It is often said that success is for those who take risk. Yet, when it comes to technical aspect of WordPress-powered blogs / website, the statement becomes inapplicable! So, you may do some experiments in blog, such as playing with code, installing brand-new plugins, installing your own theme, etc, but keep in mind that even a second of downtime will become a black mark in reputation of your blog. However, if you’re so desperate to run such experiments, there is a way you can follow – Automatic WordPress Backup.
In simple words, automatic WordPress backup means that in addition to backup service that may be offered by hosting provider, everything you do in your WordPress site will be backed up in a secure place. Thus, once you have messed up, you can restore that backup and everything will be fine once again! In this post, we will give you a list of WordPress plug-ins for Automatic backup, and the list includes both premium and free plugins. Rather than merely mentioning such plug-ins, we will go deep into each plugin, exploring its price, availability of scheduled backup, migration support, destination of backup etc.
1. VaultPress – One from Automattic
If you are familiar with WordPress.com, you are familiar with Automattic as well; VaultPress comes from same house of WordPress.com to help you keep your WordPress blog or site secure. VaultPress offers number of features, which will help every WordPress admin. Some of those exciting features are as follows.
- VaultPress offers real-time backup. Real-time backup means the service will backup everything that happens in your WordPress site, such as posts, media, comments, revisions etc.
- Automatic restore feature lets you bring your blog to a former state through single click. VaultPress will use FTP or SSH connection for restoring.
- Security is an addition while purchasing VaultPress. Along with real-time backup, VaultPress will thoroughly scan your WordPress site to find security issues.
Migration: As VaultPress lets you restore the update to another site, site migration is supported by VaultPress. You’ll be able to choose convenient option while migrating.
Plans: VaultPress offers three different plans of its backup service. Lite, Basic and Premium plans cost $55, $165, and $440 respectively. You have to purchase VaultPress subscription for each site you own, rather than using one license for all.
It should be noted that Lite plan of VaultPress offers daily backup instead of real-time backup. While taking all these factors into consideration, VaultPress is a superb service for those who need a truly AUTOMATED service.
2. BackupBuddy
If you are looking for a perfect buddy to back up your WordPress site, BackupBuddy is for you! When compared to a number of other plugins, BackupBuddy is rich in terms of features. Some of its notable features are as follows.
- Everything or Database: BackupBuddy offers two sorts of backup options – Full backup and database backup. In first, it will backup everything from your site, including database, plugins, files, themes, scripts, posts and a number of other things that make your site complete. On the other hand, you have an option to backup all databases only.
- Backup to Remote Servers: Using the plugin, you can store your backup files in Amazon S3, Dropbox, Stash, a service from BackupBuddy, etc.
- Easier restoring process, as BackupBuddy uses a specific script to handle restore process
Plans: Different plans of BackupBuddy are based upon number of sites that you can backup. The first plan costs $80, and you can backup two sites, whereas the second plan, costing $100, can be used to backup up to 10 sites. And, the final plan of BackupBuddy is worth $150 and supports unlimited sites.
3. WordPress Backup to Dropbox
Unlike aforementioned ones, WordPress Backup to Dropbox is a free yet effective way to backup your blogs or sites, running on WordPress. Being a free plugin, it has some issues along with some advantages. Some of them are:
- Installation and Configuration is simple
- However, restoring process is not that simple when compared to those of formerly mentioned plugins.
- Ability to set frequency of backups as well as days, in which you would like to run backup of site
- Uses Dropbox as the way to store backups, and it is much budget friendly
Despite the fact that users, those who do not have expertise in WordPress, will face some issues, WordPress backup to Dropbox is an awesome plugin for bloggers and other professionals.
4. BackUpWordpress
BackUpWordpress is the best way to backup your WordPress blog or site, especially when you’re using shared server for your blog. The plugin allows complete backup of your WordPress blog, including files, databases and everything. However, one disadvantage of BackUpWordpress is that it stores backup into your own web server, and your site will be lost forever if something wrong happens to the server. But, if you can purchase Developer version of the plugin, it is possible to store backup to a number of spaces such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, Rackspace cloud, Azure by Microsoft and DreamHost DreamObjects. Some other features of BackUpWordpress are as follows.
- Scheduled backups, with customization on frequency and inclusion of elements
- Translated versions for German, Chinese, and Russian etc
- Despite being run in low-configuration servers, BackUpWordpress works perfect in VPSs and dedicated ones
- No wizard-based setup process – Everything is simple
Plans: There are two plans available for BackUpWordpress. Developer version that costs $99 has features as we have mentioned earlier.
5. BackWPup Free
BackWPup Free is another free plugin to escape from fears of unexpected data loss! Actually, BackWPup Free is free version of real plugin, BackWPup. Just like aforementioned plugin, BackWPup lets users store backups in number of places such as Dropbox, Amazon S3, Azure, Google Drive, Email, etc. In addition, support for multi-site makes things quite simple for a person, who wants to manage multiple sites. In addition, there are a lot of features, including the following.
- Scheduled backups with variety of customization
- Jobs-based backup procedure is relatively simple
Of course, BackWPup is a good choice, though features of the plugin are not comparable with its Pro version that is a bit expensive (well, as usual).
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Do you think any other WordPress plugin requires place in this list? If so, do let us know using your comments.
