How to backup WordPress site

Website backup what it is and why you need it.

If you wonder why should you ever do your WordPress websites backup, here is a small example: the average cost of server downtime for business is over 300’000 dollars. You will lose not only money but also all the data you have uploaded. So if your website is related to business it’s a good example of why you need backup. Even if you do a backup, it does not mean that your website will not crash or get hacked. It grants you the possibility to bring your website back to work faster. What means that backing up your WordPress website is a really smart and useful idea.

However, creating your WordPress website backup can be pretty hard. If you do it manually, it takes plenty of time which you may not have. Whilst plugin automatizes this work, not all of them are doing their job correctly. Still, most of the website owners choose to use a plugin. So if you plan on setting a plugin for your WordPress website, you should make a research on which to use.

Basic tips of backup

So you are creating a backup of your website. A good idea for you is to create various backups. At least one of the backups should be stored in cloud storage on a different server. This precaution ensures you that you will not lose all of them at the same time.

After choosing a plugin that you find trustworthy, you should set the frequency of backups. Frequency of your website backups depends on how often you update information on your website. If you do it every day, you should consider creating a new backup every day.

WordPress Backup Automation: Best Plugins

1. UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus is a free plugin that allows us to create complete WordPress website backups. The automation feature works quite well and you can do unscheduled backups as well when you need to get an extra copy and upload it into the cloud fast.

This plugin can upload your website copy to Google Drive, FTP, Dropbox, S3, and a few other cloud storage options. You can also email the copy to yourself. There is a premium account available that has wider functionality, but the free variation of the plugin supports all essential functions.

2. BackupBuddy

BackupBuddy provides you easy WordPress backup automation and uploads a copy of the data to the most popular cloud storage platforms. There is a simple scheduling system that will ensure backup protection for any kind of business.

The main advantage of BackupBuddy is that it doesn’t require you to pay for the plugin every month. Their business model is a bit different from what you’re used to. You simply buy the package you need and can use it to backup several websites. The quality of support provided with this plugin is exceptional. That’s why it’s a great option for beginners and everyone else who values quality customer service and helpful forums.

3. BackUpWordPress

BackUpWordPress will back up your WordPress website and database on any schedule you set. The plugin runs smoothly and very efficiently, but it’s another freemium service. This means that the free version of the solution has limited functionality.

In this case, these limitations include not being able to upload the copies to cloud storage. You’ll have to get a premium service package for that. Note that you can get a package for one cloud storage platform or many. For example, you can get one that will only upload backups to Dropbox.

4. VaultPress

VaultPress plugin, built by Automattic, the team behind WordPress, so you can be sure it will run most efficiently on your WordPress website. Note that this plugin must have a JetPack subscription for you to use it for backup.

However, when you get that, you’ll be able to make scheduled and real-time backups. Low-cost plans only offer 30 days of storage, so this service can turn very expensive for a small business.

Manual way to WordPress backup.

The easiest way to back up a WordPress database is by using phpMyAdmin. You’ll be able to access it via your CMS. Here is how you do it in steps:

1. Click ‘Databases’.
2. Choose the database with WordPress data.
3. Click ‘Export’.
4. Choose ‘Custom’ or ‘Quick’.

In step four, if you choose ‘Custom’, you need to select all tables and ‘Save output to a file’.

To back up a WordPress website you will need to use one of these solutions:

• FTP client to copy your website to the computer
• WinSCP or a similar client to create a mirror copy of the website
• Any other software that your hosting company provides.

To sum it up

On average in the world, 68% of websites do not have a data recovery plan. What leads to a critical number of 400% data loss every year. This data is lost permanently if there is no backup. To prevent it you should make your WordPress backups, either yourself or ask the company that maintains your website to do this task.