Best Plugins to Back Up WordPress Sites

Best Plugins to Back up a WordPress Site

Creating regular backups of your WordPress site is one of the best things you can do. After all, no one plans to get hacked, have their server failed or lose their website. In the last post about backing up, we showed you how you can back up your WordPress site manually. Manual backing up gives you some major control over the backing up process but it is time consuming. Plugins make it breeze. So, let’s look at some of the best plugins to back up WordPress sites. We have prepared a list of plugins, both free and paid, that will making backing up a cinch.

Plugins: Free and Paid (Premium)

There are plenty of excellent WordPress plugins available that will back up your posts, pages, content and whatever else you have on your site. All you need to do is install a backup plugin, configure a few setting and you’re good. They allow automatic WordPress backups while you just have to sit back and relax. Sounds easy, right?

While many plugin backups are free, there are some that provide extended features like off-site cloud storage but cost money. You might wonder, “Why should I spend on a paid plugin when a free one does the trick just right?” You might not care about the added features or your budget constraints that you do so. But premium plugins typically offer a better support program. If something doesn’t seem to work as it should or some issues arise, you can contact support and get the issues resolved. This is especially true for support from companies that price their backup service on a monthly basis as they don’t want to lose you as a customer.

That said, the free backup plugins should give you a peace of mind as hundreds of thousands of fellow WordPressers have gone on before you and found that a plugin was, at the very least, satisfactory.

Now, let’s take a look at those aforementioned best plugins to back up WordPress sites.

Creating regular backups of your WordPress site is one of the best things you can do.

Duplicator

Best Plugins to Back up WordPress sites - Duplicator

Duplicator is a backup solution that not only backs up your data but also duplicates your entire WordPress site. This plugin can be used to migrate, copy or clone entire WordPress sites from one location to another. This feature makes it a powerhouse plugin. Currently, it enjoys a rating of 4.9/5.0 and over 800k active installs. And another great part? It is free.

As a disclaimer, the authors advises that the plugin requires above average technical knowledge. So if you’re someone who’s new to WordPress or has a very limited technical background, you can want to consider seeking out professional assistance first time using the plugin.

However, it does not allow you to create automated scheduled backups which makes it less than ideal for a regularly maintained site to use as its primary backup solution. It is not a good choice for larger websites and migration feature is difficult to use.

The developers also offer Duplicator Pro which takes Duplicator to a whole new level with features you’ll really appreciate. So, check that out as well.

UpdraftPlus Backup and Restoration

Best Plugins to Back up WordPress sites - UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus is one of the best WordPress backup plugins in the WordPress Plugin Directory. The reason? It offers a free service that comes with features like quick restore, scheduling, site duplication, capability to split large sites into multiple archives and so much more. UpdraftPlus also supports backups to different storage locations like Amazon S3, Google Drive, FTP, Dropbox and email. It boast an impressive rating of 4.9/5.0 and active installs over 800k.

However, UpdraftPlus Backup and Restoration plugin requires technical expertise and even the configuration takes time.

The authors also offer UpdraftPlus Premium with added features including site cloning and guaranteed support for better functionality. You may see a comparison between the two versions here.

BackWPup

Best Plugins to Back up WordPress sites - BackWPup

BackWPup is a free plugin that allows you to create complete WordPress backup and store it on the cloud in different locations like Dropbox, Amazon S3, FTP, Rackspace, email or your computer. Currently, rated 4.0/5.0 with more than 500k downloads, it is one of the most popular plugins for backups.

Extremely easy to use, BackWPup allows you to schedule automatic backups according to your site’s update frequency; meaning your entire WordPress site, files and all, will always be secure. Further, you can check/repair and optimize your database.

A shortcoming of this plugin is that it’s single click restoration feature doesn’t work as well.

If you are in need of more features, you can go for BackWPup Pro. As you would have guessed until now, it offers better features than the free version, and this would be no surprise to anyone. It comes with priority support, ability to store backups on Google Drive and many more. The premium version starts at $75 per year which is competitive pricing.

BackupBuddy

Best Plugins to back up WordPress sites - BackupBuddy

BackupBuddy by iThemes is arguably the most popular premium backup plugin for WordPress. You can create full database and files backup, and/or move your site to another server easily.

The great benefit using BackupBuddy is that it is not subscription based service. You are licensed to use the plugin on the number of sites mentioned in your plan. You get access to premium support forums, updates and cloud storage to store your backups.

BackupBuddy allows you to easily schedule daily, weekly or monthly backups and store them in Dropbox, Amazon S3, Rackspace Cloud, FTP, BackupBuddy Stash (their cloud service), and even email it to yourself.

Schedule backups on the go and enjoy a backup service like no other. It is among the pricier plugins. Price ranges from $80 and $150 per year. They also offer a lifetime Gold package at a one-time fee of $297.

VaultPress

Best Plugins to Back up WordPress sites - VaultPress

VaultPress is one of the prime examples of best paid backup service for WordPress. It is subscription based with different plans and pricing. It offers automated real-time cloud backup solution starting $5 per month. Quite reasonable. Moreover, it was founded by WordPress co-founder, Matt Mullenweg and his team at Automattic.

Installing VaultPress and restoring from backups is just a matter of clicks. With some of their packages, they even offer security scans to make sure malicious code or vulnerability doesn’t get backed up with the WordPress website.

The VaultPress team also provides security bundles. The bundles are more focused on the one-stop solution and is great for large websites or multiple sites.

The only downside to VaultPress is that it is a recurring expense that can add up if you have multiple WordPress sites.

Each plugin has its pros and cons and the plugins we’ve featured is just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many plugins out there. We’ve presented the ones we think are best plugin options. It all comes down to you. You need to see which one suits you and your website.

Recommendations

We found that if you’re looking for a feature-rich plugin and have a budget set aside for premium functionality then VaultPress is the best option. Not only does it provide amazing backup functionality but it’ll perform security scans on your website. It is ideal for large sites.

Those of you who are looking for a free backup plugin should definitely try Duplicator. It allows users to create backups easily and move your site to a new location.

Sometimes it’s best to back up your website to multiple storage units. Users who are interested in this feature should go for the UpdraftPlus Backup and Restoration plugin as it allows the backups to be saved to different locations.

At the end of the day, having a reliable backup solution in place is the best thing you can do for your WordPress-based business. Anything can happen at any time. Make regular backups. Make it a habit. You will avoid unwanted stress.

Now that we’ve come to the end of this article, what about you? What backup plugins have you used and would you recommend? Please share with us in the comments.

References:

WMPU DEV

WPExplorer

WPBeginner

WPDean

Design Bombs

 

 

 

3 thoughts on “Best Plugins to Back Up WordPress Sites

  1. faithsam says:

    Thanks for the great post and free plugin list i think you can also add this plugin its free to use Backup&Restore Dropbox a try its flipping awesome

    Reply

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