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The Pros and Cons of the Best WordPress Backup Plugins

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Wordpress Backup Plugins

The Golden Rule in any website management is keeping content and data secure. No blogger can afford to lose data as it spells the sure doom of your website. How do we deal with this? Simple answer – back up your website. Keeping website backups is essential for website security as it is a way of future-proofing your website.

Fortunately, there are a good number of methods of backing up a WordPress site. The simplest way is to download and install a backup plug-in. The problem is, how do we know which one to pick? We have compared the pros and cons of the best WordPress backup plugins:

Duplicator lets you have the best of both worlds. Online or cloud WordPress backup plugins might be a bit too intimidating or daunting for you for some reason. This WordPress backup plugin lets you download the content in a zip form so you can store them offline in your own drives. No, it won’t ruin your website configuration or content formatting. Basically, it lets you download your whole website as a bundle so you can easily migrate it to another server.

Pros:

  • One of the easiest ways to manually do server or host migrations or offline backups.
  • Integration is compatible with multiple cloud storage platforms (Dropbox, OneDrive, Amazon, etc).
  • It is easy to use, has a simple design, and has a ‘Help Wizard’.
  • It’s free.

Cons:

  • For larger databases, users must upgrade to the Pro version
  • Subscription to Duplicator Pro can be expensive
  • No automated scheduled backups, sadly.

Backing up websites for millions of users for more than a decade, UpdraftPlus is one of the most trustworthy backup plugins for WordPress. UpdraftPlus prides itself on simplifying backups that give you peace of mind. According to their official page, you can even “set and forget” the automatic backups as it will do everything to keep your content safe and secure with some added security and backup features.

Pros:

  • The Free version is complete
  • Easy operation and UI.
  • Custom backup sets are easy to create
  • Also restores automatically apart from doing a backup.
  • Has automatic scheduled backups.
  • Wide site coverage and compatibility.

Cons:

  • You’ll be missing out on quite a lot not going Premium (which isn’t that bad).
  • Can interfere with auto-update plugins

BackUpWordPress is a labor of love and was made by friends. What it does make up for is 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. If you do find it a bit lacking, you can actually help improve it as the developers themselves invite everyone for testing on GitHub.

Pros:

  • Open-source.
  • No setup is required.
  • You can opt for each of the backed-up files to be emailed to you
  • Small and not resource-hungry.
  • Free.

Cons:

  • No support for cloud backups to Dropbox or Google Drive.
  • Can backup data but not really a migrating tool
  • Its paid version has the same features as UpdraftPlus’ free version.

Unlike the BackUpWordPress plugin, BlogVault gives you the capability to use cloud storage for your backups. This is quite handy if for some reason you choose to not use UpdraftPlus. BlogVault can be a good alternative since it also boasts other features in which it claims to be the best. Apparently, BlogVault has a 100 percent restore rate. With it, you can be rest assured that your content will either get backed up or restored with certainty to the way it was before something went wrong.

Pros:

  • Works both as a backup and security plugin
  • Free One-click staging.
  • 90 days of backup archives allowed.
  • Offsite backups let you avoid overloading your server with the backups.
  • Offers impressive security features

Cons:

  • A bit pricey at $89/year for 1 site license only.
  • Requires strict FTP access
  • Manual restoration for downloaded backups

BackWPup – WordPress Backup Plugin

BackWPup is pretty similar to the ones we mentioned before but it allows you to create complete WordPress backups with the free version. You are then allowed to store it anywhere you want whether on cloud storage or offline. Even better, you can select multiple destinations per backup for an added security blanket. It’s quite popular too and is highly rated.

Pros:

  • Free.
  • Offers numerous external storage options
  • Has options of including or excluding file folders for backup

Cons:

  • Not as fast or as efficient as some of the other options in this list.

Often, backing up your whole website or blog can get tedious and plenty of things can go wrong. That’s where WP Time Capsule comes in – it lets you back up in a smart manner. Time Capsule lets you be selective about which data or content to back up; you can even choose to backup only the most recent changes, which can make rollbacks easier or even safer. Oh, this option also lets you save a lot of space on your server, cloud, offline storage, or anywhere you decide to place the backup.

Pros:

  • Let’s users revert to the most minuscule or recent of changes.
  • Offers a very convenient set-and-forget feature
  • Boasts of its one-click restore option
  • Real-time backup.
  • Has a free version.

Cons:

  • The free version is a 15-day trial only.
  • Low-subscription rate at $4.16 per site per month

VaultPress is made by the same company that also made Jetpack. As such, Jetpack actually works in conjunction with VaultPress. You will also need a Jetpack subscription in order to be able to use VaultPress. Amazingly, enough, VaultPress is also open-source like BackUpWordPress; plenty of people have contributed to making it better. Like Time Capsule, VaultPress also offers real-time protection but for cloud storage only. Think of it more like a special add-on for your Jetpack subscription.

Pros:

  • Comes with Jetpack, or rather, Jetpack can come with it.
  • Impressive customer support
  • Offers security scans for more expensive plans.
  • Backup restoration is easy.

Cons:

  • Each plan is for one website and can add up if you have many.
  • You’ll have to avail Jetpack’s annual subscription plan.
  • Costs an additional $3.50/year for the starting plan.
  • Customizing features is not an option

A very popular plugin, BackupBuddy has comprehensive features that are comparable to other more expensive plugins. Sophisticated yet easy to use, BackupBuddy boasts of its clean interface. It probably is one of the only backup plugins that offer a Gold License – a lifetime’s worth of support and upgrades for unlimited sites. All these amazing features can be availed just for a one-time payment of $297.

Pros:

  • Offers a form for your backup preferences upon installation
  • Easily customizable
  • Offers alerts and notifications for backups
  • Has no monthly fee

Cons:

  • Customer service is not as great as it used to
  • Requires a powerful server for seamless backups

A backup, restore, and migration tool in one, WPVivid is dedicated to providing effortless website backup and restoration. Although it is fairly new, it already supports more than 500,000 websites all over the internet.

Pros:

  • Can send multiple copies (of backups) to several cloud storage providers
  • Customizing backup content is possible (choose the whole website, all files without the database, or database only)
  • Supports multiple migration activities including transferring to a new server.

Cons:

  • Pro version is more expensive and has better options
  • The free version only allows backup, restore, and migrate for TWO websites
  • No built-in website security

A free WordPress backup plugin, XCloner is a great option for any developer who wants security with their backups. It is highly comparable to more popular plugins, like UpDraftPlus. However, XCloner provides great support even for its free version. Currently, it has more than a million downloads after 10 years of development.

Pros:

  • Boasts of military-grade encryption
  • Backs up archive files as well, depending on user configuration
  • Allows splitting backups to smaller bits for size limited storage
  • Provides a backup script
  • Contact support is admirable

Cons: 

  • Can be a bit slow compared to its competitors

If you like to try new options for backing up and restoring your WordPress site, the WP Database Backup is a good try. It provides an automated database backup, on a repeated schedule. It also supports the storage of files to multiple cloud storage platforms.

Pros:

  • Has a Search and Replace in database backup file
  • Single-click database backup

Cons:

  • Requires manual restoration of the database, if the plugin does not work
  • Some comments on the scheduler

This WordPress backup plugin has four major functions – backup, restore, migrate, and clone. This means users can duplicate data to create a new website using the same database. They offer a 30-day risk-free trial.

Pros:

  • Boasts of being one of the safest plugins available
  • Backups entire website including every page, post, revision, and even comment
  • Unlimited backups on your personalized schedule

Cons: 

  • Is quite expensive for $79 per year for one site
  • The most expensive subscription package is only for 20 sites (expensive at $199 per year)

First published in June 2019; updated September 2021

Author: Natividad Sidlangan



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