WordPress is one of the most popular open-source content management system that powers millions of websites and blogs. Though it is highly customizable, it can be vulnerable to security issues.
The main reason why an individual would want to create backups of a WordPress installation is to keep the website safe in case of malware injection, hacking or data loss in case the server goes down.
Due to these reasons, it is essential to install a backup plugin for your WordPress website.
Having a good WordPress backup plugins at your back can give you a complete piece of mind. If anything goes wrong with your site, you can easily restore your site with just a few clicks.
There are many popular backup plugins for WordPress that works quite well and are easy to use.
In this article, I am going to compare some of the best WordPress backup plugins in terms of ease of use, features, benefits, price, pros & cons and more.
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5 Best WordPress Backup Plugins
These are top picks for the best plugins for your WordPress website:
- UpdraftPlus
- BlogVault
- BackupBuddy
1. UpdraftPlus
What is UpdraftPlus?
UpdraftPlus, a freemium plugin which takes care of backups for any WordPress site with minimal user input or technical knowledge required. All you need to do is set up its schedules and it will take care of backing up your website for you.
It allows you to take complete manual or scheduled backups of all your WordPress files, databases, plugins and themes.
You can store the backup on the cloud or download to your computer. You can also set up UpdraftPlus to automatically upload your backups to Dropbox, Google Drive, S3, Rackspace, FTP, SFTP, email, and more.
If anything goes wrong with your site, UpdraftPlus also allows you to restores backups directly from your WordPress control panel.
Key Feature of UpdraftPlus
UpdraftPlus Pricing
UpdraftPlus is available for free with all the basic features. I would recommend beginners to start with the free version.
Experienced users can subscribe to the premium version for advanced features - UpdraftVault storage, migrate, logging, decrypt database, encrypt backup, priority support and more.
In a Nutshell: UpdraftPlus is one of the best and most popular backup plugin for WordPress websites with over 1 million install and 4.9 rating out of 5. The free version itself is sufficient to secure your site by taking regular backup of your site. Sign up for the free version by using the link given below.
2. BlogVault
What is BlogVault?
BlogVault is another very popular WordPress backup plugin that is used by more than 400000+ websites around the globe.
It is one of the most reliable backup and restore tool. It offers advanced features like incremental backups, one-click restore, saving multiple backups on third-party tools like Dropbox, white label solution, fast customer support team and more.
BlogVault is one of the few backup service providers for WordPress sites that offers free staging when you subscribe to any of its paid plans. Staging helps you to test and make changes to your website without testing on the live website. Once you're happy with the changes, you can push changes to the live site.
It also offers migration services where you can migrate your site to a new domain, host, DNS or server.
Key Features of BlogVault
BlogVault Pricing
BlogVault offers the following paid plans - Basic Plan ($89/year), Plus Plan ($149/year) and Advanced Plan ($249/year).
It also has paid plans for multiple websites, for example, for 5 websites, you can subscribe the Basic Plan at $199/year and for 20 websites, it would cost you $499/year.
In a Nutshell: BlogVault has quickly established itself as one of the most trusted WordPress backup plugin. Currently it has 4.2 rating out of 5 from 149 reviews. If you want to try BlogVault, you can join the 7-day free trial. You don't need to enter your credit card information to join the free trial. Sign up for the free trial using the link given below.
3. BackupBuddy
BackupBuddy by Ithemes is a premium WordPress backup plugin that provides automatic and scheduled backups. It has been around since 2010 offering backup services to more than 1 million sites.
You can use BackupBuddy to take a complete backup (database + all WordPress files) of your site automatically or as per your set schedule. Once BackupBuddy completes backup of your site, you get a downloadable zip file of your entire WordPress website which can be saved on your local computer.
Another important feature is the offsite storage. BackupBuddy allows you to store your backup on a computer or a cloud storage.
If anything goes wrong with your site you can easily restore your site from your available backups.
Key Features of BackupBuddy
BackupBuddy Pricing
BackupBuddy offers the following paid plans - Blogger Plan ($80/year for 1 website), Freelancer Plan ($127/year for 10 websites), Gold Plan ($199/year for unlimited sites) and Plugin Suite ($499/year for unlimited sites and include iThemes Security Pro Gold, Restrict Content Pro Professional).
In a Nutshell: BackupBuddy is a great backup solution with affordable plans for website owners. All the paid plans by BackupBuddy offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. Try BackupBuddy risk-free with the link given below.
How to Choose the Best WordPress Backup Plugins
While there are hundreds of backup service provider all claiming to offer the best solution, it becomes difficult to choose the best among all. Above I have highlighted some of the best WordPress backup plugin that you can choose from.
Apart from that, here are the following key points that I recommend in a good backup plugin for WordPress:
- Complete backup: The WordPress backup plugin you choose for your site must take a complete backup that includes all the database, images and other files. That is why look for backup plugins that offers this feature.
- Incremental backups: Taking complete backup of your site every time can slow down your website and also put a heavy load on your host server. Incremental backup helps you to backup only the changes that you had made since the last backup. This helps in creating a backup copy of your site without being too resource heavy.
- Automated backup: If your backup service provider is only allowing you to take manual backup, it is time to move on and select one that offers automatic backup feature - daily, weekly and monthly.
- Real-Time backups: WooCommerce websites are the one that changes quite often - addition of new products, removal of out of stock products, updating price and more. For such sites, you need real-time backups. This will ensure that every transaction occurring on your site will be stored immediately. A real-time combined with incremental backup is crucial for online store websites.
- Offsite & Cloud storage: I would recommend you to use a backup plugins that allows you to store your backup file on multiple storage locations - your computer or cloud storage. This way, you'll have multiple option to restore your website if something bad happens to your site.
- Fast Customer Support: Many popular backup services offer easy setup so that a person with limited technical knowledge can also install the WordPress backup plugin and start taking backup. However, when it comes to restore your site when your site is down, I have seen many people struggling to create a successful restore. That is why a fast and responsive customer support is vital for your online business.
Please Note:
If you want to make sure that your website is backed up and secured, there are some things that you can do.
- First, store all the data in an external storage system so that it's not just dependent on one hard drive which may get damaged or lost.
- Secondly, take regular backups and make sure everything is included in the backup - this includes themes, plugins and configurations.
- Lastly, create a routine schedule for backing up so that it becomes an easy task to complete without any time pressure or stress.
Wrapping Up
Backup plugins are a critical part of web development these days and a periodic backup of your website is crucial for your online success.
The most important reason is - if the website goes down due to a hardware failure, virus attack, hacking, malware injection or any other technical issues, then there needs to be a backup of all of the data.
This data can be stored on a computer or cloud storage so that it can be accessible again if something happens to the original site.
I hope by going through this article - Best WordPress Backup Plugins, it would be easier for you to choose a backup solution provider for your website.
All the backup plugins covered here offered best features and are quite popular among website owners and online businesses.
If you're a beginner, I would recommend you to go with UpdraftPlus as it is completely free to use. For more advanced users, I would recommend BlogVault as it offers one of the best features among all the service providers.
Which backup plugin you like the most? Please share your experience in the comment section below.
