If your WordPress site suddenly disappeared, would you be able to recover it?
If the thought of losing all your hard work makes you break out in a cold sweat, you‘re not alone. Losing your website is a nightmare scenario for any site owner.
The good news is it doesn‘t have to be that way. By implementing a solid WordPress backup strategy, you can safeguard your site and sleep easy at night.
In this post, you‘ll learn why backups are crucial, how to perform WordPress backups for free, and discover the best free backup plugins. I‘ll also share situations where upgrading to a premium backup solution makes sense.
Let‘s dive in!
Why You Absolutely Must Back Up Your WordPress Site (No, Seriously)
First things first, what exactly is a WordPress backup? In simple terms, it‘s a copy of all the files and data that make up your WordPress site. This includes your database, themes, plugins, uploads, and WordPress core files.
There are several compelling reasons why you need to perform regular backups:
1. Mistakes happen
We‘re all human. It‘s easy to accidentally delete an important file or make a change that breaks your site. With a recent backup, you can quickly restore your site as if nothing happened.
2. Updates can go wrong
WordPress core, themes, and plugins frequently release updates. While updates are important for security and performance, they can occasionally cause issues or conflicts. A backup lets you roll back to a previous version.
3. Hacks and malware
Hackers can wreak havoc if they gain access to your site. A proper backup is your best defense to get a hacked site back to normal.
4. Server issues and hosting problems
Web hosting is generally very reliable, but no provider can guarantee 100% uptime. Server crashes, data losses, and other catastrophic failures can and do happen. With an off-site backup, you‘re covered.
5. Peace of mind
Running a WordPress site is stressful enough. Give yourself one less thing to worry about, knowing you can restore your site even if the worst happens.
In short, backups are your insurance policy against data loss. By spending a small amount of time to set them up, you can avoid a major disaster down the road.
The Consequences of Not Backing Up Your WordPress Site
Hopefully I‘ve convinced you of the importance of backups. But what happens if you don‘t heed this advice? Here are a few potential consequences:
1. Permanent data loss
Without backups, you risk losing your posts, pages, products, user data, and all the other content you‘ve worked so hard to create. In a worst-case scenario, you may have to rebuild your site from scratch.
2. Damage to your reputation and brand
Imagine having to explain to your visitors that your site is down or has been hacked. Not a good look! Frequent downtime frustrates users and makes you appear unprofessional.
3. Lost revenue
If you run an online store or generate leads through your site, unplanned downtime has a direct impact on your bottom line. The longer your site is down, the more it hurts your bank account.
4. Wasted time and money
Recovering a broken site takes valuable time and resources away from other important tasks in your business. And if you can‘t restore it yourself, you may have to hire a pricey developer to fix it.
The costs of neglecting backups often outweigh the effort required to create them. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as the saying goes.
Now that you know the "why", let‘s look at the "how". In the next section, I‘ll share several ways to back up your WordPress site for free.
4 Free Methods to Back Up Your WordPress Site
When it comes to free WordPress backup solutions, you have a few options:
1. Manual backups via FTP/phpMyAdmin
If you‘re tech-savvy, you can manually back up your WordPress files and database. This involves using an FTP client to download your site‘s files and phpMyAdmin to export your database. Manual backups are free but very time-consuming.
2. Backup via cPanel
Many web hosts include backup tools in the cPanel dashboard. While convenient, this method relies on your host to manage and store the backups. It‘s a good secondary backup option but I wouldn‘t rely on it exclusively.
3. Backup via free plugins
Using a WordPress backup plugin is by far the easiest way for most users to back up their sites. And with the wide selection of free backup plugins available, there‘s no excuse not to use one.
Two of the most popular free options are UpdraftPlus and BackWPup. Both provide full-fledged backup functionality at no cost.
4. Automated backups from your host
Some managed WordPress hosts perform automatic backups for you. For example, Kinsta offers daily backups with a 14-day retention, while WP Engine takes daily, weekly, and monthly backups.
However, this feature is usually reserved for their higher-tier plans. Budget hosts typically don‘t include automated backups.
Of these methods, backup plugins are the most convenient and beginner-friendly way to protect your site. In the tutorial below, I‘ll show you how to back up your site for free using UpdraftPlus.
How to Back Up WordPress for Free with UpdraftPlus (Step-by-Step)
UpdraftPlus is the most popular free WordPress backup plugin with over 2 million active installations. It allows you to perform complete backups, schedule automatic backups, and restore your site with a few clicks.
Follow the steps below to install UpdraftPlus and start backing up your site for free.
Step 1: Install and Activate UpdraftPlus
First, log in to your WordPress dashboard and go to Plugins → Add New.
Search for "UpdraftPlus" in the plugin directory. Click Install Now followed by Activate to enable the plugin on your site.
Step 2: Configure Backup Settings and Schedule
After activation, go to Settings → UpdraftPlus Backups to configure the plugin settings.
Under the Backup/Restore tab, you‘ll see several options:
- Backup Now: Manually initiate a complete backup of your site. More on this later.
- Backup Nag: Sends you reminder emails if you haven‘t backed up recently.
- Backup Contents: Choose which files to include in your backups (database, themes, plugins, uploads, etc.)
- Backup Schedule: How frequently to perform automatic backups. Options range from hourly to monthly. For most sites, daily or weekly backups are sufficient.
- Backup Retention: How many backups to store before UpdraftPlus starts overwriting old ones. This prevents backups from taking up too much storage space.
I recommend enabling automatic backups and choosing a schedule that matches your site‘s update frequency. If you publish new posts or make changes daily, schedule daily backups. For less frequently updated sites, weekly or monthly may be enough.
Be sure to include your database, plugins, themes, and uploads in the backup. And specify how many backups you want to keep (I suggest at least 2-3).
Click the Save Changes button to store your settings.
Step 3: Choose Remote Storage (Optional)
By default, UpdraftPlus stores your backup files on your web server. However, it‘s a good idea to also keep copies off-site in a remote location. That way, you can still access your backups even if your hosting account gets suspended or your server crashes.
UpdraftPlus supports a variety of remote storage options including:
- Dropbox
- Google Drive
- Amazon S3
- Rackspace
- FTP
To enable remote storage, click on the Settings tab and scroll down to the Remote Storage section.
Select your preferred storage location(s) and follow the authorization process. You‘ll typically need to allow UpdraftPlus to connect to your account and grant the necessary permissions.
After setup, future backups will automatically be sent to the remote destination in addition to your server.
Step 4: Perform Your First Backup
Now that UpdraftPlus is configured, it‘s time to create your first backup. You have two options:
1. Manual backup
Go to Settings → UpdraftPlus Backups and click the big blue Backup Now button.
UpdraftPlus will show a progress bar as it backs up your database and files. You can navigate away from the page – the backup will continue in the background.
Depending on the size of your site, the backup process may take anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes.
2. Automatic scheduled backup
If you configured a backup schedule, UpdraftPlus will automatically back up your site at the specified intervals. You don‘t need to do anything – it runs in the background.
To check if the automatic backups are running correctly, go to the Backup/Restore tab and look under the Existing Backups section. You should see your backup archives listed with the date and time they were created.
Step 5: Restoring Your Site from a Backup
Hopefully you never need to use this feature, but it‘s important to know how to restore your site in an emergency.
To perform a restoration, go to Settings → UpdraftPlus Backups and scroll down to the Existing Backups section.
Find the backup you want to restore and click the Restore button next to it.
On the next screen, select which components you want to restore (database, plugins, themes, uploads, etc.). In most cases, you‘ll want to restore everything.
Click the Next button to start the restoration. UpdraftPlus will overwrite your current site with the files and database from the backup.
Once the process finishes, visit your site to make sure everything is working correctly. And that‘s it – you‘ve now restored your site from a backup!
When It Makes Sense to Upgrade to a Premium Backup Plugin
The free version of UpdraftPlus is a robust backup solution that will meet the needs of most WordPress users. However, there are some situations where upgrading to a premium plugin is worth considering:
More frequent backups
With the free version, the shortest backup interval is every 4 hours. If you need real-time backups, the premium version allows you to schedule backups as often as every 5 minutes.
Larger sites
UpdraftPlus limits the size of your backup archives on lower-tier plans. If you have a large (2 GB+) site, you may need to purchase a higher storage limit.
Incremental backups
The free version only performs full site backups which can use a lot of server resources. Premium backup plugins often support incremental backups which only back up the changed files. This is more efficient for large sites.
Priority support
If you need fast support or run into issues with the plugin, a premium license entitles you to priority support from the UpdraftPlus team.
In addition to UpdraftPlus Premium, other popular premium WordPress backup plugins include:
- VaultPress (Jetpack Backup)
- BlogVault
- BackupBuddy
- WP Time Capsule
These plugins offer advanced features like real-time backups, site migrations, and staging environments. But for most users, the free version of UpdraftPlus is a perfect place to start.
Back It Up: Final Thoughts
I hope this in-depth guide has convinced you of the importance of backing up your WordPress site.
By taking a few minutes to set up a backup system, you can protect yourself against hacks, data loss, user errors, and other catastrophes.
UpdraftPlus is an excellent free plugin to automate your backup process. But no matter which method you choose, the important thing is that you‘re taking backups regularly.
Don‘t put this off until it‘s too late. Set up your WordPress backups today for a worry-free tomorrow!
