The open-source website creation platform like WordPress has been home to bloggers for a long time. From blogging to e-commerce to creating a portfolio, the medium has been versatile and easy to use. The most significant feature of the website is the plugins which enhance the feature more prominently. It is very important to save your work completed before you move out of the page and it is even more vital to have backups for the data security in case you ever have a catastrophic situation where your site is accidentally locked out or is being hacked. In the times of cyber insecurity the backup plugins come as a resourceful option as it supports sending the backup files to your google drive or dropbox thus it safeguards your data even if you lose your website under any unforeseen circumstances.
Well, now the question arises what do we need to backup? Or, what are all the backup options we have in our scope?
There are generally 3 backup methods to avail through the backup plugins:
- Database backup– certain backup plugins just enable you to backup your WordPress database.
- Complete backup– this is done as a whole. The plugins help you to backup your entire website which includes your database along with the WordPress files.
- Scheduled backup– this option is more like the backup without bothering yourself daily as it could automatically run the backup in a set period.
Are you well aware of the best backup plugin options at your service? Do you want to create a hassle-free backup of your WordPress website? Remember not all backup plugins work similarly or have all the features. Go ahead and test them to understand which one seems more promising for regular backup of your website.
Let’s begin with the list of backup plugins:
Contents
1. UpdraftPlus
Version- 1.16.26
Active installation- 3+ million
Rating- 4.9 star
It is one of the most popular free WordPress backup plugins available on the internet as it simplifies the backup and restoration to quite an extent. The easy and comprehensible features make it the right choice for the user as you don’t even need any professional support. The best part about this backup plugin is that it is well tried and tested over a wide range of situations and scenarios.
Advantages and Features:
- It allows you to have scheduled automated backup apart from on-demand backup features thus you don’t have to worry if ever you forget to back up the data after the work.
- The speed of the backup is quite faster and uses a few server resources thus is not much time-consuming.
- The files are uploaded to Dropbox, Google Drive, S3, email, etc thus it has a wide range of cloud storage services.
- Along with website backup, you can even restore your backup files directly from your WordPress panel.
The premium version allows more add-ons and powerful backup features as-
- The databases are completely encrypted thus enhancing security.
- It supports multi-network compatibility.
- More storage destinations like OneDrive, Azure, etc.
- Migrates or clone websites.
Pricing:
The general version comes for free and the updated version costs around $70.
2. BlogVault
Active installation- 400k+
Rating- 4.9 star
It is one of the most reliable backup plugins and is a software as a service (SaaS) solution rather than just a WordPress plugin. The uniqueness of this plugin is that it works independently and creates offsite backup thus it has zero loads on your server.
Advantages and Features:
- It has multisite backup support.
- Automatic and incremental backup daily thus doest strain your server.
- It is quick in identifying the problems thus time-saving.
- It provides differential restoration of data thus the recovery is faster.
- You can have a 90 days backup archive so that you can recover your site in case of any mishaps and even at the time of offline.
- It has an integrated free staging facility thus works on any host and it comes with no extra charge.
- It is a great option for your WooCommerce as it backups all your orders and the date.
Drawback:
The only limitation is that the price seems a bit high and not reasonable for small businesses.
Pricing:
For a year, the site license will cost around $89.
3. VaultPress (Jetpack Backup)
Version- 2.1.4
Active installation- 70k+
Rating- 3.9 star
The vault press backup plugin is a real-time backup and security scanning service. Now it is powered by JetPack and effortlessly backs up every post, comments, files, etc within a few clicks.
Advantages and Features:
- It is safer, faster, and always high on security as it provides real-time backups i.e. it saves every change and even automatically blocks the spam from comments and forms.
- It has a better built-in performance as it loads the pages faster thus you can have happy readers as more pages could be viewed.
- Everything is stored in a digital offsite vault.
- It enables site migration, file repairs, and restoration of data.
- The calendar view option is one more feature that you can find in this backup plugin. It makes it easy to locate and view the content from the previous backup
- It has high built-in security features that help in faster scanning of files and helps you to identify the malware and remove it.
- It is cost-effective.
Drawbacks:
- The downside comes as if you are looking for more granular configuration options. You cannot customize solutions to tailor each circumstance.
- You will have to follow a long process to make it work beginning from subscribing to JetPack then getting a WordPress.com account then installing the JetPack.
- The backup is stored just for 30days on lower plans. Extra money has to be paid to opt for an unlimited backup plan.
Pricing:
For one year it costs $39.
4. Backup Buddy
https://ithemes.com/backupbuddy
Backup BuddyBackup Buddy is one of the popular premium backup plugins that not only backup your database but even covers the entire WordPress installation.
Advantages and Features:
- It has a solid WordPress backup strategy as it includes all four backup elements i.e. website backup, scheduled and automatic backups, offsite backups, and restoration of a WordPress site.
- After backup, the zip file of the entire WordPress website could be downloaded.
- It provides instant email notification about the backup.
- You can repair and optimize your database.
- Every plugin purchase you can have a 1 GB free stash live storage that backs up continuously even on cheap shared hosting.
- No subscription-based service so you don’t have to pay every month.
Drawbacks:
- Lately, it has not been much reliable.
- At times during restoration or migration, some errors are caused.
Pricing:
It costs around $80 for a blogger plan.
5. WP Time Capsule
Version- 1.21.24
Active installation- 20k+
Rating- 4.7 star
This backup plugin works seamlessly and integrates with cloud applications. It has the easiest options and all the features could be handled without any trouble and it’s a perfect solution to backup your recent files without bothering the entire WordPress site.
Advantages and Features:
- Backup could be made to your favorite storage location as Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, and Wasabi.
- It even has the calendar option view thus you can easily backup the content from a specific date.
- It is space effective as you won’t have multiple copies of files.
- The backups could be encrypted and it adds an extra layer of security.
- You can use this plugin to clone or migrate your site to a new location at ease.
Drawback:
The main limitation is that it consumes time and server resources and at times restores only selected files.
6. BoldGrid Backup
Version- 1.14.3
Active installation- 60k+
Rating- 4.5 star
https://wordpress.org/plugins/boldgrid-backup/
It is an automated WordPress backup solution that keeps your data safe and is a website builder powered by WordPress.
Advantages and Features:
- Simple, automated, and easy backup on a single click based on date and time.
- It provides automated fault protection i.e. it will rollback to the site of the last backup if an update fails. Thus protects against any update errors.
- Easy migration as you can create a backup archive on the first site and then restore the backup on your second site.
- It gives you choice on the type of file restoration as you can restore a single file within the backup browser.
- It even provides safe store backups up to the 10 backup archives to remote storage locations.
Pricing:
It costs around $60 per year and includes all of BoldGrid’s powerful premium tools.
7. BackWPup
Version- 3.7.1
Active installation- 600k+
Rating- 4.4 star
Advantages and Features:
- BackWPup is a free plugin that allows you to create complete WordPress backups for free and store it on the cloud (Dropbox, Amazon S3, Rackspace, etc), FTP, email, or on your computer.
- It is extremely easy to use and allows you to schedule automatic backups according to your site’s update frequency.
- Restoring a WordPress site from backup is also very simple. The BackWPup Pro version comes with priority support, the ability to store backups on Google Drive, and some other cool features.
- We can even use it free of cost.
Drawbacks:
- Gets pricey for multiple domain licenses.
- BackWPup restore is a stand-alone app and not yet integrated into BackWPup Pro.
- No on-demand backup (must schedule)
- Doesn’t offer cloning and migration tools.
Pricing:
A free version is available but standard subscription charge ranges from $69 to $349 per year.
8. BackUpWordPress
Version- 3.1.0
Active installation- 200k+
Rating- 4.7 star
https://wordpress.org/plugins/backupwordpress/
Advantages and Features
- BackUpWordPress is a labor of love and was made by friends.
- It’s not as in-depth or as popular as UpdraftPlus. What it does make up for is in its flexibility; being open-source, it should have a problem working on Linux or Windows servers.
- It’s also quite competent on its own with a mostly clean outstanding rating on its official WordPress backup plugin page.
- To be fair, it only has a subscriber base of 200,000+. If you do find it wanting, you can actually help improve it as the developers themselves invite everyone for testing on GitHub.
- It is an open-source product.
- No setup is required.
- You can opt for each of the backed up files to be emailed to you.
- Small and not resource-hungry.
- Available for free.
Drawbacks :
- No support for cloud backups to Dropbox or Google Drive.
- Its paid version has the same features as UpdraftPlus’ free version.
9. Duplicator
Active installation- 20+ million
Rating- 4.7-star
https://wordpress.org/plugins/duplicator/
As the name suggests, Duplicator is a popular WordPress plugin that is mostly used for the migration of sites.
Advantages and Features:
- It helps in transferring the WordPress site from one host to another.
- Manual backup of site or parts of the site.
- It enables to bundle up an entire site for easy reuse or distribution
- It works with a zero downtime as it could clone or move between domains or hosts.
The duplicator pro version has some addon features as-
- It enables scheduled backups.
- Remote cloud storage location
- Multi-thread to support larger websites and databases.
- Ensures email notifications.
- The multisite WordPress network could be migrated in one shot.
Drawback:
The main limitation is that it doesn’t create any automated scheduled backups.
10. WP Database Backup
Version- 5.5.3
Active installation- 60k+
Rating- 4.6-star
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-database-backup/
This is yet another free backup plugin for database restoration. The backup could be created with just a single click so easy to use.
Advantages and Features:
- It provides easy configuration as it operates on a single click.
- There is a provision of auto backup that will take place on a repeating schedule.
- It supports multiple storage destinations.
- It helps to download your backup plugins directly from the WordPress dashboard.
- It sorts the backup list as per date or database size so easy to review.
Now that’s the top 10 picks of the day for the WordPress backup plugins. The plugins are slightly different from each other and all that you have to do is select the one as per your need and comfortability. For the simple and easy backup, UpdatePlus and WP Capsule can be your go-to option and for better security functionalities VaultPress is the best stop among all the listed backup plugins.