How to Backup WordPress Site in Three Easy Ways (Manual + Plugins + WebHost)

how to backup wordpress site

WordPress is a feature-rich platform that builds everything from corporate websites to eCommerce stores.
Since your WordPress website is an essential component of your business operations, every minute of downtime results in a loss of reputation and revenue.

That’s why backing up your WordPress site is more than just an entry on the website operations. It is a critical operation that ensures you always have a way to bring back your website. A properly laid out website backup strategy minimizes downtime and ensures you don’t lose visitors and sales.

This article will go into the details of how to back up a WordPress site. In addition to the major ideas behind website backup, we’ll mention three popular ways of backing up websites.

Let’s start with a bit more details about the need for WordPress website backups.

Table of Content

  1. Why do You Need to Backup WordPress Websites
  2. What are the Important Components of a WordPress Backup?
  3. Choose a WordPress Website Backup Method
  4. The Manual Backup Process
  5. Backup WordPress Website Using Plugins
  6. How to Back up Websites Through WordPress Plugins
  7. Backup via Web Hosting Provider
  8. Storing and Managing Backups
  9. External Backup Archive Storage Options
  10. Tips For Managing WordPress Site Backups
  11. Conclusion
  12. FAQ

Why do You Need to Backup WordPress Websites

WordPress websites can go down because of several reasons. Before describing the details of the backup methods, it is essential that we must understand these reasons.

Cybercrime

WordPress powers around 40% of the websites on the internet. These websites include huge corporate portals, eLearning platforms, and eCommerce stores. Unfortunately, this makes it a favorite target of cybercriminals, who often launch several types of attacks that aim to deface the website and steal data.

A related concern is the presence of malware that attackers could plant in the website code.

In most cases, websites become inaccessible to visitors because of the data loss. In such cases, you need a way to quickly restore the website with data that is recent and free from malware and similar issues.

Incompatible Plugins and Themes Updates

WordPress developers regularly release updates for their products. These updates fix known issues and add functionality requested by the users.

An update for a theme or plugin could render your WordPress website non-functional. This scenario can range from a broken widget to the entire site going down.

In extreme cases, you might not roll back the updates and bring your website back online. In such cases, you need a copy of your data to restore the website. That’s why experts recommend taking a website backup right before you apply updates so that you can quickly recover from a broken website.

Human Error

The latest WordPress versions have minimized human intervention by automating many website management operations. However, since WordPress is targeted toward users with a wide range of technical skill sets, there is always a chance that inexperienced users might make a mistake and break the website.

Troubleshooting website issues is costly and can waste time and resources. Even then, there is no guarantee that you will be able to fix things and bring the website back online in minutes. However, a simple fix is to use the backup archive to restore the website and save time and effort for more important tasks.

Migration Failures

Migrations are a rare event because of the time and effort involved in the process. While an experienced server support engineer can minimize the risk of data loss, you should always make a copy of the website data before initiating the migration process.

Now that you know the common scenarios where things can go wrong with your website, it’s time to explore the next related idea before we go into the details of how to backup the WordPress site.

What are the Important Components of a WordPress Backup?

Since WordPress is technically a CMS, it has several moving parts that combine to make a WordPress “website”.

So if you’re planning to backup your WordPress site, you need to make sure that the backup process covers the following components so that the archive can restore the site without any complications.

WordPress Database

The WordPress database consists of all the content of the WordPress site. This central component stores posts, pages, comments, and settings of your WordPress site. A backup of the database is essential for restoring the site’s content.

WordPress Core Files

The WordPress core files include the files that deliver and control the way WordPress behaves. Generally, these include the main installation files and the files that control the site’s functionality. Without these files, there would be no WordPress CMS on your server.

Themes

WordPress themes are collections of files that define the site structure and design. A backup of the theme files is essential for restoring the site’s layout and the friendly website UI.

Plugins

WordPress plugins are software components that add specific functionality to the site. The backup of the plugin files is essential for restoring the site’s functionality.

Media Files

The WordPress media library includes all the visual assets, such as videos, images, and other files used on the WordPress site. It would be best if you thought about having all the media files in the backup archive because these files can inflate the size of the final archive file. Managing a large archive file is challenging because transferring, unpacking, and restoring the backup on a server takes time.

As mentioned earlier, you must consider the final archive file because it must include all the essential elements required to restore the website. At the same time, the archive file should be small enough to be uploaded to external storage within a reasonable time.

Choose a WordPress Website Backup Method

how to backup wordpress site easy ways

 

Now that you know the specific details of how to back up the WordPress site, let’s discuss the most critical decision you must make – choosing a backup method.

Given the versatility of WordPress, it’s no surprise that you can pick from several options for backing up your website according to your technical skills and the effort you wish to invest in the process.

When choosing a backup method, consider factors such as ease of use, frequency of backups, and level of customization. It is also essential to ensure that your backup method is reliable and secure to protect your data in case of a disaster or security breach.

The following are the most popular ways of backing up WordPress websites.

Manual WordPress Backups

This involves manually copying the WordPress files and database to a local or cloud storage service. We generally don’t recommend this method because it requires considerable technical knowledge of server and WordPress management, and creating the archive can take a lot of time.

Backup Plugins

Like everything else, WordPress has plugins that allow you to automate the backup process. This method is suitable for all users because it minimizes the chances of things going wrong and offers better control over the backup process.

Popular backup plugins include UpdraftPlus, BackupBuddy, and VaultPress.

Backup Through the Hosting Provider

Almost every web hosting company provides backup as part of their service package. This method is great for users who have single or multiple large websites. If you’re considering this option, you should discuss the features and options with your hosting provider.

Since cloud hosting is popular among the WordPress community, cloud-based backup options are reliable for WordPress websites. Here, the hosting provider stores website data offsite in a remote location to improve the redundancy factor.

Here’s a summary of the four popular WordPress site backup methods

Manual WordPress backup Backup Plugins Web Hosting Backup Cloud-based Backup
Manually backing up a WordPress site involves copying the WordPress files and database to a local or cloud storage service. Generally easy to use and can automate the backup process. Usually automatic, which means that you don’t have to remember to perform backups yourself. Provides an offsite backup solution, meaning your data is stored separately from your web hosting provider.
It can be performed for free without any additional subscription or cost. Backup plugins vary in cost, depending on their features and functionality. Some backup plugins are free, while others require a one-time purchase or ongoing Web hosting backup is typically included in your web hosting plan, although some providers may charge an additional fee for this service. Cloud-based backup solutions can be cost-effective but typically require a subscription or ongoing fee. The cost will vary based on the amount of storage and backup frequency you require.
Restoring requires technical knowledge. You’ll need to upload the backup files to your server and then manually restore the database and files using tools like phpMyAdmin and FTP. With a backup plugin, you can restore your WordPress site in just a few clicks. Usually, the support engineers can restore website data upon the customer’s request. Often, the user is able to restore the data by choosing the option on the user console. Alternatively, the user can request a restore from the customer support teams.

You now know enough to pick an appropriate site backup method that fits your technical expertise, the effort you wish to invest in the site back up, and your budget.

Now let’s discuss how to back up the WordPress site in detail. We cover the three methods we discussed above.

The Manual Backup Process

As mentioned earlier, backing up a WordPress site manually is a multi-step process of copying the WordPress files and database from the live server and copying them to a local or cloud storage service.

The actual steps you need to follow depend upon the hosting solution for your WordPress website. However, generally, there are two ways of backing up a WordPress site manually.

Download the Database as a Single File

The first method is making a manual WordPress database backup. We’ll use phpMyAdmin for the demonstration since it is a very popular open-source database administration tool.

Here’re the steps you need to follow:

  • Log in to your WordPress site’s control panel (usually cPanel or Plesk).
  • Access the database management tool by clicking the “phpMyAdmin” icon.

login wordpress control panel

 

server localhost

  • Select your WordPress database.
  • Click the “Export” tab in the top menu.
  • Choose the “Quick” export method, which exports the entire database as a single file.
  • Select the format of the export file. The default is “SQL,” which is compatible with most database management tools.
  • Under “Output,” select “Save output to a file” and choose a location on your local machine to save the file.
  • Click “Go” to start the export process.

These steps would result in a single file that contains all the data (posts, pages, comments, and settings) in the WordPress database. It’s important to keep the file in a safe location so that you can quickly use it for the next stage.

Download WordPress Website Files Via FTP

Downloading WordPress files via FTP or the File Manager provided with the server is a common way to create a backup of your website’s files. Here is an overview of downloading the website files using FTP or File Manager:

  • Log in to your WordPress site’s control panel (usually cPanel or Plesk).
  • Go to the File Manager or FTP section.
  • Go to the directory \ where your WordPress files are stored. Usually, it is the public_html or www folder.
  • Select all the WordPress files and folders and import them to your local machine. This results in a zip or tar file.

If you’re using FTP, follow these steps:

  • Connect to your web server using an FTP client, such as FileZilla.
  • Enter your FTP login credentials (usually your website’s domain name, username, and password).
  • Navigate to the folder where your WordPress files are stored.
  • Select all the WordPress files and folders and download them to your local machine.

Or, if you’re using File Manager:

  • Click on the “File Manager” icon in your control panel.
  • Navigate to the folder where your WordPress files are stored.
  • Select all the WordPress files and folders and compress them into a zip or tar file.

Download the compressed file to your local machine.

It’s important to keep the backup file in a safe location, such as a cloud storage service or an external hard drive. You should also include a copy of a Zip or Tar unpacking program or utility with the file. This simple addition will save you a lot of time and grief when you would need to unpack the archive to restore your website files.

Backup WordPress Website Using Plugins

how to backup wordpress site with plugin

A backup plugin is a software add-on for WordPress that automates backing up your website’s files and database. These plugins typically allow you to schedule website backups.

You can also customize backup settings such as the frequency of backups, where the backups are stored, and which files and database tables are included in the backup.

Some best WordPress backup plugins include:

UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus is a popular WordPress backup plugin that comes in both free and premium versions. The plugin allows you to schedule backups, store them on your server or cloud storage service, and restore your site in just a few clicks.

Jetpack Backup

Jetpack Backup is part of the well-known Jetpack family of services offered by Automattic. The premium cloud-based backup service offers automatic daily and on-demand backups. Jetpack Backup also includes one-click restore functionality.

BackupBuddy

BackupBuddy is another popular backup plugin that offers various features, including automatic backups, backup storage to multiple destinations, and the ability to restore individual files or tables. BackupBuddy also offers a “quick deploy” feature, allowing you to migrate your site to a new server or domain quickly.

WPvivid Backup Plugin

WPvivid Backup Plugin comes with all essential features for creating and scheduling backups of your WordPress site. The plugin also helps you manage the migration of your website to a new domain or server and automatic cleanup of backup files.

Duplicator

Duplicator is a well-known plugin for the backup and migration of WordPress. The plugin helps you schedule backups and migrate your site to a new domain or server. Duplicator also offers a “live” backup feature, a fantastic option for creating backups of live sites.
Overall, backup plugins are a convenient way to automate the backup process for your WordPress site. However, it’s essential to choose a reputable and reliable plugin and to regularly test your backups to ensure they can be successfully restored after a disaster.

How to Back up Websites Through WordPress Plugins

The general process of backing up a WordPress site using a plugin typically involves the following steps:

  • Install and activate a backup plugin
  • Once you have installed the plugin, you must configure the backup settings. This typically involves setting the backup frequency, choosing the backup location (local, on-server, or external storage), and selecting which files and database tables to include in the archive.
  • Next, create a backup of your WordPress site by choosing the right options in the plugin’s dashboard.
  • After the backup has been completed, it’s important to verify that the backup was successful and that all necessary files and database tables were included.
  • After verification, you should choose where the backup archive will be stored. The options include local storage on your server, cloud storage (such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or Amazon S3), or both.

Backup via Web Hosting Provider

Backing up your WordPress site via your web hosting provider typically involves accessing your web hosting control panel and using the built-in backup tools provided by your hosting company. The specific process for creating a backup will vary depending on your web host, but here are the general steps:

  • You will typically need to log in to your web hosting control panel using your web host’s credentials.
  • Locate the backup tool in the control panel. Depending on your web host, this may be located under a specific control panel section or accessible via the search function.
  • Next, choose which files and database tables to include and the backup frequency and destination.
  • Usually, you can create the backup by clicking a button or selecting a menu option (located at the bottom of the screen).
  • After the backup has been completed, it’s important to verify that the backup was successful and that all necessary files and database tables were included.
  • Finally, select the location for storing the backup archive. This can be the local storage on your server, cloud storage (such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or Amazon S3), or both.

Overall, backing up your WordPress site via your web hosting provider can be convenient if your hosting company offers built-in backup tools. However, verifying that the backups are complete and storing them safely and securely is essential.

Using the backup options offered by your web hosting provider might be as flexible as manually backing up your website. Additionally, you get more control over the process (often similar to using a WordPress plugin).

Storing and Managing Backups

Many WordPress website owners know how to backup WordPress site. However, some make the mistake of storing the backup archive on the same server that hosts the website.

Now when disaster strikes, the backup archive is corrupted or deleted along with the rest of the website files.

  • Backups are a crucial tool for recovering lost data, including files, databases, and configurations. Storing backups securely and offsite ensures you can quickly restore your site during a disaster, minimizing data loss and downtime.
  • Downtime is costly and results in the loss of revenue and business reputation. By storing backups offsite, you can quickly restore your site to ensure it’s up and running as quickly as possible.
  • Many industries, like healthcare and finance, are legally required to store backups securely and offsite. Failure to comply with those regulations results in heavy fines and other penalties.

Storing backups securely and offsite is integral to WordPress’s backup strategy. Doing so can ensure your data is protected and your site can be quickly restored during a disaster.

External Backup Archive Storage Options

Fortunately, you have several options for securely storing your WordPress backup archive. These include:

Cloud Storage

This includes cloud storage providers such as Google Drive, Dropbox, and Amazon S3. These services offer reliable and secure storage options, often with advanced security features like encryption and two-factor authentication. They also allow you to access your backups from anywhere over an internet connection. As such, they are an excellent option for storing your backup archives off the server.

External Hardware Devices

External hard drives are a popular backup option. They offer a simple and affordable solution for local backups, allowing you to store and access backups from a physical device easily. However, they may not be as secure as cloud storage options and are susceptible to physical damage and loss.

The best WordPress site’s backup storage option depends on your needs and preferences. Choosing a secure and reliable storage option is important, and regularly testing and updating your backup strategy ensures your site is properly protected.

Tips For Managing WordPress Site Backups

Finally, here are some tips for managing your WordPress backups.

  • Establish a regular backup schedule, whether daily, weekly, or monthly. As a result, you can accurately pick the archive you need to restore your website.
  • Test backup files periodically to verify that they are properly configured as intended. This could be done by restoring the backup to a test site and checking that all files and configurations are restored correctly.
  • Test backup files periodically to verify that they are properly configured as intended. This could be done by restoring the backup to a test site and checking that all files and configurations are restored correctly.
  • Maintaining multiple backup copies is a good idea to ensure redundancy in case one backup file is corrupted or lost. Consider storing backups on multiple storage devices or in multiple cloud storage solutions.
  • Keep backups up to date by regularly reviewing your backup schedule and adjusting it as necessary. This will make sure that the backups reflect changes and modifications or updates made to your site.
  • Consider using backup plugins or other automation tools to simplify the backup process and ensure that backups are performed regularly

Conclusion

To safeguard against data loss, cyberattacks, and other calamities, backing up your WordPress site is essential for website administration.

Web hosting backup, backup plugins, and cloud-based backup are all trustworthy backup techniques, but they should all be kept safely and away.

We advise creating a regular backup schedule that fits the frequency of updates to your website. Next, decide which backup strategy best meets your needs. Your website’s uptime for visitors can be guaranteed by giving backup management top priority as part of your website management plan.

FAQ

Q- 1) Why is it important to back up WordPress sites?

Ans: Backing up your WordPress site is important to prevent data loss in case of a website hack, server failure, or human error.

Q- 2) What are the different ways to backup a WordPress site?

Ans: There are several ways to backup a WordPress site, including using a backup plugin, manually backing up the files and database, using a website hosting backup feature, or using a cloud backup service.

Q- 3) How often should I back up my WordPress site?

Ans: We recommend you consider backing up your WordPress site regularly, preferably daily, especially if you make frequent changes or updates to your website. For this, you should know how to backup the WordPress site.

Q- 4) How do I restore my WordPress site from a backup?

Ans: To restore your WordPress site from a backup, you must access your backup files or use a backup plugin to restore your files and database. The process may vary depending on your backup method and the specific backup tool you are using.

Q- 5) What should I do after backing up my WordPress site?

Ans: After backing up your WordPress site, storing the backup files securely and testing the backup to ensure it works correctly is important. Consider setting up automated backups and monitoring your website’s security to prevent data loss in the future.

Q-6) What is the best WordPress backup plugin?

Ans: The best WordPress backup plugin depends on various factors and individual preferences. Here are some examples. UpdraftPlus, BackupBuddy, Duplicator, BackWPup.