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Your WordPress website is an asset. If you lose access to it even by accident, you will lose everything. That’s why backups of your website are essential. Backups give you complete peace of mind, a good night’s sleep, and save you in disastrous situations. So, creating regular WordPress backups is the right choice to evade any significant catastrophes that can make you lose your precious data.
Backing up your WordPress website is relatively easy, even without a plugin. However, the only problem is that you won’t be able to backup images hosted on your WordPress website. Because that folder can only be copied through the Wp-Content folder, otherwise, you can use a media library download plugin to download the WordPress images available on your website.
With that said, let’s learn about the best WordPress plugins for backing up your whole website. We made sure that we add free plugins to our list because not everyone can afford a paid plugin for their WordPress websites and WooCommerce stores. Let’s start.
What do WordPress Backup Plugins do?
- Automatically backup your WordPress website without any problem.
- Restore the backups when your website loses data or when you migrate to a new hosting solution.
- Let you focus on your business growth while taking care of the most significant worry, i.e., site maintenance.
- Paid WordPress backup plugins to keep a server image (backup of your website) on their backup servers.
What to Look For In A WordPress Database Backup Plugin?
In most cases, you will get a backup WordPress plugin that also serves the option of restoring your WordPress website. However, there are specific plugins that only serve the backup option. These plugins are of no use to you because you can’t use them to restore data on your WordPress website. So, what you need to do is:
- Always get WordPress backup and restore plugin!
It is still better to get WordPress plugins that offer the full functionality of backup and restore. Because backing up your website is only half the solution. If you can’t restore your website using the same plugin, then it is of no use to you.
- Cloud backup option!
Check that the WordPress backup plugin backups your data to a cloud service like Google Drive, Dropbox, AWS, and many others. If the plugin doesn’t offer a cloud backup option, there is no use keeping it.
- Automatic Scheduling!
Always get a plugin that can automatically backup your website. If the plugin doesn’t back up your website automatically and you have to back up everything manually, then what is the point of having that plugin in the first place?
- Migration support (optional)
Most WordPress backup plugins won’t offer migration support. However, if your backup plugin for WordPress can help you in migrating your website to another hosting solution, then this is a plus. Do note that this feature is optional, and you don’t always need migration support for your website.
Can it handle the load?
If your WordPress website is too big to backup, like more than 100,000 web pages. You will need to find a plugin that can support its backup. Most free plugins won’t back up this much data. So, you will have to get a premium service to backup your data.
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Time to get to know about the best WordPress backup and restore plugins out there!
Now that we are sure about what features to look for in a WordPress backup and restore plugin, let’s learn what some of the best WordPress backup plugins that offer this feature are.
- UpdraftPlus
The first plugin in our list is UpdraftPlus WordPress backup and restore plugin. This plugin is the perfect choice for all small and large business website owners, beginners and expert developers, and high-ticket e-commerce store owners. Updraftplus makes backups a breeze. You don’t have to do anything as the plugin takes care of all that. Instead, you will just have to configure this WordPress plugin backup once. The rest will be taken care of by the UpdraftPlus plugin. For those who are not sure how to get started with UpdraftPlus, they can read the configuration process for this WordPress backup plugin below.
UpdraftPlus is entirely free to use for beginners and those who are reluctant to buy the paid version without testing the software. They can use the UpdraftPlus plugin with fair ease. The plugin has been downloaded over 2 million times and is considered the best option for backing up data autonomously and securely in the WordPress community.
To configure UpdraftPlus on your website, first, download the UpdraftPlus plugin on your WordPress website.
The plugin is free for use, and you can directly download it from the WordPress plugin > Add plugin> search for UpdraftPlus.
Once the plugin is installed on your WordPress website, you simply have to connect your storage medium with WordPress. Currently, UpdraftPlus allows you to connect WordPress backup with Google Drive, Dropbox, AWS, and many more storage solutions.
You will need to create a backup for your WordPress website before you can copy it to a third-party storage solution. Once the backup is created, it will show up in the ‘Existing Backups’ option. Now copy this backup to Google Drive or other hosting solutions.
Now, if you want to restore this backup, simply add the new backup to UpdraftPlus. There is an option of ‘Upload backup files’ underneath the ‘Existing Backups’ option. It is where you will insert your backup file. Now click on ‘Restore,’ and that’s it. Your website will automatically restore the backed up data.
UpdraftPlus is free, but its premium version is available for $70. It has many positive reviews and a 4.9 rating on WordPress. This means it does its job – of backing up data and restoring it to your WordPress website – pretty nicely.
- BackupBuddy
Next on our list is the BackupBuddy plugin. The plugin is pretty popular in the WordPress community because of its simple process to backup and restore WordPress data. It has over a million downloads on WordPress alone and that makes it a high-ranking backup plugin. Just like the first plugin we mentioned, BackupBuddy can automatically store backups on third-party storage services like Dropbox, Amazon, Rackspace, and Google Drive. Moreover, you can also download the data to your personal computer using the FTP options.
With BackupBuddy, you can have real-time backups. Or you can set these backups as per your schedule. The plugin also lets you back up all of your WordPress data for almost free because it doesn’t require a subscription, unlike other plugins. There are no monthly fees for using the plugin, and there are no hidden charges on the BackupBuddy plugin. However, if you want more features you can always upgrade to BackupBuddy premium service.
BackupBuddy has been in the market for the last ten years and has successfully backed up data of most websites without problem.
To get started with the BackupBuddy plugin, download it from the WordPress plugin directory. You will simply have to go to Plugins > Add Plugin > Search for BackupBuddy on the search bar. Now, install the plugin on your WordPress website. Once done, open the plugin settings. In the overview window, create a backup of your WordPress data. BackupBuddy allows you to create a backup of your website database and website files. The files include content, posts, images, and all other necessary files.
Similarly, if you want to restore your website, that is also possible with the plugin. Simply go to plugin settings > Restore & Migrate > Upload restore file. That’s it. The plugin will automatically restore all your data to the website.
To use the WordPress backup plugin, Simply add your credentials, and the software will automatically connect to the storage unit.
The good news about the BackupBudddy plugin is that it can also copy WordPress images to your off-site location. For many site owners, the biggest worry is how they will get all those images back? Because e-commerce stores are mostly made of images. For them, the images act as their bread and butter. So, the backupbuddy plugin will be a great help in keeping your data safe and secure.
- BackWPup
The BackWPup WordPress plugin serves the same purpose – backup and restore. It can easily backup your complete installation, including /wp-content/ and move it to off-site locations such as Dropbox, S3, FTP, and many more.
The BackWPUp plugin installs all the backups in a single file named backup.zip. You can restore all these files quickly to your WordPress website when needed. The plugin is straightforward to configure for anyone diving into WordPress for the very first time. It offers both functions of backup and restoring data.
Once the plugin is installed on your WordPress website, you simply have to run the ‘Site backup.’ Once the backup is complete, it will appear in the ‘manage backup archives.’ Now, you can copy the data to a WordPress website, or your personal computer, or leave it as it is.
You can also schedule an automatic backup after a time interval. This means that all your data, including databases, images, and WordPress settings, will get backed up at that time. Until and unless you select an off-site backup option for your WordPress website, the backed up data will remain on your website. You can also download it to your system using the FTP tool.
BackWPUp also offers a premium version with multiple other features. These allow users to generate a file of installed plugins, repair databases, perform file backups, optimize databases, and perform XML export of WordPress websites. Moreover, with the premium version, you can also get support from the
BackWPup team to back up your site on a third-party server.
BackWPUp is available for all the latest versions of WordPress, starting from WordPress 3.9. The plugin offers full functionality for PHP 5.3.3 with MySqli, FTP, gz, Ziparchive, and Curl. You can also encrypt your data before backing it up to an off-site network using this plugin. It fully complies with the GDPR regulations.
- WPvivid Backup
WPvivid Backup Plugin offers free backup, restore, and migration for WordPress websites. It can also copy your backup data to third-party storage systems such as OneDrive, GoogleDrive, DigitalOcean, Amazon S3, Google Drive, Dropbox, and many more places all at once.
The WPVivid backup also lets you schedule your backups. Simply install the WPVivid backup plugin on your system. You will have to configure the plugin according to your choice. You can choose from the daily, weekly, and monthly backup options for the WPVivid backup plugin service.
The WPVivid backup plugin is also a perfect option for all those who would like to migrate their website to a new hosting solution. It is challenging to restore backed up data to your website after you have migrated it to a new hosting solution. You can use the service of WordPress management services like The WPHelp for the smooth migration of your website. However, if you want to perform the function DIY, the WPVivid plugin can help in that case.
You can download the WPvivid Backup for MainWP from WP plugin directory. It has over 30,000 active installs on the system and works with all versions after WordPress 4.0. The WordPress extension also works with all plugins offered by the MainWP, its parent site development company.
The WPVivid plugin also lets you customize everything when you backup data. You can create staging sites, push staging to live data, multisite backup data, edit user roles.
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Moreover, the plugin also lets you split large backup files so that you can keep these backups separately. All the backups will get combined when you want to restore the data available in them to your website. Simply upload them to WPVivid and it will combine the overall data. The WPVivid plugin is also compatible with Elementor, SiteOrigin Page Builder, and WordPress beaver builder plugins.
The WPVivid plugin also lets you migrate data from a directory to a sub-directory, or from the main domain to a subdomain with the click of a button. You won’t have to do anything as the plugin is completely automated and takes care of all your backups. You can also select what you want to back up such as database, files, and folders, or image library.
It also optimizes the storage on your server by optimizing it. This means you will be able to clean all the extra backups and get back more space by cleaning temporary files.
- Duplicator Backup Plugin
Next in our list is the Duplicator Backup plugin. Duplicator is one of the fastest-growing backup plugins with over 15 million downloads. The Duplicator backup plugin comes with multiple features to backup and restores your WordPress site data with ease. But the best part about the Duplicator plugin is that it is entirely free to use. So, if you don’t want to pay for a backup service, you can use the Duplicator backup plugin to take care of all the data.
The Duplicator plugin also lets you migrate all data of your WordPress website with the least hassle. This feature is of utmost importance if you are moving to a different hosting solution or if you want to upgrade your website from a shared hosting solution to a cloud hosting solution. Most cloud hosts don’t offer any managed migration services like DigitalOcean.
So, you are on your own. Unless you get help from WordPress management services like The WPHelp, you have to go through a lengthy process of backing up data to a third party and then restoring that data to your website once you have migrated successfully.
With the Duplicator backup plugin, you can migrate the data by the click of a button. Here is how to do that.
Install the Duplicator plugin on your WordPress website. Once the plugin is available, you can perform the backup, restore, and migrate functions. After you open the duplicator plugin menu, you can create a build for your website. The ‘build’ is a backup of the data you select.
Next, select the files you want to add to your build. These files will include server files, WordPress data, databases, and image library files available on the WordPress website.
Select all the options that fill your needs and then click on ‘Build’ to create a backup of your WordPress directory.
Creating a ‘Build’ file will take a few minutes to complete. Once the package is complete, you can use it to install the data back to your system. Or, you can use the package to create an ‘Archive’ file.
When you press the ‘Archive’ button, it will open the explorer window giving you the option to save all these backed up files on your system. Similarly, you can run the installer to reinstall the data back to your WordPress website. The process is quite easy, and anyone without technical knowledge can also use the duplicator plugin without worry.
- Backup Guard
Backup Guard is an all-in-one website backup plugin. The company has been providing data security, migration, and backup services across platforms. However, we will only be discussing the WordPress backup guard plugin in this post. The Backup Guard plugin offers Backup, Restore and Migrate services for all its users. It is free to use, and anyone with no technical proficiency can also use the plugin without any worries.
The feature that makes it different from the rest of the backup plugins in our list is the ‘selective file backup and restore’ feature. With this feature, you can quickly backup only a limited number of files that you have backed up.
For instance, if you are working on the WordPress functions file such as adding new scripts or altering the existing ones, you can use the Backup Guard plugin to back up the file to an external medium. If anything goes wrong with the WordPress functions file, you can restore the old functions file to your plugin directory.
Similarly, you can use the Backup Guard plugin for migrating your files from one host to the other. The migration is completely automatic and you won’t have to do a thing. The Backup Guard plugin can be used to backup files to a subdirectory, or to a subdomain, or between two domains.
If you use the premium version of the Backup guard plugin, which costs $25 for the silver package, you can keep files on the plugin’s server. This is useful if you are moving your website from one hosting solution to the other and don’t have any third party storage medium available.
The plugin also offers custom exclude paths. This means you can exclude paths that you don’t want to add to your website. Similarly, you can also schedule automatic backups to Dropbox, Google Drive, and many more.
- WPBackItUp Backup Plugin
With the WPBackItUp Backup Plugin, you can keep your data safe, secure, and away from the hands of hackers. WPBackItUp is a fairly new plugin to the market and has been downloaded over 20,000 times. The plugin allows users to create site backups, migrate websites from one hosting solution to the other, create selective site backups, and cleans space of unnecessary backups and temporary data available on your storage server.
Moreover, with the WpBackItUp plugin, you can also backup only WordPress settings, posts, comments, revisions, plugins, themes, media files, and uploads. Once your backup WordPress site data, it will generate a compressed backup of your entire website. You can download it as a zip file to your system, or add it to a third party storage solution for keeping the data safe and secure.
The WPBackItUp backup plugin is easy to configure on any WordPress installation. It doesn’t require Cpanel access, MySQL access, or credentials of FTP to install. Simply download the free version of the WPBackitUp plugin to your WordPress website, and you are done.
WPBackitUp plugin can create an unlimited number of backups, and backing up large websites is not a problem for it. You can easily download your backup files, create customized backup options, and get notified through email once your backups are prepared. The compressed files will be backed up in a .Zip format.
What Should Be Your WordPress Backup Strategy?
Now that you have the plugins available, what is next? How should you create a WordPress backup strategy that you can use for your business? Well, let’s learn a little about it.
- 3-2-1 Backup Strategy
The first WordPress strategy is to follow the 3-2-1 rule. What is the 3-2-1 rule? Well, it lets you backup your whole website to three different locations.
- The first two backups will be on the local drive.
- The third backup will be on the off-site location. This can be Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, or anything else.
An excellent way to copy your backups is:
- One backup on your computer
- One backup on an external hard drive. You can also use a USB drive for this purpose
- One backup on Google Drive or other storage media.
- Create a Yearly Manual backup
You should also create a yearly backup of your website manually. This manual backup should include everything including databases, image libraries, WordPress files, and folders. Store this backup on a secure, reliable third-party storage medium.
- Always Create Automatic Scheduled Backups
Lastly, download automatic backup tools – like the one we have provided above – to create scheduled backups automatically. You never know when your site gets into a problem. To avoid any issues, use the backup tools to create time-based backups of your website automatically.
- Get help from a professional WordPress Maintenance Service
If you don’t want to go through the hassle of backing up and restoring a website yourself, you can always take help from WordPress maintenance services to help you with the whole backup process from the start till the end. Regular backups ensure greater efficiency. WordPress maintenance providers can also help you create your website along with its backup strategy and even guide you about what processes to follow while creating site backups.
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