Announcing Duplicator WP-CLI Commands (And How They Speed Up Backups)
Looking for a smarter way to manage site backups? Explore Duplicator's new features, including customizable WP-CLI commands and permission settings!
Announcing Duplicator WP-CLI Commands (And How They Speed Up Backups)
Joella Dunn
Joella Dunn
John Turner
John Turner
Your WordPress site is a valuable online store, portfolio, blog, or other personal space. So what happens when disaster strikes?
A bad update, hacking attempt, or simple human error can bring your entire site crashing down.
If you have a backup plugin, you’ll be able to restore your site. These tools regularly save copies of your data so you can get your site back online if anything goes wrong.
Here’s the bottom line: you NEED a backup plugin. But if you need help finding the right one, don’t worry. We’ve done the legwork for you.
I tested, reviewed, and compared the best WordPress backup plugins on the market. I’ll show you how to pick one that fits your needs so you can start backing up your site today!
Before we get started, here’s a quick list of the best WordPress backup plugins! Be sure to continue reading this post for a deep dive into each plugin’s features and ease of use.
| Backup Plugin | Pricing | Best For |
| Duplicator | Free or $49.50/yr | Simple but flexible backups, migrations, and cloning |
| UpdraftPlus | Free or $70/yr | User-friendly backups and restores |
| Jetpack Backup | $9.95/mo | Backup archive and one-click restores |
| BlogVault | $149/yr | Incremental backups and security monitoring |
| Solid Backups | $8.25/mo | Staging, deployment, and backup rollbacks |
| BackWPup | Free or $69/yr | Free cloud backups |
| Total Upkeep | Free or $2.50/mo | Pre-update backups and individual file restores |
| WPvivid | Free or $39.20/yr | Backups, migrations, and image optimization |
| WP Database Backup | Free or $1/50GB | Manual or automatic database backups |
If you own a website, it’s important to perform regular backups. Essentially, this involves saving a copy of your WordPress files and database. When a coding error or software bug breaks your site, you can easily restore a recent backup.
Often, hosting providers will give you a way to back up your website. However, it can be beneficial to have a third-party backup tool. By installing the right WordPress backup plugin, you can access your website even after server errors.
The best WordPress backup plugins make it easy to back up and restore your live site. You won’t need to use cPanel or an FTP client to manually download your data.
Here are some features we’d recommend looking for:
When you install any plugin, you’ll want to know it comes with a stellar support system. Before choosing a backup plugin, make sure it provides reliable customer service. This way, you can have peace of mind that your website will be backed up correctly.
Even when you know what backup features to look for, you might not know which plugin is right for you. To help you make the best choice, here’s our list of the best backup plugins for WordPress!
Duplicator is a powerful and flexible plugin that you can use to back up, migrate, and clone WordPress sites. Because of its simplicity and versatility, it has gained over 1 million active installs.
As a new website owner, you might not know how to back it up. Fortunately, Duplicator makes this process easy. All you’ll have to do is add a new backup.
Use the dynamic tags to create the perfect name. This will help you identify the right one if you ever need to restore it.
Feel free to save your backup locally or choose an off-site storage location. Duplicator supports all of these cloud storage services:
With Duplicator, you can customize exactly what data is saved in your backup archive. This is as easy as checking a box.
When you need to restore a backup, simply click on the Restore button. Duplicator will guide you through the rest of the process.
Unlike other backup plugins, Duplicator can restore your site even if it’s completely offline. If you can’t access your dashboard, upload your backup files to your server. Launch the installer with this URL: https://your-domain/installer.php
By uploading these backup files to another server, you can migrate your site to a new host or domain name. This makes Duplicator a useful tool for WordPress migrations and cloning.
Price: Duplicator Lite is a completely free WordPress backup plugin. However, consider upgrading to the premium version to access cloud storage, automatic backups, and drag-and-drop migrations. These plans start at $49.50 per year.
Another popular WordPress backup plugin is UpdraftPlus. You can use this tool to perform both manual and scheduled backups. Either of these options will save a backup of your website files, plugins, themes, and database.
UpdraftPlus allows you to save backups to cloud storage locations like Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, and Rackspace Cloud. It also has UpdraftPlus Vault, which is a paid storage service.
Similar to Duplicator, UpdraftPlus supports website cloning. However, you’ll have to purchase additional tokens to access the UpdraftClone add-on.
Pricing: UpdraftPlus has a free version with basic backup and restore options. The premium plugin will include advanced features like incremental backups, database encryption, and backups of non-WordPress files. These plans start at $70 per year.
Not sure how to decide between these top two backup plugins? Check out our in-depth comparison between UpdraftPlus and Duplicator!
Jetpack Backup, or VaultPress, is a beginner-friendly plugin that simplifies the backup process. Since it was developed by Automattic, the same company behind WordPress, Jetpack seamlessly integrates into your dashboard.
Using Jetpack, you can back up your database and root directory. Even in the Jetpack mobile app, you’ll be able to restore your site in one click.
However, keep in mind that Jetpack Backup only performs partial backups. Core WordPress files and additional WordPress installs will be excluded from any backup.
It’s also important to note that Jetpack’s lower plans will only store your backups for 30 days. If you want unlimited restores from the past year, you’ll have to upgrade to the Complete plan for $50 per month.
Pricing: Although you can find a Jetpack as a free plugin, you’ll have to sign up for a paid subscription to use it. These start at $9.95 per month. You’ll receive up to 10GB of backup storage space.
Unlike the other WordPress backup plugins on this list, BlogVault is an SaaS (Software as a Service). Rather than overloading your server resources with bulky backup zip files, BlogVault stores your website data on its dedicated servers. This can boost your loading speed.
BlogVault can also handle websites up to 500GB in size. This includes WordPress multisite networks and WooCommerce stores.
When you need to restore your website, you can test a recent backup. By restoring it on the BlogVault servers first, you’ll know it’s safe to upload to your website. Plus, BlogVault supports selective restores to only replace the corrupted data on your site.
Pricing: BlogVault’s subscriptions start at $149 per year. Even the basic backup plan includes cloud storage, multisite backups, and automated daily backups.
Because it’s been available since 2010, Solid Backups (formerly known as BackupBuddy) is one of the oldest backup plugins. This tool is capable of backing up everything on your website, including posts, theme files, WordPress settings, and the database.
One of Solid Backup’s main selling points is its simple restore process. Using the import tool, you can restore individual files whenever they become corrupted or changed. Plus, you can roll back your database or your full WordPress website.
Solid Backups is also a cloning and migration plugin. This will allow you to move to a new web hosting provider or domain name. It even comes with a URL replacement feature to automatically update your site’s URLs.
Pricing: Solid Backups starts at $8.25 per month for a single website. You can also purchase a bundle that includes Solid Security (formerly iThemes Security Pro). This will give you malware scans and other essential security features.
Need a closer look at Solid Backups and BlogVault? We put together a side-by-side comparison of BlogVault, Solid Backups, and Duplicator!
If you’re looking for a basic free backup plugin, BackWPup may be an effective solution. This tool can create both file and database backups for your site. Then, you’ll be able to store backups in off-site locations like Dropbox, SugarSync, or Microsoft Azure.
However, BackWPup limits a lot of its features to the pro version. BackWPup Pro includes support for Multisite network backups, more cloud storage locations, and automatic restores. You can even download a mobile app and restore your website on the go.
Pricing: You can download BackWPup for free from the WordPress Plugin Directory. Alternatively, there is a premium version starting at $69 per year.
Another plugin with backup and restore options is Total Upkeep by BoldGrid. What makes it unique, however, is its auto rollback feature. Before going through with a WordPress update, Total Upkeep creates a backup that can be restored if the update fails.
Total Upkeep also comes with a Site Check tool, which makes it an effective security plugin. It will consistently check for any errors that could crash your site. Once you receive a notification about an issue, you can automatically restore your files and database to the most recently saved backup.
Sometimes, an error will lock you out of your WordPress dashboard. Even when you can’t access the plugin, you can use Total Upkeep’s restoration script on your command line.
Pricing: There are both free and paid versions of Total Upkeep. The premium subscriptions start as low as $2.50 per month billed annually.
WPvivid has all of the basic features you’d expect from a WordPress backup plugin. You’ll be able to back up your website, create staging sites, and migrate your content to a new host. Additionally, there are off-site storage options to save your site remotely.
With WPvivid, you can get an image optimization add-on. By compressing your site’s media files, you’ll enjoy a faster server. WPvivid will also clean up unused images so that your backup files are lighter.
Pricing: The core WordPress plugin is free. For more advanced features, the premium plans start at $39.20 per year.
In some cases, you might only want to back up your database. With WP Database Backup, you can start backing up your database files and restore them if needed. It also enables you to set up a backup schedule to regularly save a copy of your database.
The main benefit of WP Database Backup is that it’s easy to use. You can create new database backups with a single click. The restore process is just as simple.
However, keep in mind that WP Database Backup does not perform a backup of your entire site. To keep your data fully secure, we’d recommend installing a plugin that backs up your files as well.
Pricing: WP Database Backup is free. If you want to access more cloud storage, you can purchase the premium version. This starts at $1 per 50GB
The best way to back up WordPress is to install a backup plugin like Duplicator Pro. Using Duplicator, you can easily customize backups with the available backup presets (full-site, database-only, media-only, or custom). You’ll also be able to connect third-party cloud storage locations and enable automatic backups.
The best free backup plugin for WordPress is Duplicator Lite. This tool compiles all of your WordPress files, plugins, themes, media files, and database information into a single zip file. Since Duplicator also provides a standalone installer, you can also use it to migrate your website to another domain name, server, or web host.
No, WordPress does not provide built-in automatic backups. However, a plugin like Duplicator can help you schedule recurring backups. You can choose between hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly backups. If needed, you’ll be able to run multiple schedules to back up specific parts of your site at the right time.
To completely back up your WordPress site, install Duplicator Pro as your backup plugin. Then, create a new backup and include all components of your website. After you finish building the backup, download it to your local computer.
Duplicator Pro is the best plugin for scheduling automated backups. With this tool, you can create monthly, weekly, daily, or hourly backups.
You can pick and choose which parts of your site to back up once the schedule runs. This makes it easy to save the right data at the right time.
Duplicator is the best WordPress backup plugin because of its comprehensive features. This tool allows you to easily create both full and database-only backups. Plus, you can use Duplicator to set up automatic backups, migrate your website to a new server, or build a staging site.
Alternatives: All-in-One WP Migration, WP Time Capsule, BackUpWordPress, and Backup Migration are other plugins that can back up your site. However, we eliminated them from this list to avoid choice paralysis.
By now, we hope that you have a good understanding of which backup plugin is right for your needs.
While you’re here, you may like these extra WordPress guides:
Are you ready to start backing up your website? Download Duplicator Pro for automatic backups and cloud storage!
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