10 Best WordPress Backup Plugins [REVIEWED]

Backup plugins for WordPress rank among the most used plugins in the industry.

It’s great to know that you’ve mitigated the risk of losing website functionality, which could cost many thousands of dollars to get back online. Those WordPress websites without backup could easily experience a catastrophic crisis from which they’d never recover.

WordPress makes it exceptionally easy to backup your website with simple plugins. Many website owners might have additional backup available through their web-hosting companies, but that might be insufficient insurance of quick and seamless site recovery. That’s why choosing the right WordPress plugins for backup applications is tremendously important.

What to Look for in WordPress Backup Plugins

There are many criteria to consider when choosing a backup plugin, and there are hundreds of WordPress backup software versions from which to choose. Some of the most critical criteria for comparing WordPress backup plugins include:

• Cost
  You can get backup plugins for free in the open source market, but most professional businesses prefer to rely on paid software with guarantees. Those who get backup on a budget might not get all the features needed for seamless site backups.
• One-click Restore
  Software with a complex restoration function negates the main benefit of a fast restoration process. One-click restore makes it easy to restore your site.
• Storage Capacity
  Capacity is critical. You might be limited to partial backups of a large WordPress database. You need to consider that you’ll likely want to restore media files, blog posts, comments, themes and other plugins.
• Automated Backups
  You’ll want a plugin that automates the backup process at specified times. You might authorize only incremental backups of changes only to speed up the backup process. You should also determine where you’ll store backup information, usually in cloud storage services like Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.
• Migration
  You might feel that you don’t need migration backup if you want to move your site. However, the migration process is a bit more complicated than restoring a website. You have to change your domain name in many places with a search-and-replace command.

The Best Backup Plugins

One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to restoring a WordPress website. You know some of the criteria to consider, and the following 10 plugins rank among the best:

1. UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus ranks as the most popular of free WordPress backup solutions. It’s used by more than two million businesses, and it’s ranked at the top of many review lists. You can use the plugin to download your entire WordPress site, which you can store on your computer or in the cloud. It automatically loads file updates to Dropbox, Google Drive and many other popular storage sites.

You can restore your site directly from your admin panel and choose which files you want to backup. The software supports both scheduled backups and on-demand backups. A premium version is available with extra features for migration, cloning websites, and search-and-replace options for the database.

2. BackWPup

BackWPup also has a free version, and you can use it for scheduled backups of your complete website. The plugin is very easy to use, which makes it the top choice of more than 60,000 website owners. You can store your backups in the cloud, an email, FTP or your computer.

The premium version enables you to store backups on Google Drive among other valuable features. The premium version also makes it easier to restore your website after a crash, but it’s not that difficult to restore your site with the free version.

3. BackupBuddy

BackupBuddy is used by many business owners to back up one or more websites. It’s not a subscription service, but there are licensing fees that depend on how many websites you have. An example is the $80 fee for a premium backup plan for one website. You can backup your site daily, weekly or monthly using scheduled backup times. You also have access to store your backups on Amazon S3, Dropbox, FTP, Rackspace Cloud, and you can even email yourself a copy.

BackupBuddy works perfectly for migration, regular updates, and real-time website restorations. You also get a number of premium features — such as 1 GB of Slash backup storage, regular software updates, iThemes sync ability and access to support forums.

4. BlogVault

BlogVault isn’t just a WordPress plugin — it’s Software as a Service, also known as SaaS, and it backs up your website on its own servers independently. That’s extremely valuable because you don’t need to worry about using storage space on your own server. You get a daily backup, and you can store up to 90 days of backups on BlogVault servers.

BlogVault also allows you to create backups on-demand. The software features smart backups that sync only incremental changes. That frees up operating space and takes a load off your server. You also have the ability to test your website before putting any changes online. The annual licensing fee is $89 and up.

5. Snapshot Pro

The Snapshot Pro plugin is considered to be one of the best in the industry. The application enables you to take both manual and automatic backups and store them on your server and cloud servers. Website owners who experiment frequently will appreciate the insurance against data loss that Snapshot Pro can provide.

Storing a local backup on your server ensures that you can undo an unwanted change quickly without losing any data. The backup includes 10 GB of local storage and an additional cloud storage service of your choice. Snapshot Pro is free to try for seven days, and you can get multiple levels of storage for $10 and up per month.

6. Duplicator

Duplicator is often the choice of website owners who want to duplicate or migrate their site to a new host, but the application also has backup capability. You can’t schedule automated backups, which is why many owners go with another option.

However, you can make manual backups, and the software is free, so many small business owners choose the application to cut operating costs. As your site grows in complexity, you’ll probably want fully automatic backup software, but Duplicator is perfect for migrating your website or manually backing up data on a budget.

7. BoldGrid

BoldGrid is a WordPress website builder and plugin that creates backups and handles migrations when moving your site. You can restore your website easily, and the plugin features both on-demand and scheduled backups. This plugin provides an extra layer of security by automatically backing up your site before any scheduled updates. You can easily restore a crashed site with one-touch convenience.

BoldGrid is not free; it costs $2.50 per month, which is a reasonable price for any commercial website. You can also choose the premium service, which costs $60 per year and provides all premium services and tools. For example, you can store up to 10 backups in remote locations like FTP, Amazon S3 and SFTP.

8. BackupGuard

BackupGuard offers a free version of its backup plugin and a paid version with expanded features. You can backup your site, restore a previous version and save your backups to the cloud. You can also choose which files to backup.

The premium version provides savvy software that can migrate your website to another host. The premium version is one of the most complete backup options available. Some of the best free and paid version features include:

• Backup your site as often as you want.
• Choose the folders to backup to save server space.
• Backup files, databases or both.
• Restore your site to a previous version at any time.
• Import your backups from offsite storage.
• Ability to exclude certain data from backups, such as tables.
• Upload or import files to G Drive, Amazon S3, Dropbox, OneDrive and SFTP/FTP.

You can specify how many backups you want to keep on your server and choose a custom cloud path to upload backups. The cost of the premium version ranges from $25 to $99 per year.

9. WP Time Capsule

WP Time Capsule offers a free backup that works differently than other backup plugins. The application was developed by the engineers at InfiniteWP, a respected WordPress management system. The plugin automatically backs up any changes made to your website in the files and database. You save lots of server space by backing up only your changes, and your site runs more efficiently. You can store your backups in your choice of cloud storage system.

The system is smart and efficient. Backing up files and data incrementally covers everything needed to restore your website after a catastrophic crash. You save space and hours of time needed to manage your backups. Each change is backed up immediately, so you never need to worry about running an on-demand backup. You can restore your website to any point in time with one click.

10. VaultPress for Jetpack

VaultPress was founded by a WordPress co-founder, and the plugin is used for subscription members of JetPack. There are various plans and licensing fees as low as $3.50 per month. You get real-time backup capability for your entire website, and it just takes a few clicks to restore a site.

The more advanced plans include almost any feature you need like security scans. You also have to subscribe to JetPack to use the service. Backups are only stored online for 30 days with cheaper plans. You can get unlimited storage by paying just $29 per month and the Jetpack fee of $39 per year.

The Importance of WordPress Backup

There are many hidden disasters waiting for WordPress websites. You might be attacked by a hacker, download a ransomware virus or simply experience a crash. Accidental deletions of critical data is common. Keeping your website regularly backed up is the only sure way to protect against different scenarios.

Most web hosts offer a daily backup, but that doesn’t mean that the company follows through every day. It might prove difficult to restore your website, and you could lose everything if you migrate to another web host. You can’t trust any company with your livelihood. Getting an efficient backup that you can initiate yourself is the only way to be confident.

Tyler Horvath

Tyler Horvath is an SEO Expert with over 15 years of experience in search engine optimization, popular blog author and WordPress SEO expert.