WordPress admin panel.
UpdraftPlus also has a premium version with add-ons to migrate or clone websites, database search and replace, multisite support, and several other features. The premium version also gets you access to priority support.
Pricing: Free (UpdraftPremium Personal costs $70 per year).
Review: UpdraftPlus is one of the most loved WordPress backup plugins on the market. It has over 3 million active installs and an average 4.8 out of 5 star rating. While the free version has a lot of features, we recommend upgrading to UpdraftPlus premium to unlock all its powerful backup features.
For more details, see our complete UpdraftPlus review.
3. Jetpack VaultPress Backup
Jetpack VaultPress Backup is a popular WordPress backup plugin by Automattic, the company created by WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg.
This plugin was originally launched under the name VaultPress, which is what we use on WPBeginner, but now it’s been redesigned and rebranded as Jetpack Backups. We have started to switch several of our websites to the new Jetpack backup platform because it’s more up-to-date.
The Jetpack backup plugin offers automated daily and real-time cloud backup solutions without slowing down your site. You can easily set up Jetpack backups and restore from backups within a few clicks.
The higher plans of Jetpack also offer security scans and several other powerful features.
There are a few downsides to using Jetpack backups for beginners.
First, a recurring expense can add up with multiple WordPress sites because you pay per site.
Second, the purchase flow is quite complicated, and they force you to install the Jetpack plugin to purchase a subscription. The good news is that you can manually disable all the unnecessary features of Jetpack except for backups, so they don’t slow down your site.
Lastly, backups are stored for only 30 days on the lower plans. If you want an unlimited backup archive, you will have to pay $4.95 per month per website, which is significantly more expensive for beginners when compared to other solutions listed here.
WPBeginner website still uses VaultPress (an older version of Jetpack) because we got grandfathered in at their older pricing, which was much more favorable.
However, even at the higher price, Jetpack backup is completely worth it due to Automattic’s stellar reputation. This is why we pay for higher priced real-time backup plans for our new sites like All in One SEO because it’s an eCommerce store, and we want maximum protection.
Pricing: From $4.95 per month for a daily backup plan (billed annually).
Review: Jetpack VaultPress Backup is a premium backup service with a premium price point. If you are already using JetPack for other features like JetPack CDN for photos, social media promotion, and Elastic search, then it’s good value to purchase their Complete plan bundle. If you are just after real-time cloud backups for WordPress, then you can also look at BlogVault in our list because they offer more affordable pricing for beginners.
4. Solid Backups
Solid Backups is one of the most popular premium WordPress backup plugins used by over half a million WordPress sites. It allows you to schedule daily, weekly, and monthly backups easily.
With Solid Backups, you can automatically store your backups in cloud storage services like Dropbox, Amazon S3, Rackspace Cloud, FTP, and Stash (their cloud service) and even email it to yourself.
If you use their Stash service, you can also do real-time backups.
The biggest advantage of using Solid Backups is that it is not a subscription-based service, so there is no monthly fee. You can use the plugin on the number of websites mentioned in your plan.
You also get access to premium support forums, regular updates, and 1GB of Stash Live storage to store your backups. In addition, their iThemes Sync feature lets you manage up to 10 WordPress sites from a single dashboard.
You can even use Solid Backups to duplicate, migrate, and restore websites.
Pricing: $99 for Basic Plan (1 Site License).
Review: Solid Backups is a cost-effective premium WordPress backup solution for you. It has a full set of features you will need to back up, restore, and move a WordPress site. In a nutshell, it’s a powerful UpdraftPlus and VaultPress alternative that you can use. See our complete Solid Backups review for more details.
5. BlogVault
BlogVault is another popular WordPress backup service for WordPress. It’s a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution rather than just a WordPress plugin. It creates offsite backups independently on BlogVault servers, so there will be zero load on your server.
BlogVault creates an automatic backup of your website daily and also allows you to manually create unlimited on-demand backups. It features smart incremental backups that sync only incremental changes for minimal server load. This ensures optimal performance for your WordPress site.
Besides backups, it helps you to recover your website easily. You can store a 90-day backup archive on lower plans and a 365-day backup archive on the higher plan, so you can recover your site from any mishap. Additionally, in the event of a server failure, BlogVault backups are still available to restore a site quickly.
It also has a built-in staging site feature to let you test your website easily. Plus, they provide an easy option to migrate your website to another host.
BlogVault features are very promising for small businesses. However, if you compare it to self-hosted plugins like Duplicator, Updraft, or Solid Backups, the cost per site is more expensive.
Pricing: $149 per year for the Plus Plan 1 Site License for daily automatic backups. $499 per year for high frequency daily backups.
Review: BlogVault is an easy-to-use WordPress backup solution. It creates offsite backups, so your website server will not be overloaded with your backups. The pricing is a bit higher than other solutions on this list, but it comes with powerful features for small businesses that want real-time backups. See our complete BlogVault review for more details.
6. BoldGrid Backup
BoldGrid Backup offers Total Upkeep, an automated WordPress backup solution by BoldGrid.
It allows you to easily create your website backups, restore your site after it crashes, and even use it to move your site when switching hosts. You can set up automated backups or manually create backups with one click.
Total Upkeep comes with an automated fault protection feature that automatically creates a backup of your site before it updates. If an update fails, it automatically rolls back your WordPress site to the last backup. It’s a great feature that protects you against update errors.
With BoldGrid’s Total Upkeep, you can store backup archives on your dashboard and in remote storage locations like Amazon S3, FTP, or SFTP.
Pricing: $2.50 per month billed annually (Includes all of BoldGrid Premium tools and services).
Review: BoldGrid Total Upkeep Backup is a simple WordPress backup plugin you can use to create your website backups. If you want to take advantage of their bundle plan, including other powerful tools, then you will need to purchase the BoldGrid Premium Connect Key. This plan also includes the WordPress website builder, costing $60 per year.
See our detailed Total Upkeep review to learn more.
7. BackWPup
BackWPup is a free plugin that allows you to create complete WordPress backups for free and store them on the cloud (Dropbox, Amazon S3, Rackspace, etc.), FTP, email, or on your computer.
It is extremely easy to use and allows you to schedule automatic backups according to your site’s update frequency.
Restoring a WordPress site from a backup is also very simple. The BackWPup Pro version comes with priority support, the ability to store backups on Google Drive, and other cool features.
Pricing: Free (Premium plan is also available).
Review: Used by over 600,000 websites, BackWPup is a great alternative to other backup plugins in the list. The premium version of the plugin adds more powerful features, including easy and quick website restoration from the backend with a standalone app.
Which Is the Best WordPress Backup Plugin?
Each WordPress backup plugin in our list has pros and cons, but all plugins offer complete WordPress file backup and full database backup features.
We use Jetpack Backups for two main reasons. It is extremely easy to use, and it offers real-time incremental backups.
This means that instead of backing up all of your files every day or every hour, it only creates a backup of what has been updated literally within minutes of the update. This is ideal for a large website like ours because it allows us to use our server resources efficiently.
However, if you run a small to medium size website and hate paying high monthly fees, we recommend the popular Duplicator plugin. It has powerful features like backup encryption, scheduled backups, and many cloud storage options.
Whichever WordPress backup plugin you choose, please do NOT store your backups on the same server as your website.
By doing that, you are putting all of your eggs in one basket. If your server’s hardware fails or you get hacked, you don’t have a backup. This defeats the purpose of setting up regular backups.
We recommend storing your backups on a third-party storage service like Dropbox, Amazon S3, Google Drive, etc.
We hope this article has helped you pick the best WordPress backup plugin for your site. You may also want to check out our popular WordPress guides for your website.
Best WordPress Guides for Your Website
- Beginner’s Guide: How to Restore WordPress from Backup
- How to Make a WordPress Disaster Recovery Plan
- Ultimate WordPress SEO Guide for Beginners (Step by Step)
- The Ultimate WordPress Security Guide – Step by Step
- Best Email Marketing Services for Small Businesses
- Best Business Phone Services for Small Businesses
- WooCommerce Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Tutorial [+ Resources]
- How to Recover and Restore Deleted Pages in WordPress
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Patty
Note: BackupBuddy can no longer reliably back up to Rackspace. I’m using Rackspace only because it was an option that iThemes promoted; I had never heard of it before and would not be using it if not for iThemes. So I have a big problem. I’m currently spending a huge amount of time figuring out how to continue backing up.
Priyanshu
I want to migrate my wordpress site but i have no idea how to migrate on another hostinng.
WPBeginner Support
Hi Priyanshu,
Most WordPress hosting companies offer website migration, some even do that for free.
Admin
Bryan F
I use Backup Buddy for backups and site migration, with great success.
Carl
FYI Looks like BackupBuddy is not free anymore, I searched for the plugin and could not find it then searched Google and found their page with their new pricing plans.
WPBeginner Support
Hi Carl,
It is not a free plugin. It is a premium WordPress plugin, which means you need to pay for the license to get support and updates.
Admin
rubul smith
I am new WPbeginner here. I dont understand which is better for me. Can you help me ? give some advice .
WPBeginner Support
Hi Rubul,
All of them are good options. If you want a free plugin, then we recommend UpdraftPlus.
Admin
Melanie
Thanks for this. It’s on my to-do list.
August P
Updraft Plus is garbage! There’s some random JavaScript or jQuery problem error that the Updraft team is dismissing. It appears as an error in the Wordpress Dashboard of your site. It says: “Warning: If you can still read these words after the page finishes loading, then there is a JavaScript or jQuery problem in the site.” It makes the Updraft plugin unusable (it will not perform backups, won’t even do a migration if you purchase the premium addon). The proposed fixes don’t work, and the Updraft support response was basically, “sucks to be you.” I will NEVER use that plugin again! The lack of concern by the support team was disgraceful!
UpdraftPlus Support
Hi,
Our apologies for your experience with our support team. It is very important to us that we resolve all support requests.
The ‘JavaScript or jQuery error’ message indicates that there is a conflict or other issue on the site that is preventing UpdraftPlus from loading its own JavaScript.
I’m afraid that I cannot find a support request in our system that matches your name here, but if you can open a new support ticket via our support form and ask for the ticket to be assigned to ‘DN’, we can attempt to resolve the conflict (or provide a refund for any add-ons if we cannot).
Mathukutty P. V.
I tried it earlier on my blog and found memory exhaust problem. Increased php memory to 256. Not success. So stopped using. Again installed a week back and found same problem. I am on linux shared 512 M. Uninstalled yesterday. Found it backup everything database, images, plugins which is really not necessary on daily or weekly.
Janus
Backupbuddy and duplicator are my favorites but started with a year license for Updraft and when I should use it the server was down. And the backup was not for beginners.
James Johnson
I expect to do some business in Europe and need to comply with GDPR. Do you is there something in the program that will make that quick and simple? I’m in the early stages of settling up the business and want to build in compliance. I expect something like GDPR will come to pass in the fairly near future, so it can’t hurt to be ready.
I appreciate your assistance!
Regards,
Jim Johnson
WPBeginner Support
Hi James,
You can hire an attorney to help you with legal requirements. You may also want to see our ultimate GDPR guide for some more details.
Admin
Faith Biete
I will use backup buddy as my blog is a small one.
KenB
I did not have a good experience with backup buddy. I had been making backups for years without having to use a restore.
This week i went to move the site to a new host and it failed miserably.
Problems with the database access.
No timely help available.
I found all in one migration worked for me.
Cathy
I really must choose a backup plan and get it into place. I’m leaning toward VaultPress. I already have Jetpack installed on my Wordpress.org site. This might be a dumb question, but I’m a little confused by the statement that one needs a wordpress.com website for it to work. Does that include my self-hosted website?
Editorial Staff
A WordPress.com site requires you to make a site using http://www.wordpress.com, you would want to take a look at https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/self-hosted-wordpress-org-vs-free-wordpress-com-infograph/
Admin
David
Is it possible that you misunderstood Cathy’s question? I think she was asking about your statement that “…you will have to subscribe to JetPack, get a WordPress.com account, and install the Jetpack…”. I assume that “a WordPress.com account” does not mean “a WordPress.com website”. I did a quick scan of your linked article, and I didn’t see that it explained that.
Regards, David.
WPBeginner Support
Hi David,
Sorry, yes you are right. A WordPress.com account doesn’t mean you need to create a WordPress.com blog or website.
Shiva
Hello,
We Follow WP-beginner from these type of words.
“We use VaultPress for two main reasons. It is extremely easy to use, and it offers real-time incremental backups. ”
In last year i commented here also, On that time, our website db storage as 250 GB,now 1.5 TB.
we following Vaultpress with jetpack premium . It is simple & real-time time backup.
Thanks WP-beginner suggesting best Apps in industry.
Shiva
WPBeginner Support
Hi Shiva,
Glad you find WPBeginner helpful
thanks for your kind words.
Admin
Steve
A 1.5TB database in Wordpress?
Debra
I am looking for a back-up solution for a very large real estate site with MLS/RETs integration that has a user friendly restore feature. Which of these backup solutions mentioned in this article would work. I used Duplicator Pro, but it failed to restore a site I had created and I had to completely redo the site. The backup that was with the Host Service was an epic fail! Looking for advice so this never happens to me again! Thank you.
tabasko
Hi there
I’m looking into a WP backup plugin able to copy data files to FTP without using ZIP (or make separate archive file) + able to backup my parent/root folder of the domain (as WP has been installed in its own folder.
Problem is that my hosting solution returns error message around ZIP (“too large file”).
Thanks for any information you can share
Ray
Can anyone tell me when updraft free version runs it auto backup? It appears to me from the couple of sites I have installed it on, it runs the AUTO backup at the sametime each day you installed it.
So if you installed it 11am then it will run the next day at 11am?
Anyone know if this is true?
WPBeginner Support
Hi Ray,
It does. However, you can also set up your own schedule by visiting Settings » UpdraftPlus Backups page and clicking on the Settings tab.
Admin
Ray Grau
@Support – thank you – but that setting section doesn’t allow us to set our own time to run. If I want it to run in the middle of the night using the (FREE Version) I have to stay till then and activate the plugin.
WPBeginner Support
Hi Ray,
We took another look and you are right. It allows you to set the frequency of backups like (12 hrs, daily, weekly, etc) but not the exact time when you want backups to run. For that, you will need premium version.
Mathukutty P. V.
updraft plus memory exhaust problem. Tried adding 256M in php.ini and wp-config.fp as advised by wp support but problem not solved. What is another best free plugin?
Joe Miles
Perhaps you have a site that’s very big on a server with low resources? Or somehow your server is already overloaded.
UpdraftPlus chunks the backup to make it unlikely to run out of server resources. So I’d expect you’ll also get the problems with other plugins.
Keep trying to resolve it with UpdraftPlus support.
M
My site is very small and newly started in sep. with other plugins not facing that problem. Contacted UpDraftplus support on WordPress but they could not solve the problem. TThey replied on twitter to make 256 or 512M in wp_config.fp. I did that in wp_config.fp and php.ini but not success. Which free version plugin is alternative and best?
Tyrion
There is a much greater chance that Backup Buddy will abort than it will run. Any little thing will prevent it from running, like if the cat sneezes too loudly.
John
Funny but misleading… I’ve used it for years on hundreds of websites without the slightest problem.
Mathukutty P.V.
After installing updraftplus resource exhausted. I tried 2/3 times installing.
Mathukutty P. V.
updraftplus or wp-dbmanager is better choice? Is it necessary to use plugin for backup when cpanel backup is available?
WPBeginner Support
Hi Mathukutty,
With cPanel you will have to manually create the backup. These backup plugins will allow you to automate the process and save backups on cloud storage.
Admin
natalie
I have repeatedly tried to back up my blog, using BackWPup 3.4.1; A project of Inpsyde GmbH
[INFO] WordPress
But I always get this email, please can you help and advice
ERROR: Backup archive too big to be sent by email!
[01-Sep-2017 04:01:44] ERROR: Job has ended with errors in 3164 seconds. You must resolve the errors for correct execution.
thanks
natalie
Frank
The backup it creates is too big to email to you. You’ll need to store and then download it if you want a copy on your computer.
Rob Bock
Backup buddy or the win. I’ve been developing a new site for a client for 3 months now. It’s a big site, with hundreds of hours invested and countless customizations. Come to find out one of my developers updated the theme files instead of applying customizations to the child theme so when we upgraded to WP 4.8 all customizations were lost.
Thankfully, I was able to use the importbuddy tool that comes with backup buddy and had the site restored back to its previous state in less than 10 minutes using a local backup. I was able to sync the offsite backups to my Amazon s3 storage as well. This won’t replace FTP folder backups or database backups through cPanel, but I’ve never felt more confident in a backup tool, and restoring from this was definitely a faster, easier experience than doing so from a manual FTP backup.
Johnsie
Just backup the wordpress folder and dump the database using a cron job and shell script. I wouldn’t trust a plugin for this sort of thing.
Mark
You said that Jetpack is required to use Vaultpress. I’ve been using Vaultpress for a couple years now and I do not have Jetpack installed, nor have I ever heard about this before. And it’s backing me up every day.
WPBeginner Support
Hi Mark,
All customers who signed up before December 2016, can continue using VaultPress without JetPack. As a new customer, you can’t buy VaultPress without Jetpack.
Admin
Katie
Thank you for these suggestions! I am attempting BackWPUp on my brand new blog! We’ll see how it goes… appreciate so many options listed! Hoping to backup to my email but really I don’t know whether thats the best idea. Anyone have a suggestion for the best place to back up a brand new site?
Andre
After trying many and getting frustrated with the complex processes I’ve settled on Updraft for free and then if you really want super easy and quick then try managewp’s backup and clone service. For $2 I reckon it’s a smashing good service to migrate a site or for off site backups. I have no affiliation to managewp. They just have the easiest backup solution out of all we’ve ever tried. It’s backup or migrat migration takes a few minutes after clicking one or two buttons in the dashboard. But having said that, we’ve not tried Securi.
Garth
Ha !
I have just done a restore using BackupBuddy – the ImportBuddy section.
What rubbish !
It has taken 26 hours, yes 26 hours to restore a simple woocommerce site with 5460 products roughly. And then it crashed !!
FATAL PHP ERROR: type => 1
message => Maximum execution time of 120 seconds exceeded
file => C:\Inetpub\vhosts\mysite.com\httpdocs\importbuddy\classes\wp-db.php
line => 1823
So no soft-landing or message to say restart or whatever. No mention of how to continue if that is at all possible. But just a Fatal termination. After 26 hours !
This would be a joke if it wasn’t so serious.
It’s easy to Backup, but obviously when it comes to actually needing to do a Restore – it’s a big Fail to BackupBuddy. Pathetic !!
WPBeginner Support
Hey Garth,
Sorry to hear about your experience. There is a simple fix to increase maximum execution time, give it a try let us know if it helped.
Admin
Joy
I installed the free UpdraftPlus plugin on WordPress. I followed the instructions to connect it with my Dropbox, but when I clicked on the link that should have taken me to Dropbox to log in, I got a blank screen. When I went back, that link was gone. According to the Updraft Plus website, that link should still be there in case I ever need to re-authenticate, but it isn’t there. The “Store at:” field isn’t there either. Any ideas? (I tried using BackWPup instead, but the setup was a bit too complicated for me.)
WPBeginner Support
Hi Joy,
Please contact plugin support, they will be able to help you better.
Admin
Bill Hibbler
Updraft hasn’t been updated in six years. I think this article is based on info from a long time ago. Maybe it’s time to completely rewrite it.
WPBeginner Support
Hey Bill,
The plugin’s name is Updraft Plus not Updraft. There is a totally different plugin with the name Updraft which hasn’t been updated in a while, you probably mistook it for Updraft Plus.
Admin
Mauro
The question is….
Have you ever tried to do a restore
Mauro
shiva
Hello bro,
my website is loaded with windows,android,ios apps with an storage of 250Gb , i want to purchase Premium vaultpress i.e 9$ . that is enough. or i want to buy 29$ plan. please suggest this .
Travis
I used to LOVE Backup Buddy but in the past year it has gone way down hill. I can’t get it to work now on any of my 15+ WordPress sites. And their Stash Live service is a joke. It hasn’t worked since day one. The support at Backup Buddy isn’t that great either. It takes them a couple days to get back to you and when they do they just tell you to contact your web host to have various things done so the “cron job” can work properly. No thank you.
I’ve come to my wits end with Backup Buddy (which led me to this article for alternatives). I’m going to try Updraft Plus. Thanks!
Travis
tanya
Thanks for that Travis – exactly what I needed to hear. Used to use them back in the day and theought Id try again as they are doing a 50% off but too many similar user complaints. Whats working for you now?
John
As a long time BackupBuddy user, I find myself looking for alternatives. Since they were recently acquired by LiquidWeb, their pricing for subscription renewals no longer supports the generous discounts they provided in the past to loyal customers. I will no longer continue with a company that drops its long-time customers so callously.
Estela
Oh wow, now I understand why my BackupBuddy has been failing lately. I also have used them for over 6 years and have all my sites with them without issues (15+), but the last client just didn’t want to upload. I took it for a plugin conflict and used WPManage to create backups. My subscription is up in the summer so I will keep my eye open for a better solution
Michael Alberga
Ok here we are. I accidently deleted some important files from my site. The site no longer worked, but I had no fear UNTIL the directory where the backups were stored was deleted. HOW??? DAMN
Now I use Duplicator Pro
I store my backups off site in Google Drive. Duplicator Pro was so easy to setup, it great. After rebuilding the entire site, pissed off as hell. I tested the entire process of re-installing a backup. LESSON TEST YOUR BACKUPS…
Duplicator Pro is my tested choice.
Richard
I’m in complete agreement with Luis (posted Jan 20, 2017 at 9:05 pm)
———————————————————————————
After having BackupBuddy fail so many times during backups, I gave UpdraftPlus a try and so far I am very happy with it.
Connecting it to my DropBox was also super easy.
———————————————————————————
The number of settings in BackupBuddy will drive you nuts…
A better way for any Backup Plugin would be a drop-down that would let you choose your Host from a list hosting companies (At least from the top 20 or 30) and then apply the settings accordingly.
BackupBuddy in No way should be number 1 in this list… I know and many others know the nightmares that comes with this plugin.
How in the world could it be number 1 here?
Luis
After having BackupBuddy fail so many times during backups, I gave UpdraftPlus a try and so far I am very happy with it.
Connecting it to my DropBox was also super easy.
Gail Palubiak
I’m afraid there’s nothing “beginner” about using these plugins. I’m trying to use Updraft with OneDrive but the integration process is way beyond my pay grade.
Murray
@Gail – Yes, I hear you. I have OneDrive and Google Drive, and (for me) they were quite difficult. Actually they were virtually impossible (for me)
So, what I did was, I connected to Dropbox to test it out – Wow!! Could not be easier or simpler. It was so easy, I have left them all (various clients) at Dropbox.
I use UpdraftPlus connected with MainWP for complete unattended backup and plugin updates.
Try it, see how you go.
Mike
I’ve used quite a few of these over the years.
The best solution in my opinion is Updraft Premium. It is reliable, restores accurately and is pretty straightforward to use.
divp
If you are not already backing up your site, then you should pick one of these 7 best WordPress bckup plugins which are nicely explained as above and start using it right away.I have been using this plugin on our website. Is very good and very spectacular. You can as well add this to your list of plugin for easy backup&restore.thanks
Ray
Which one are you recommending? You said, “I have been using this plugin on our website…,” but you don’t say which one.
Kristine
What would be the best back up for an small business e-Commerce site?
King Rayhan
I think backWpUp is the best for all type of website
Asanka
hello wpbeginner,
I;m a big fan of your blog and have read almost all the posts. I even use most of your plugins on my site. one thing i love about your site is your right side bar. the way each widget looks seperated. i tried many thing like editing css and adding margins. using custom side bar plugins. but nothing worked. could you please tell me how to have those awesome widgets in my side bar as well. Thanks in advance.
WPBeginner Support
Hi Asanka,
Thanks for the kind words. As for our site’s sidebar, we use a custom made theme. You can study our layout by viewing the source code, or by using Inspect tool.
Admin
Balu
Most people using UpDraft Plus. I think it is safe and secure.
Jaswinder Kaur
Hello,
I bought VaultPress Subscription starting at $5 / month and now in the setting section, they need hosting credentials.
My question is, Is it safe to provide, username, password etc?
Thanks.
Bernhard
On their website, iThmes claims that BackupBuddy does a “Full Site Restore – BackupBuddy handles restoring your entire site back to its original glory, including all uploaded media library files, themes and plugin files.”
However, when one of the site’s wordpress authors uses non-ASCII-characters (what the iThemes support team calls “international” characters), i.e. characters which are a integral part of most written languages but exceed the 26 characters known to the English speaking world, THE BACKUP WILL NOT BE RESTORED CORRECTLY EVEN ON THE SAME SERVER WHERE THE SITE WORKED FLAWLESSLY BEFORE – images and assets will be missing all over the website because their names are mangled in the process. I learned this the hard way when trying to restore a site, and ended up with a frustrated customer and a lot of extra work diagnosing and then fixing the issue.
iThemes support explained to me they are aware of the problem, but blame Wordpress and the user for this, they suggest using some third party plugins to fix the issue.
What bugs me about this is several things:
(a) it’s so easy to issue a warning on either the iThemes website, on the plugin page, or when restoring the site, but they chose not to do that, even though they are aware of the issue.
(b) there’s a way to detect actual or potential issues and warn the user, either when the site’s language is one that contains “international” characters (I’m not aware of any European language with the exception of English and Italian, let alone Asian and African languages), or when a backup actually contains a file with those characters in the filename.
(c) there’s a way of fixing this in the background when restoring the site.
(d) my support ticket was put on hold, my answer to iThemes’ reply was never addressed.
So I cannot recommend BackupBuddy to anyone who runs a site in any other language than English (or Italian).
To the rest of the world, I’d also hesitate to recommend it, because I think that not addressing problems right away when there’s the potential of disastrous consequences for your customers (i.e. a restored site not working properly, which might not even be obvious on first sight) is not building trust on my part.
Disclaimer: I own a lifetime (GOLD) license for BackupBuddy, host quite a few wordpress sites for myself, and for customers, and I have a bit of experience developing web applications.
Jaswinder Kaur
Right now I don’t have any Backup Plan and planning to go for PRO.
As you suggested, Vaultpress Plugin, going to buy that plan for one site.
I have one question, Is it necessary to use Akismet or any other Wordpress free Plugin to use VaultPress?
Thanks.
WPBeginner Support
Nope. You will need to install a connector plugin that hooks up your WordPress site to VaultPress
Admin
Kuya Hejo
How i can back Up my site after update wp ….?
i did try it but, i’m confuse because I can’t backup all my data and update wp new version… anyone have solution for me?
Michael
Backup Buddy is not FREE
Jaswinder
Thanks for the post and I am planning to go with Vaultpress.com for my Ease Bedding Blog’s Backup.
As you recommend at number one, I hope this will be fine Plan to buy.
regina
I am currently using database backup amazon s3 which has enabled me to create database backup of my web page and then upload this to amazon s3 cloud and together with this plugin i also use backup&restore dropbox for my other site and so far i have no regret.
Gabriela Matias
I am trying to use Updraft but i seem to have a problem when restoring my latest backup. I click on restore and this appears:
“Error: Download failed
backup_2016-07-19-2300_Matias_Travels_39a7db93e2be-plugins.zip: The backup archive for this file could not be found. The remote storage method in use (email) does not allow us to retrieve files. To perform any restoration using UpdraftPlus, you will need to obtain a copy of this file and place it inside UpdraftPlus’s working folder (updraft)
Download themes (Jul 19, 2016 23:00):”
It says you can use your email but then does not restore with email. I am confused please someone help me!
LiewCF
Well, because the plugin has no access to your email account…
alison
i am currently using backup&restore dropbox plugin and so far no regrets
jasmine
I have been using backup&restore dropbox for 2 months now and i wont trade this backup plugin for any other.it’s the best of all i have tried since i started blogging.
Helen
I am using Backup & Restore Dropbox and I like it. It is my first and I think the last one. Everything is simple and convenient panel.
Greg
I have been using Updraft Plus and BackupBuddy on a number of sites.
Backup Buddy is terrible. Lots of annoying messages about timeouts, errors even when it’s working fine, lack of information on remote transfer status, duplicate “Send to remote destination” messages, bad remote destination navigation policies, and makes it REALLY DIFFICULT TO PERFORM A RESTORATION! I can’t believe it.
Updraft works really well, even on sites that Backup Buddy can’t handle. Restoration is simple. The interface is a bit unpolished, but that’s the only downside.
I have a very limited experience of VaultPress. It seemed pretty good.