Why do you need a WordPress backup plugin?
A WordPress backup plugin helps you to create backups of your WordPress website and restore it if something goes wrong.
There are many reasons why you might need to create a backup of your WordPress website.
Maybe you want to move your website to a new host, or you want to upgrade to a new version of WordPress. You want to test a new plugin, custom scripts, new theme, or maybe you just want to be able to restore your website to a previous good condition state if something goes wrong.
Whatever the reason, a WordPress backup plugin is a must-have for any WordPress website.
With so many WordPress backup plugins available, there’s no excuse not to have a backup of your site. Choose a free or paid WordPress backup plugin that meets your needs and use it to create a safe, reliable backup of your WordPress site that you can restore anytime you want.
Some of the most popular WordPress backup plugins are WpVivid, BackupBuddy, VaultPress, and UpdraftPlus. Choose the WordPress backup plugin that is right for you and your website.
How do you choose the best WordPress backup plugin?
There are a few things to look for when choosing a WordPress backup plugin.
Compatibility
Make sure that the plugin is compatible with your version of WordPress, Web Hosting PHP version, and PHP.ini settings, which is the default configuration of your hosting account as there are other WordPress plugins that require a certain version of PHP 7.0 or 8.0 and at least PHP time limit of 300, and PHP Memory limit of 256 MB or more. You need to check these values with your hosting provider to see if they can adjust it for you.
Automated Scheduled Backups
Check to see if the plugin offers automated backups. This can be a lifesaver if you forget to manually back up your site on a regular basis. Most premium WordPress backups include hourly, daily, weekly, bi-weekly and monthly backups so that you don’t need to do it manually.
Incremental Backups
This feature is really important, especially if you have a large website, and you need to backup to a certain point or changes that were recently made to your website. This will help you save space on your storage, and bandwidth as well.
Remote Backups
The best backup plugin for WordPress is the one that provides a wide range of options for where to store your backups, such as Amazon S3, Dropbox, Google Drive, One Drive or your own FTP server.
A good remote backup plugin will also let you restore your site from a backup with just a few clicks. This can be a lifesaver if your site is ever hacked or experiences a major problem.
Staging and Development Environment
Another important feature that you want to consider is having a staging feature which allows you to clone or deploy a staging copy of the live website where you can apply minor or major changes first before pushing these changes to the live website.
This will not only save you a lot of headache when you encounter WordPress fatal errors or plugin incompatibilities, but also will prevent downtime to your business which can cost you a lot of money.
Easy Restore and Migration
Not all WP backup plugins offer the same restore and migration features. When choosing a backup plugin, it’s important to consider what restore and migration features are offered.
Some plugins may only offer the ability to restore a backup to the same server it was created on. There are advanced plugins that can restore or migrate from a WordPress to WordPress installation, or server to a different server by using authentication keys.
There are also plugins that can customize the files that you need to back up or restore, such as full website backup, WordPress core only, Plugins Folder only, Themes Folder only and so on.
This can be a lifesaver if you need to quickly move your site to a new server or web hosting.
Reliable Customer Support
Aside from the features that I have mentioned above, nothing is more important than having superb customer support that you can rely on when everything goes out of hand. So before making your decision, check on different WordPress related groups how good a backup plugin is before buying.
Best Backup Plugins for WordPress
WPVivid WordPress Backup Plugin
There are a lot of backup plugins out there, but WPVivid is one of the best and my preferred backup solution for WordPress. It’s easy to use, reliable, and it has a lot of features that make it a great choice for any WordPress site. It is available in both free and paid versions, but I strongly suggest getting the Pro as it is relatively affordable and reliable.
- One Click Backup
- Schedule and Incremental Backups
- Restoration and Migration to a different WP install or server
- Remote Backups – One Drive, Google Drive, Dropbox, Wasabi, many more
- Staging and Development Environment
- Database Merging
- Image Optimization
- Database Snapshots
- Yearly and One time payment available
- Amazing Support via Ticketing System
All the features that were mentioned above are available on their paid plan which is also affordable, and you have the option to buy the license for one time fee, meaning no monthly or yearly payment required.
