Are you overwhelmed by all the different WordPress backup plugins on the market? Wondering which one is the best solution for your needs?
In this article, we will help you choose the best WordPress backup plugin for your needs by comparing the most popular WordPress backup plugins on the market.
Choosing a WordPress Backup Plugin
Regardless of the size of your business, investing in the correct WordPress backup plugin is totally worth it, because the most expensive backup is the one you never did!
Since there are dozens of WordPress backup plugins available, it can be tricky to choose the right one that fit your needs. Below are a few things you’ll need to look for in a WordPress backup plugin:
Backup methods:
- Database backup: Some plugins allow you to only backup your WordPress database.
- Complete backup: Some plugins let you backup your entire website, including your database and all WordPress files.
- Scheduled backup: With this option, you can schedule a backup to run automatically, giving you peace of mind.
Backup location:
Back in the day, most WordPress backup plugins let you store your backup files only on your own server. Now, to improve security, all good WordPress backup plugins support sending your backup files to remote locations such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or Amazon S3. That way, you can easily restore your files, even if your entire website gets hacked.
Now it’s time to take a look at the best WordPress backup plugins on the market!
1. UpdraftPlus
UpdraftPlus is one of the best WordPress backup plugins on the market. It’s been rated as the most popular backup solution for WordPress, with over a million active installs.
Even with the free version of the plugin, you can easily setup full, manual, or scheduled backups of all your website files including your database, plugins, and themes. Restoring your files is simple, and you can do it with minimal technical knowledge.
Best of all, it supports multiple cloud storage options including Google Drive, Dropbox, and Amazon S3.
While the free version is fully-packed with all the essential features, you can easily enhance the core functionalities with their premium version.
Get started with UpdraftPlus today.
2. BackupBuddy
BackupBuddy has been around since early 2010, protecting a half a million WordPress websites.
With just a few clicks, it enables you to backup your entire website from your WordPress dashboard. You can schedule automatic backups, send your backup files to a remote secure location, and restore your files quickly.
The ability to repair and optimize your database is one of the unique features BackupBuddy offers. With every plugin purchase, you’ll get 1 GB of free Stash Live storage. Stash Live continuously backs up your database changes such as new or modified posts, putting your mind at ease. Best of all, Stash Live works perfectly well even if your site is hosted on cheap shared hosting.
Get started with BackupBuddy today.
3. VaultPress (with Jetpack)
VaultPress is one of the powerful backup and security plugins for WordPress by Automattic, the team behind WordPress.com.
With VaultPress, you can keep an up-to-date backup of your site with daily or real-time syncing. Plus, it conducts security scans on a regular basis, so you can easily identify potential threats and fix them. If malware or viruses are detected, then you can banish them with just a single click.
VaultPress is now part of Jetpack, so you’ll need to install Jetpack on your site, connect your website to WordPress.com, and select (at least) the personal plan to get started.
Get started with VaultPress by Jetpack today.
4. BackWPUp
BackWPUp is yet another backup plugin that backs up your complete WordPress installation and saves them to a remote location of your preference such as Dropbox or Amazon S3.
The premium version allows you to store backup files to Google Drive and Amazon Glacier.
Some of the unique features of the premium version are:
- Back up to multiple destinations per job.
- Synchronize files on remote backup location like Google Drive, Dropbox.
- Backup specific file path of your site per your needs.
Get started with BackWPUp today.
5. BackUpWordPress
BackUpWordPress is an easy-to-use backup plugin because it doesn’t require any setup configurations on your end. Upon activation, it backs up your files directly out of the box.
By default, backup files are stored in /wp-content/backups location of your website, but you can easily change the path if you want to. Since all files, including your non-WordPress files, will be backed up in your site root, it’s strongly recommended to change the path so it’s secure.
The plugin can work on Linux and Windows servers alike. It also enables you to exclude the files you don’t want to back up.
Get started with BackUpWordPress today.
6. Duplicator
Duplicator makes it easy to back up all your WordPress files in zip format, so you can download them offline, migrating across the same or different servers.
One of the unique advantages of using Duplicator is its ability to clone your pre-configured sites. Rather than manually configuring your favorite themes or plugins, Duplicator allows you to configure a single site and bundle it up. This way you can migrate your pre-configured WordPress sites to different locations, eliminating the need for reworking.
Like many other popular WordPress backup solutions, Duplicator allows you to schedule backups, send them to cloud storage, and send yourself email notifications.
Get started with Duplicator today.
7. WP Time Capsule
WP Time Capsule is a perfect solution for you if you want to back up only your recent files, and not your entire WordPress site. With WP Time Capsule, you can back up your website to your favorite cloud storage sites like Google Drive, Dropbox, or Amazon S3.
The main benefit of WP Time Capsule is that it consumes considerably fewer server resources since it doesn’t compress and zip your backup files.
In order to use WP Time Capsule on your site, register for an account on WP Time Capsule, install the free plugin, and then connect the cloud app with your plugin so that you can send your WordPress backup files to your preferred location. After completing a full backup, you can schedule a time for backing up your recently-changed files.
Get started with WP Time Capsule today.
8. WP-DB-Backup
WP-DB-Backup allows you to back up your WordPress database and email it to the address you specify. As the name denotes, it only backs up your WordPress database, meaning you’ll have to back up your media files manually.
WP-DB-Backup could be the right solution for you if you don’t update your WordPress site too often or don’t want to back up your images. It also expects you to be technically inclined, so it’s not the best for novices. You’ll have to back up and restore your WordPress database on your own.
If you don’t want to risk handling database files yourself, then this is not the right solution for you.
Get started with WP-DB-Backup today.
9. WP Database Backup
WP Database Backup is yet another free database backup plugin.
With WP Database Backup, you can create and restore backups in just a single click. It offers slightly more features than WP-DB-Backup does, but is overall very similar.
Some of the key features you’ll find helpful are:
- Easy configuration.
- Store your database backup in a remote location.
- Supports multiple storage destinations.
- Sort and search backup from a list.
- Provides extensive documentation to help walk you through the process.
Get started with WP Database Backup today.
Which is the best WordPress Backup Plugin for you?
Without a doubt, UpdraftPlus is the best WordPress backup plugin for your website. UpdraftPlus is THE complete backup solution that comes with all the essential features, right out of the box. Best of all, even the free version offers an abundance of features, even when compared to other premium plugins.
However, if you decide to choose a premium backup plugin that offers live backup whenever your files get changed, then you can use BackupBuddy. It also allows you to scan and repair common issues, which is a huge plus. With its Stash feature, the plugin saves a lot of your server resources as well.
We hope this article helped you find the best WordPress backup plugins for your needs.
To further secure your site, you might also want to check out the best WordPress security plugins and ultimate WordPress security guide.
What a post!
Dear sir, can you reply to me I want to download a backup of my WordPress website in my computer hard disk automatically every day. suggest me only one Plugin which best to take backup…
If you want a daily backup on your local computer, I’d suggest you install Google Drive on your computer. You can then set up a daily backup to Google Drive with the UpdraftPlus plugin.
I just used Updraft to restore a backup of my site – however, it wiped out all admin priviledges to the site and never did restore the backup.
This is very useful article, it covers almost all popular backup plugins. Also you can focus on some new backup plugins, such as WPvivid Backup/Restore. It works well on my site so far.