Regular backups should be integral to owning any website and your WordPress website maintenance. A WordPress backup plugin can help speed up this task and sometimes automate the job for you. However, with a plethora of choices on the WordPress repository, which plugin do you choose for this vital task? This E2E Studios blog will discuss our favourite WordPress backup plugins and why they are the perfect fit for the job!
Imagine you have spent hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds on a website for your business. It is all going well, but then something happens to your hosting provider or the website gets hacked and taken offline. Bad enough situation to be in, right? Well, now imagine going through all that and not having a backup of your website! You have only one choice: to pay someone to rebuild it.
While this is an extreme example, it can and does happen to website owners, and website developers do not always keep copies of the sites they create if they are not hosting the website. There are other reasons, such as:
Regular backups of your WordPress website are critical to website ownership. It allows you to get your website back up and running if it is taken offline for whatever reason.
Whilst one of the best options for backing up your WordPress website is to use an automated backup system on your server, these are not always available through all website hosting providers or are costly to maintain. So we have tested three WordPress plugins available on the repository to put them through their paces.
Top of our list is All-in-One WP Migration, a favourite here at E2E due to its flexibility and simplicity. There is a free version and several paid versions depending on which setup you require. Besides performing website backups, migrating a site to a new domain with migration features built-in can also be helpful.
You can back up your website manually using it and store them in a cloud drive such as One Drive or Google Workspace. However, if you plan to buy the unlimited version, consider the One Drive or Gdrive extensions, as the unlimited option is built-in. Using the paid extensions allows you to fully automate the backup, storage and deletion of old backups for under £100 and a few minutes setting the plugin up.
Find out more at: www.servmask.com
Another firm favourite among WordPress developers, thanks to its inbuilt features, is Duplicator Pro. Like All-In-One Migration, you do not need technical skills to use it, and it has many automated features built in to save you time. With a simple to follow step-by-step process and prompts along the way, even the most technophobes among website owners should have no issues using Duplicator Pro.
The only real downside to using Duplicator Pro is the annual licence over a lifetime, but as long as the plugin is kept up to date and new features added, the fee is cost-effective.
Find out more at: www.snapcreek.com
Third on our list of top WordPress backup plugins is UpdraftPlus, which makes a list as it has many free version features that are paid on the other two, including features such as GDrive connection. With over 3 million active installs on WordPress, it is one of the most popular backup plugins and has full customisation options, so you only back up what is required.
The plugin also seamlessly works alongside the other tools from the developer, such as Smush and WP-Optimise, for a seamless WordPress maintenance experience.
Find out more at: www.updraftplus.com
Regardless of our recommendations above, you must choose a plugin that suits your needs and works with your hosting provider. Whilst all the choices above and those from other providers have all the bells and whistles you might need, it's a wasted purchase if it does not work with your server or hosting provider.
Quick Tip: Some hosting providers will make it quite challenging to run WordPress backups due to limitations of your package, such as disc size. If you are struggling to run backups, it is worth moving to a new provider or increasing your hosting package to allow for this. Despite the added expense - the alternative is much more expensive!
We are a team dedicated to web development, web design and SEO. Based in Stockport, Greater Manchester, we have been helping business owners all over the UK and beyond with their website needs, including WordPress maintenance. We offer stand-alone maintenance and combined hosting and maintenance packages to suit all shapes and sizes of websites. If you need help keeping your WordPress website in tip-top condition, contact the team today!
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