Why do you need a WordPress backup plugin? If you have a valuable website, you already know how important it is to make sure it is protected from data loss. You wouldn't want anything to go wrong with your website, which is why backups are extremely important.
Over 66% of companies that reported data loss and had to rely on backups were unable to fully restore their website backups.
So how do you decide which WordPress backup plugin is best?
WordPress backup tools are by far the best option for performing WordPress backups. Web host backups can overload your WordPress website and the backup data can be compromised in case the server is infected with malware. Manual backups are tedious and risky.
WordPress backup plugins, on the other hand, offer a clever solution to your backup problems. Plugins that offer off-site storage, reliable backups, and quick restores can be a boon to your website.
In this article, we have listed the top 10 WordPress backup plugins currently available. We've tested each one thoroughly for an accurate review you can trust.
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What is the best backup plugin for WordPress?
When it comes to choosing the right WordPress plugin for backups, there are three main parameters you should consider:
- Reliability of backups,
- off-site storage, and
- the ability to restore.
We'll discuss these parameters, along with a few others, in detail in the next section.
We've listed the top 10 best WordPress backup plugins based on these parameters and added our thoughts from the testing we've undertaken. We've covered the basic features, plans, what stands out, and the drawbacks of each of these plugins.
1. BlogVault WordPress Plugin
BlogVault easily stands out among all other WordPress backup plugins. After testing all the plugins, we realized that there is no other solution as reliable as BlogVault. It's also intuitive and fast and boasts features such as automatic real-time WordPress backups, quick restore, and a 90-day backup archive. We tested the plugin to measure its effectiveness. And we have to say that BlogVault is very easily the gold standard for WordPress backups right now.
What you get:
- Scheduled automatic backups
- Incremental backups
- Free offsite storage
- Fast restoration
- Backup testing
- Independent dashboard
- Easy migration
- Integration with cloud services
- Ease of use
- No extra load on the website
- Customized backups
- Real-time backups
Pros:
- Efficient and reliable WordPress backups
- Offsite storage
- Real-time backups for WooCommerce sites
- One-click automatic restore
- Independent dashboard
- Restore even when the site is down
- Multi-site support
- Monitoring and alerts
Cons :
- No partial backups
Price: $89/year
We tested BlogVault on small, medium, and large WordPress sites, and found that it worked equally well on all three. It took less than two minutes to sync the site, even for the large site of about 10GB.
One of the most important features of BlogVault is that it offers off-site storage of your backups for 90 days, with the backup archive expandable to 365 days for WooCommerce websites. This is important because you want to make sure your backups are on a separate server, in case something happens to the website server, both the website and its backup will be lost.
Additionally, a year's worth of backups can take up a significant amount of space, and if you choose to store them on the cloud or other storage, you may incur additional costs. BlogVault stores your backups for you on offsite servers at no additional cost.
When you frequently back up your WordPress website, it can cause performance issues. Blogvault does not affect your website's performance because it performs incremental backups of your website after the first one. You can try Blogvault for free as they offer a 7-day free trial.
2. BackupBuddy Backup Plugin for WordPress
BackupBuddy is one of the most popular WordPress plugins for backup, and chances are you've already considered it. You need to download BackupBuddy directly from their website, and then upload it to your WordPress site.
What you get:
- Scheduled automatic backups
- Backup testing
- Independent dashboard
- Paid offsite storage
- Migration and implementation
- Integration with cloud services
Pros:
- On-demand backups
- Full and partial backups
- Automatic hourly backups
- One-click automatic restore
- Independent dashboard
- Integration with cloud services
- Multisite support
Cons:
- Backups are stored on the server by default
- Restoring large sites is difficult and prone to failure.
- No real-time backups
- No offsite storage
Price: $80/year
As soon as you activate the plugin, the first backup is automatically performed. You can schedule automatic backups on the plugin, which can be as frequent as every hour. While this is good for a regular website, it's not enough for a WooCommerce site that requires real-time backups.
When we tested the plugin, the backups were stored without any problems. However, when we tried to restore the backups, the large site backup failed. Since restoration is one of the most important requirements for a good backup, we were disappointed with the result. A failed restore can cause downtime and anxiety, which can lead to losses.
In addition, BackupBuddy stores your backups on the default site server. This can overload your WordPress site and slow it down. You can change the settings and store your backups on the cloud or on its own storage service, which is free for up to 1GB. However, since large site backups are well over 1GB, this is not enough and the cost of storage can add up. BackupBuddy's plans start at $80 per year. This does not include additional storage costs.
Recommendation: the free WordPress backup version of Backupbuddy is sufficient for small WordPress sites without too many updates or changes.
3. Updraftplus WordPress Backup Plugin
The next WordPress backup plugin we reviewed is UpdraftPlus. UpdraftPlus offers all the basic features such as automatic scheduled backups, external cloud storage, and full backups. But the default settings of the plugin are set to manual backups. So, to schedule backups, you'll have to change.
What you get:
- Scheduled automatic backups
- Paid offsite storage
- Integration with cloud services
- Backup testing
- Easy migration
- Multisite support
- Independent dashboard
Pros:
- Manual and automated backups
- Integration with cloud services
- Full and partial backups
- One-click automatic restore
Cons:
- Offsite storage is only available at an additional cost.
- Unreliable restores
- No real-time backups
Price: $70/year
You can link your UpdraftPlus account to cloud services such as Amazon S3, Dropbox, and Google Drive. In addition, they also offer a paid WordPress backup storage service called UpdraftPlus Vault. However, storage costs can climb very quickly for medium to large sites.
When backing up, UpdraftPlus allows you to take partial backups by dividing the website backup into five parts: database, plugins, themes, downloads, and others. This allows you to choose some or all parts to create partial or full backups. When we tried to back up a large WordPress site, Updraft plus issued a warning saying "You are about to back up a large site". This didn't stop the backup process, but it didn't inspire confidence.
When restoring our sites, UpdraftPlus gave failure warnings and instructions for the average site, but absolutely failed to restore the large WordPress site.
Recommendation: The plugin is good for small WordPress sites with limited free off-site storage for backups, but not suitable for large sites.
4. Backup Guard WordPress Plugin
Backup Guard is another popular WordPress plugin for backups that we tested. The Backup Guard dashboard is quite intuitive and well designed. Unlike many other WordPress backup plugins, the instructions are clear and even a beginner can easily navigate the plugin.
What you get:
- Scheduled automatic backups
- Fast restoration
- Independent dashboard
- Ease of use
- Easy migration
- Integration with cloud services
- Chunk backup and restore
Pros:
- Quick and easy backups
- Intuitive dashboard
- Full and partial backups
- Integration with cloud services
Cons:
- No real-time backups
- Manual restores
- No offsite storage
Price: $25/year
The backup process was fairly easy, although it took a while to back up a small (300MB) WordPress site. The plugin allows you to upload your database and backup files, or store them on a cloud server, whichever you prefer. Automatic backups can be scheduled at a minimum frequency of one hour, and the free plugin does not have a restore option. However, the premium version, which costs $25 per year, does allow for automatic restores.
Recommendation: This is a good option for low-traction WordPress websites that do not require real-time backups.
5. Jetpack Backup WordPress - WP Backup, Speed and Growth
Jetpack, which was previously known as VaultPress, is a service provided by Automattic. Jetpack Backup is one of the few WordPress backup plugins that have a well-organized dashboard with site statistics, backup and security information.
What you get:
- Scheduled automatic backups
- Free offsite storage
- Quick restore
- Backup testing
- Easy to use
- Real-time backup
- Unlimited migrations
- Unlimited backup archives
Pros:
- Efficient and reliable backups
- Offsite storage
- Real-time backups for WooCommerce sites
- One-click automatic restore
Cons:
- Optimized elements change the appearance of the website
Price: $99/year
Jetpack offers automated scheduled backups, with real-time backups for WooCommerce backups. It also boasts a one-click restore and unlimited backup archive, with off-site storage at no extra cost.
However, Jetpack optimizes images via its servers to improve performance. While this is a great feature, it suffers from CDN bugs. Many customers have had unpleasant experiences, such as images becoming distorted or disappearing completely. Nevertheless, with backups and security solutions at a price of $99 per year, Jetpack is worth considering.
Recommendation: Effective for large multisite WordPress networks that require multiple services at once.
6. WP Time Capsule Staging and Backup Plugin
Our next backup plugin for WordPress, WP Time Capsule, is popular for its interface. Instead of a regular dashboard, it has a calendar view that shows backups taken on any date. It creates restore points on those dates and allows users to quickly restore backups from the calendar.
What you get:
- Scheduled automatic backups
- Staging or test site solution
- Backup testing
- Independent dashboard
- Ease of use
- Incremental backups
- Real-time backups
- Integration with cloud services
Pros:
- Scheduled automatic backups
- Integration with cloud services
- Backup schedule view
- One-click restore
Cons:
- Backups are time consuming
- Restores are not fast or efficient
- No offsite storage
Price: $49/year
However, when we tested the backup plugin, the first backup took over 12 hours. When the first backup was started, the plugin informed us that it would send an email when the backup was finished. But two hours later, the backup was still running for a small 300 MB site. This could be a situational problem, but it still doesn't make us confident.
WP Time capsule allows you to schedule your automatic backups and store them on cloud servers.
Recommendation: try the free version, and test it before investing in the premium version.
7. BackWPup WordPress Plugin
BackWPup comes with the promise of reliable backups and automatic restores. And our test succeeded in determining the effectiveness of the backup plugin. The plugin does store and restores backups, but the process itself is not well explained or intuitive.
What you get:
- Manual backups
- Automatic restoration
- Easy migration
- Complex interface
- Integration with cloud services
- Multisite support
Pros:
- Integration with cloud services
- Automatic restoration
- Full and partial backups
Cons:
- No offsite storage
- Manual backups
- The interface is not intuitive
Price: $69/year
The dashboard presents a list of suggestions rather than clear options to explore and asks you to create a task to perform a manual backup or schedule one.
Once that task is created, which in itself is a complicated process to understand, you must run the task. Overall, if you are not a technical person who understands technical terms, this WP backup plugin is not for you.
Recommendation: Not suitable for beginners or non-technical people.
8. WPvivid Backup Staging, and Migration Plugin
WPvivid is another contender in this race for efficient backups. WPvivid offers automatic scheduled backups and easy restore options. You can schedule backups from once a day to monthly frequencies, but that may not be enough for high traction WordPress sites or WooCommerce sites.
What you get:
- Scheduled automatic backups
- Migration and provisioning
- Fast restoration
- Independent dashboard
- Ease of use
- Incremental backups
- Multisite support
- Customized backups
Pros:
- Scheduled automatic backups
- Integration with cloud services
- One-click automatic restore
- Partial and full backups
Cons:
- No offsite storage
- No real-time backups
Price: $49/year
The interface is quite basic but not intuitive. The user has to search for the next steps in order to do the job. But when it comes to backups, the process is fast and error-free. Similarly, when we restored our website through WPvivid, it was restored within minutes and without any problems.
WPvivid offers integration with cloud services for remote storage of backups, and you can create full and partial backups through the plugin. WPvivid's premium plans start at $49 per year.
Recommendation: This WordPress backup plugin is effective for small to medium-sized WordPress websites if the additional storage costs can be borne by users.
9. WP Database Backup Plugin
WP Database Backup is a free backup plugin that allows users to create free backups of their WordPress website database only. This is a partial backup, which does not include your website files. We don't recommend partial backups because they won't help you restore your website in case of a problem.
What you get:
- Database backups
- Scheduled automatic backups
- Integration with cloud services
- Ease of use
Pros:
- Scheduled automatic backups
- Integration with cloud services
- Fast backups
Cons:
- No offsite storage
- Partial backups only
- Restoration is not reliable
Price: Free
The WP Database Backup plugin has a premium version called WP All Backup, which is priced at $22 per year. The premium version allows you to take a full backup of your website. When we tested this plugin, the backup was created within minutes. However, the restoration was not as smooth. When we tried to restore the backup, the plugin gave an error warning.
This error did not clarify the problem, nor did it allow the restoration to proceed. The plugin, however, is easy to use and the backup and scheduling options are clearly shown on the dashboard.
Recommendation: Use only if you need partial backups.
10. Duplicator Backup and Migration Plugin
The last plugin on this list is Duplicator. Duplicator is another popular WordPress backup plugin that offers hourly scheduled backups, both partial and full. Duplicator is not a plugin suitable for beginners and requires some technical understanding to work with.
What you get:
- Automatic scheduled backups
- Easy migrations
- Integration with cloud services
- Independent dashboard
- Ease of use
- Multisite support
Pros:
- Scheduled automatic backups
- Integration with cloud services
- Full and partial backups
Cons:
- No offsite storage
- Not suitable for beginners
- Manual restore
- Confusing user interface
Price: $69/year
On top of that, Duplicator doesn't offer a restore option, which means you'll have to manually restore backups via cPanel or FTP. Duplicator offers integration with cloud services for storage, and its price starts at $69/year.
Recommendation: Use this plugin if you also need a solid migration or cloning solution, as well as backups.
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