Best WordPress Backup Plugins: Protect Your Data From Being Hacked

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The best way to secure your WordPress website is to create regular WordPress backups. The best WordPress backup plugins will give you the peace of mind that you need when your site is hacked or when you mistakenly lock yourself out.

Although many WordPress hosting companies offer limited site backup services, I recommend you don’t rely on such services. It is your responsibility to secure your website.

There are many free and paid WordPress backup plugins and most of these plugins are easy to use. In this guide, I will shed light on the 5 best WordPress plugins. If you’ve not been backing up your WordPress website, start doing so today by picking one of the 5 best plugins for WordPress that we will consider in this guide.

Quick Review

Here are the 5 best backup plugins for WordPress websites that will be considered in this article:

  • UpdraftPlus:  It can be used to create a complete backup of your website which can then be stored on the cloud or downloaded to your computer.
  • Jetpack Backup:  It offers automated daily and real-time cloud backup service without affecting the speed of the website.
  • BackupBuddy:  It backs up an entire WordPress website from the dashboard in just a few clicks.
  • WP Time Capsule:  Perfect for backing up only recent files
  • Duplicator:  Suitable for migrating, moving, or cloning a WordPress website between domains without any downtime.

5 Best WordPress Plugins

1. UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus is a popular free backup plugin for WordPress websites. It has over 2 million users. You can use the plugin to create a complete backup of your website. After backing up your website, you can either store it on the cloud or download it to your PC.

The plugin allows you to carry out scheduled backups and on-demand backups. You can also choose the files you want to backup. UpdraftPlus can automatically upload your backups to Google Drive, Dropbox, SFTP, FTP, S3, email, Rackspace, and other cloud storage services.

Apart from backing up each WordPress site, the plugin can also be used to easily restore backups directly from the WordPress admin panel.

The premium version of the plugin has add-ons that you can use to migrate or clone websites, search or replace the database, and multisite support amongst other features. You will also have access to priority support via the premium version.

UpdraftPlus Pros

  • It has a free version.
  • The plugin is easy to use with a user-friendly interface.
  • It offers more cloud options than other backup plugins for WordPress.
  • UpdraftPlus can be used with many websites.
  • It features an automatic scheduled backup.
  • Apart from backing up sites, it also restores automatically.

UpdraftPlus Cons

  • You will miss a lot of features if you don’t upgrade to premium.

Pricing

  • Free version
  • UpdraftPlus Premium:  Costs $70

2. VaultPress (Jetpack Backup)

Jetpack Backup is another popular WordPress backup plugin. The plugin was designed by Automattic; the company created by Matt Mullenweg (WordPress co-founder).

Jetpack Backups was originally named VaultPress. It has now been redesigned and rebranded as Jetpack Backups. The plugin offers automated daily and real-time cloud backup service without affecting your website’s speed. It is easy to set up the plugin and restore from backups.

The premium plans of Jetpack Backup offer security scans and lots of other powerful features.

Jetpack Backup Pros

  • It offers security scans for higher plans.
  • Backup restoration can be easily done.
  • It offers value for money and the stellar reputation of Automattic makes it reliable.

Jetpack Back Cons

  • There is a recurring expense if you have multiple WordPress websites because its payment is on a per-site basis.
  • The purchase flow is complex, and you will be forced to install the plugin to buy a subscription.
  • Backups are stored for just 30 days on the lower plans. You will need to pay $49.95 per month per website if you want unlimited backups.

Pricing

  • Daily Backup:  $9.95 per month
  • Real-Time Backup: $49.95

3. BackupBuddy

BackupBuddy was launched in 2010. It is used on over 500,000 WordPress sites worldwide. You can easily backup your whole WordPress website from your dashboard in just a few clicks. The plugin can also be used to schedule automatic backups, restore your files, and send your backups to a remote secure location.

One of the unique features of this plugin is the ability to repair and optimize your database. You will receive 1 GB free Stash Live storage with every plugin you buy. Stash Live helps in backing up changes in your database such as new or modified posts, thereby giving you peace of mind. Also, Stash Live works even if you host your site on a cheap shared hosting platform.

BackupBuddy Pros

  • An easy-to-use interface that is newbie-friendly.
  • You can use it to carry out a full backup of your data, such as plugin themes, and settings.
  • Offers different scheduling options.
  • Has lots of cloud-based storage options, such as BackupBuddy Stash.
  • It carries out easy website restoration, migration, or rollback.
  • The plugin can also be used to scan for malware.
  • Its initial setup wizard makes the backups run efficiently.

BackupBuddy Cons

  • Although BackupBuddy is easy to use, some of its features may be a little bit technical for those that are using it for the first time.
  • Its pricing is not a one-time payment; it is yearly.
  • It offers no free trial period. Also, there is no money-back guarantee.
  • The plugin is not compatible with some shared web hosts. Ensure you check before using this plugin.

Pricing

BackupBuddy has multiple price levels. A yearly subscription costs $80. This can back up one website and also offers you 1GB storage on BackupBuddy Stash.

Its middle-tier costs $127 and you can use this plan to back up about 10 websites. The highest plan costs $199 per year; it allows you to back up an unlimited number of websites with about 5GB storage on BackupBuddy Stash.

4. WP Time Capsule

WP Time Capsule is the ideal solution for you if you are only interested in backing up your recent files, not the entire WordPress site. With this plugin, you can back up your site to Google Drive, Amazon S3, or Dropbox.

To use WP Time Capsule on your site, you need to sign up for an account on WP Time Capsule. Once you have an account, you can then install the free plugin, and connect the cloud app with the plugin so that you can easily send your WordPress backup files to the location of your choice. After a full backup, you can schedule a time to backup recent modifications in your file.

WP Time Capsule Pros

  • It backs up automatically before updating your website and allows you to enable the auto-updating feature. This implies that you can confidently update your website without breaking your website.
  • WP Time Capsule is easy to install. You can set up scheduled backups in just a few clicks.
  • You have a selection of cloud storage options (such as Google Drive, Amazon S3, Dropbox, etc.) for your backed-up files.
  • It is suitable for agencies that need large storage space.

WP Time Capsule Cons

  • You can only have access to 365 days of restore points through Amazon S3.
  • The plugin does not pick up changes made on files reliably.
  • It has questionable settings. For instance, the plugin omits MP3 files, and PDFs by default.
  • You need to re-use Google Drive tokens manually after the first five websites.
  • It can massively increase your server resource usage.

Pricing

  • Free Version:  It allows you to back up unlimited websites. This version also gives you access to daily backups and 15-day restore points.
  • Pro Version:  It allows you to back unlimited websites. This version also gives you access to daily backups of your website before and after updating it manually. In addition, you will get an auto-update manager. The pro version costs $4.16 per website per month for a yearly package (and $5 per month if you want to pay monthly).

5. Duplicator

Duplicator is a very popular WordPress backup plugin with over 1 million active users. You can use this plugin to migrate, move, or clone a WordPress website between domains. Unlike other backup plugins, you can do these without experiencing any downtime. You can also use it to transfer WordPress websites between hosts.

With Duplicator, you can duplicate a live website to a staging area. You can also duplicate a staging area to a live website. The plugin allows you to carry out a full migration in WordPress without importing and exporting SQL scripts.

Although this WordPress backup plugin is a great option, I don’t think I can recommend it to beginners. It is perfect for those with some technical knowledge. I’m not saying you must be a coding expert, however, you must have a basic understanding of how things work before you lay your hands on the Duplicator plugin.

Duplicator is ideal for developers that are fed up with configuring their themes and plugins manually whenever they build a new website. You can simply do this once and bundle it with the plugin, then use that as your template by moving it over to different locations for your clients.

Here’s how Duplicator works; You bundle all your website content, themes, plugins, and database into a zip file, which is considered as a ‘package’ by Duplicator.

Apart from these features, you can also use the scheduled backups by purchasing the Duplicator Pro which costs $79 per year.

You can either store your backups locally or in remote locations. To receive updates on your backups’ status, you can easily set up email notifications.

Judging from its features, this WordPress backup plugin is more ideal for developers that need to carry out migrations and other related tasks. So, if that’s what you need, Duplicator is what you need. But if all you need is a basic backup plugin, I’ll suggest you stick to one of the other plugins that we considered on our list.

Duplicator Pros

  • It offers one of the easiest ways to manually carry out a server or host migrations or offline backups.
  • You can start using the plugin for free.
  • Duplicator is not messy.

Duplicator Cons

  • It does not offer automated scheduled backups.

Pricing

Duplicator is available in 4 packages:

  • Personal:  $59 (limited to 3 websites).
  • Freelancer:  $79 (limited to 15 websites).
  • Business:  $119; suitable for unlimited websites.
  • Gold:  It costs $349 and can also be used for as many websites as you want. It also comes with lifetime updates.

The first three packages give you one year of updates. All the packages have 1 year of support and a 60-day money-back guarantee.

FAQs

1. How do I backup my WordPress website for free?

If you want to back up your WordPress website for free, you need to install the UpdraftPlus plugin. You can do this by opening your WordPress dashboard. Then select Plugins and click on Add Plugins. Once you do that, type UpdraftPlus in the search bar, select the UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin and click Install Now, and Activate.

2. Is Jetpack for WordPress site free?

Although the Jetpack core is free, you can enjoy most of its features if you upgrade to a paid plan.

3. How long does it take to back up a website?

Logging in to your web hosting account, clearing the database, and importing the backup takes about 5 minutes. Deleting and re-uploading the backed-up files takes an additional 30 minutes depending on the speed of the server and your internet connection.

4. Does Jetpack affect the speed of WordPress?

Jetpack Backup does not affect the speed of a WordPress website. The plugin is not a bandwidth hog.

Conclusion

Installing the best WordPress backup plugin on your site is not something you should overlook. Knowing you have a reliable backup plugin installed on your site gives you peace of mind and confidence that your data are safe.

In this article, I have provided a list of the 5 best backup plugins for WordPress to help you decide on the right plugin to use.

The ball is now in your court; pick a plugin from the list and use it to back up your WordPress site to secure your data and other essentials on your site. You will be glad you did.

Here are the WordPress backup plugins that we considered:

Check out this guide on how WordPress websites get hacked and what you can do. The article will give you more insight into how you can secure your WordPress website.

If you’re looking for the best website builder, this guide will show you why we think WordPress is the best website builder.