Imagine spending countless hours crafting blog posts and designing your WordPress site, only to have it all vanish in an instant. This nightmare scenario can become a reality if you don’t regularly back up your blog.
And yes, there are ways to get your data back, but it can be time-consuming and sometimes costly.
Backing up your WordPress blog is like having insurance for your digital content. It ensures that all your hard work isn’t lost. Unforeseen issues like server crashes, hacking attempts, or even simple human errors will not be the end of the world.
But don’t worry, there are simple ways to ensure your content is safe. All it takes is some time to set things up and voila! Let the automation do its thing 🙂
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NOTE: All my WordPress tutorials focus on WordPress.org, not WordPress.com. If you’re curious about the differences, here’s everything you need to know ☺️
For those of you, who still don’t think using a backup plugin is necessary, here’s why you should reconsider:
Why are WordPress backups essential?
When you don’t back up your blog, you leave yourself vulnerable to a range of potential disasters.
In case of a cyber attack, hackers could inject malicious code that could corrupt your files and make your content inaccessible. That’s why you need a good security plugin to protect your site. But even if you have robust security measures in place, no system is entirely foolproof. You always need a backup plan (see what I did there? 😛 )
Additionally, server issues or hosting problems can result in data loss. Even the best hosting providers could experience downtime or technical failures that can affect your site’s data integrity. Without a backup, recovering your blog in such instances can be both time-consuming and costly, often requiring professional assistance.
Or you might accidentally delete important files or make changes that break your site. This happened to me several times when I tried different caching plugins.
Without a recent backup, restoring my blog to its previous state would be a daunting task.
To put it simply, regular backups provide peace of mind, allowing you to experiment with new plugins, themes, and updates without the fear of irreversible damage.
And since I’m a huge advocate for automating everything you possibly can, I’ll show you how to do it easily. By automating your backup process, you ensure that your content is always protected ☺️
There are two ways you can automatically backup your site – using your hosting provider or using a backup plugin. Let’s dive deeper so you can understand the differences and choose the right option for you.
Using Your Hosting Provider’s Backup Service
Many hosting providers offer backup services as part of their hosting packages. Check with your provider if this feature is part of your price package.
If you have access to this service, you have at least some backup. You can contact your hosting provider if anything goes wrong with your site and they will be able to help you.
However, it’s important to understand the pros and cons of using your hosting provider’s backup service to ensure it meets all your needs.
Pros of Hosting-level Backups:
- Convenience: Hosting provider backups are typically integrated into the hosting package. This makes them easy to set up and manage. Usually, they are already set up by the provider and you don’t have to worry about anything)
- Automated Backups: Many providers offer automated backups, ensuring your data is regularly saved without needing manual intervention.
- Faster Processes: The integration can lead to faster backup and restore processes. This means that your site will not slow down during the backup process.
- Simplified Support: Having a single point of contact for both hosting and backups can simplify troubleshooting and support.
Cons of Hosting-level Backups:
- Limited Frequency and Control: The frequency and control over backups can be limited. Many providers only offer weekly backups, which might not be sufficient for sites with frequent updates.
- Cumbersome Access and Restoration: Accessing and restoring backups can sometimes be cumbersome and may require technical knowledge.
- Vulnerability to Threats: Backups stored on the same server as your site can be vulnerable to the same threats, such as hardware failures, hacking, or malware. If the server is compromised, your backups could be at risk.
- Lack of Flexibility and Features: Hosting provider backups may lack the flexibility and features of dedicated backup plugins, such as selective restores or incremental backups.
- Challenging Migration: If you decide to switch hosting providers, migrating your backups can be challenging and time-consuming.
However, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t utilize this feature if it’s provided in your hosting package. Take full advantage of it, just be mindful of the drawbacks.
You should know what you get from your provider, how you can access the service, and how to use it. Even if it’s included in your price package, you are paying for it, so learn how to use it 🙂
Using a plugin to backup your WordPress blog
Backup plugins provide you with more control and flexibility than hosting-level backups. You can customize backup schedules to fit your specific needs, choose where to store your backups, and easily restore your site in case of data loss.
These plugins are usually designed to be user-friendly, making the backup process straightforward even for those with limited technical knowledge ☺️
Pros of Backup Plugins
- Customization and Control: Backup plugins allow you to set up custom backup schedules, ensuring that your data is backed up as frequently as needed. This level of control is especially useful for sites that update frequently.
- Multiple Storage Options: Unlike hosting provider backups, which are often stored on the same server, backup plugins let you store your backups in various locations. Most of them offer cloud storage services (Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3). Or you can store the backups locally on your computer.
- Selective Restoration: With a good backup plugin, you can choose to restore specific files, databases, or the entire site. This flexibility makes it easier to recover from partial data loss or to fix specific issues without affecting your whole site.
- Enhanced Security: Many backup plugins include features like encryption and password protection for your backup files, ensuring that your data remains secure.
- Ease of Use: Backup plugins are designed to be user-friendly, with intuitive interfaces and step-by-step setup wizards. This ease of use makes them accessible even for non-technical users.
But just like the hosting-based solutions, plugins also have their cons.
Cons of Backup Plugins
- Resource Usage: Running backup processes can consume server resources, potentially slowing down your site during the backup process. However, this can be mitigated by scheduling backups during low-traffic periods.
- Compatibility Issues: Some backup plugins may not be fully compatible with certain themes or other plugins, which can cause conflicts or errors. It’s important to choose a well-supported plugin and regularly update all components of your site. Regular plugin updates are also necessary for security, so choose one that’s regularly maintained.
- Impact on Core Web Vitals: Every plugin you use adds additional code to your website. This can potentiallyimpact your site’s Core Web Vitals, affecting overall performance and user experience. Always aim for a lightweight plugin that will not affect your site speed (so much).
- Additional Cost: While many backup plugins offer free versions, advanced features often come with a price. But you will be ok even with the free version, don’t worry 🙂
- Learning Curve: Although backup plugins are generally user-friendly, there may still be a learning curve if you’re unfamiliar with WordPress basics or backup procedures. However, most plugins provide detailed documentation and support to help you get started.
How to automatically backup your site
So which one should you choose – the service offered by your hosting provider or a backup plugin? My recommendation is to use both if you have the option.
The plugin will help you restore your site if you played around with something and accidentally broke your site (or some functionality). Which happens.
Or if your security plugin announces that you have malware, it’s contained but you just have no idea how to fix it. This happened to me 3x already. After restoring my site from the previous virus-free backup fixed the problem every time.
However, if your site is so broken that you cannot even access your WordPress dashboard, that’s when your service provider comes in.
This happened to me after installing the Ezoic plugin. My site just crashed. To this day I have no idea why. Luckily, I have a hosting provider that has excellent support and they were able to restore my blog to its previous state. I still lost a bit of work, but not much.
Utilize your hosting-provider backup service
So, if your hosting provider offers a backup service, make sure you know how to access it. Have a look at the automatic schedule and how long they keep the copy.
I use BigScoots and their shared hosting. Their shared hosting services provide full account backups that are taken every night and kept for 14 days in their secure dedicated backup appliances. So if anything goes wrong, they can restore my page.
This is running automatically on their site, so I don’t have to do anything.
However, you should also use a good backup plugin. I tried several, but love Updraft Plus.
UpdraftPlus Plugin
UpdraftPlus has a premium version, but their free plan is amazing and you probably won’t need to upgrade.
Key Features of UpdraftPlus (Free Plan)
- Automatic Backups: You can schedule automatic backups at regular intervals (e.g., daily, weekly) to ensure your data is consistently saved. Set it and forget about it 🙂
- Manual Backups: You can perform manual backups with a single click whenever you need an immediate backup. I do this after publishing a blog post before I install plugins, or if I need to play with the settings that could potentially break my site.
- Cloud Storage Integration: You can store your backups in various cloud storage services such as Google Drive, Dropbox, and Amazon S3.
- Local Backups: You can also save backups locally on your server or download them to your computer.
- Database Encryption: Secure your database backups with encryption to protect sensitive information.
- Easy Restoration: This feature is extremely important. If things go south and you don’t know how to fix it, you can easily restore your site with a single click from your WordPress dashboard.
- Backup Logs: You can view detailed logs of your backup and restoration processes to monitor and troubleshoot any issues (with the help of a tech-savvy person 🙂 )
- File and Database Backup: You can back up both your files and databases, ensuring comprehensive site protection.
- Selective Restoration: You can restore specific components of your site, such as plugins, themes, uploads, or databases, without affecting other parts.
- User-Friendly Interface: They have an intuitive interface that makes it very easy to configure and manage your backups, even for non-technical users. There’s a big “BACKUP NOW” button you can click anytime you need
You can download the plugin here, but it’s easier to just find it in your WordPress:
Setting Up UpdraftPlus for Automated Backups
- Step 1: Install UpdraftPlus
- Navigate to Plugins → Add New
- Search for “UpdraftPlus” and install, then click activate
- Step 2: Configure Backup Settings
- Schedule backups (daily, weekly)
- Select the number of backups to retain
- Step 3: Set Up Remote Storage
- Options: Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3
- Link and authorize accounts
- Step 4: Initiate First Backup
- Click the Backup Now option
- Ensure both files and database options are checked
- Create your first backup
Tadaa and you have a functional backup of your site ☺️
TIP: what I like to do from time to time is to check if the backup is actually working. I create a new backup and once it’s finished I click Restore from backup and let it run. If I get an error, I can always go back to my WordPress dashboard (by clicking the “back” arrow on my browser). Then I can check what went wrong. This way, I can be sure that the backup is active and can be used in case of an “emergency”.
Other WordPress Backup Plugins
Of course there are other backup plugins you can use. The most popular plugins are for example Duplicator, Total Upkeep, Backuply, or BackWPup.
However, they usually lack one or two features that are free with UpdraftPlus. Some offer automatic schedules only in the paid version, some don’t offer the Restore option in the free version.
Have a look and decide for yourself 🙂
So that’s how you automatically backup your site for free.
Happy blogging! ☺️