Backing up your WordPress website or blog is crucial, but it’s one of those tasks many of us neglect – pushing it down our online to-do lists, assuming we’ll get around to it someday. Unfortunately, many users discover the hard way that not regularly backing up your site can mean virtual disaster should the worst happen.
Essentially, backing up your WordPress database and files boils down to creating copies of everything, so they can be restored in the vent of a crisis. It sounds easy enough, right? Yet one of the key reasons people tend to put off backing up their sites and blogs is that the process can seem complicated once you begin delving into the many tutorials and how-tos available online. Codex offers fantastic step-by-step instructions on how to back up both your WordPress files and your WordPress database – but even these can be overwhelming for new users.
On the bright side, there are a number of useful plugins available to help WordPress beginners and users with limited knowledge make light word of regular backups.
BackUpWordPress
BackUpWordPress is a simple, automated plugin, allowing you to backup your entire WordPress website or blog, including your database and files, according to your chosen schedule. No setup is required, and this plugin works well in low memory, or ‘shared host’ environments.
BackUpWordPress has an average user rating of 4.5/5 stars, and has been downloaded more than 739,000 times.
WordPress Backup to Dropbox
If you’re a fan of Dropbox and storing all of your important information in an online environment you can access anywhere, WordPress Backup to Dropbox might just be the plugin you’re looking for. Allowing for backups of your files and database on your preferred schedule, you’ll be able to specify where you want your backup stored within Dropbox.
WordPress Backup to Dropbox has an average user rating of 3.9/5 stars and has been downloaded more than 635,000 times.
Online Backup for WordPress
For users who have a focus on keeping their data secure, Online Backup for WordPress offers added protection and encryption options. Back up your database and files to a folder on your server, your email inbox, or even to the secure data centres of Backup Technology – the creators of the plugin – who offer 100MB of free online storage space.
Online Backup for WordPress has an average user rating of 4/5 stars and has been downloaded more than 329,000 times.
Five additional worthy backup options include:
- Ready! Backup – 3.8/5 stars, 20,000+ downloads
- Backup – 3.3/5 stars, 62,000+ downloads
- Google Drive for WordPress – 3.6/5 stars, 23,000+ downloads
- BackWPup Free – 4.3/5 stars, 961,000+ downloads
- myRepono WordPress Backup Plugin – 4.2/5 stars, 40,000+ downloads
Deciding how often to back up your site or blog really comes down to how much information you’d be willing to lose. It might be that you need to backup every single day. If you’re a lighter user, you may only need to backup once a month.
If you decide to backup your database and files manually, rather than automatically or on a set schedule, regularly set this in your diary, or as a calendar alert, so you don’t forget a crucial backup.
How do you manage your WordPress site database and file backups? Do you use a plugin, or do you prefer to handle backups the old-fashioned way for added peace of mind?
4 thoughts on “Easy WordPress Backup Plugins”
That’s a heck of a list. I’m already using many of these plugins but I’m definitely going to add the one that defers JS loading since that seems to be the biggest bugbear when trying to speed up WordPress sites (particularly for mobile devices). Huge thanks.
I have try using Backup& Restore Dropbox wpadm save the entire site and restore. Easy to use and have a great supportive ability. thanks for your recommendation
Did u try .. InfiniteWp .. its the best backup plugin i ve used so far ..
Unfortunately I still backup manually.
Database via PHPMyAdmin on CPanel and site files via FTP.
I’ve tried a few plugins but never found one I could rely on!