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
Multisite setups come with extra complexities that can make backups trickier than a standard WordPress site.
Imagine losing an entire network of subsites due to a server crash or accidental data deletion. Without a proper backup, recovering your network would be incredibly time-consuming, if not impossible.
That’s why choosing the right multisite backup plugin is so important. The right tool can protect your entire network with just a few clicks.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore some of the best WordPress multisite backup plugins on the market.
We’ll highlight their key features, pros and cons, and help you determine which one is the best fit for your specific needs. Let’s get started!
As the administrator of a WordPress multisite network, you’re responsible for protecting a lot of websites, content, and user data. You face a higher risk of data loss compared to managing a single WordPress site.
A plugin conflict, a hacked subsite, or even a simple human error could have devastating consequences across your entire network. Without a reliable backup solution in place, recovering from these incidents would be a nightmare.
Multisite backup plugins are designed to address these challenges head-on.
They allow you to protect every subsite with a single, centralized solution. This saves you time and effort and ensures that your entire multisite network can be quickly restored in an emergency.
With the right backup plugin, your network will be safe from data loss. When disaster strikes, you can quickly get your business back on track.
Regular WordPress backup plugins can be effective for single sites, but they may not be the best fit for a multisite network.
A single-site backup plugin may struggle to handle the sheer size of a multisite network. This results in slow backups, incomplete data capture, or compatibility issues.
Plus, restoring an entire network from a standard backup can be a time-consuming and error-prone process.
This is where multisite-specific backup plugins shine. They’re built to address the unique challenges of WordPress multisite, offering features like:
You can back up and restore your entire multisite network with a single click, rather than having to manage backups for each subsite individually.
Recover individual subsites or specific network-level settings without affecting the rest of the network.
Set up automated, scheduled backups to ensure your data is consistently protected.
Seamlessly upload backups to remote storage services for extra security and accessibility.
If you manage a multisite network, you need a powerful and flexible backup plugin. To help you find the right one, I’ve reviewed the best multisite backup plugins!
Duplicator is a WordPress backup and migration plugin that has become a go-to solution for multisite network admins. It works by downloading a copy of your website, which you can use for backups, migrations, and cloning.
When you create a backup with Duplicator, you can customize what data is included. Feel free to customize the backup file with the presets and easy checkboxes.
For multisites, Duplicator has extra customization options. You’ll see a list of your sub-sites, which you can include or exclude from the backup. This gives you full control over your data.
Duplicator gives you many cloud storage options, so each sub-site could have its own location. Plus, you can schedule backups to never worry about manually creating them every hour, day, week, or month.
If something goes wrong, your network can be back to normal in one click. Each backup has a Restore button next to it to make recovery super simple.
We found Duplicator useful for much more than just backups. Once you download a copy of a sub-site, you can import it onto a new server with Duplicator’s drag-and-drop interface. This makes it easy to set up a staging area or deploy a client’s site onto an independent server.
To start backing up your multisite network, upgrade to Duplicator Pro starting at $199.50 yearly.
Duplicator is the best plugin for backing up, migrating, and cloning your WordPress multisite network. Unlike the other options on this list, it can back up individual sub-sites and restore them if needed. Duplicator works even after large-scale critical site errors, helping get your network back online.
UpdraftPlus is one of the most popular WordPress backup plugins, and it also offers multisite support. With 3 million active installations, UpdraftPlus is a great option for protecting your Multisite network.
The UpdraftPlus multisite add-on unlocks a suite of features tailored to your network. With this plugin, you can back up and restore your entire multisite.
One of the standout features of UpdraftPlus is incremental backups. This can save time and storage space by only backing up the changes since the last full backup.
UpdraftPlus also has a range of cloud storage integrations. You can upload your multisite backups to popular services like Google Drive, Dropbox, or Amazon S3. Your data will be securely stored off-site and easily accessible when you need to restore your network.
The UpdraftPlus Multisite add-on costs $25 per year. It’s also included in UpdraftPlus Premium, which starts at $70 per year.
UpdraftPlus is an excellent choice for Multisite users who need a reliable backup solution. Its incremental backups can be particularly useful for networks with frequently updated content.
Its name might be deceiving, but WP Migrate can be a basic multisite backup plugin. Migration plugins download your data as a first step, so you can use them to back up your network.
Even if you’re using the free version, WP Migrate can back up your multisite database. You’ll have extra options for customizing the backup if necessary.
Use the Export button to back up your entire network. However, you won’t be able to select or deselect individual subsites.
To access multisite support, upgrade to WP Migrate Pro starting at $189 per year.
WP Migrate specializes in database migrations but also provides effective multisite backups. You might prefer this option if you need a basic database backup plugin or need to move data to and from a staging area.
All-in-One WP Migration is a plugin known for its simplicity and ease of use in migrating WordPress websites.
While primarily focused on migrations, it exports your website’s files and database. This makes it a good option for creating backups, including multisite backups.
With All-in-One WP Migration, you can back up your entire network. You’ll also be able to export single or multiple sub-sites.
There’s a free version of All-in-One WP Migration, but you’ll need to upgrade for multisite support. All-in-One WP Migration has a multisite extension that costs $26.58 monthly, or $319 yearly.
All-in-One WP Migration offers a simple and beginner-friendly way to create multisite backups. It’s accessible to even non-technical users, but it lacks advanced features.
ManageWP is a comprehensive WordPress management dashboard designed to simplify the administration of multiple websites. While not a backup plugin, ManageWP offers backup functionality as part of its suite of tools.
ManageWP allows for both on-demand and scheduled backups, giving you control over your backup frequency. It also supports various cloud storage destinations.
One of ManageWP’s key advantages is its ability to manage updates, security checks, and other essential maintenance tasks across your entire Multisite network. You can bulk update your sub-sites, saving valuable time.
For multisite networks, you’ll need to activate the $2 backup add-on for every sub-site.
ManageWP is a great choice if you need to centralize backups, updates, and other management tasks in one dashboard.
BackWPup is a popular free WordPress backup plugin. It supports multisite backups, allowing you to schedule regular backups of your entire network.
BackWPup integrates with various cloud storage services, including Dropbox, Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure, and Rackspace Cloud. You’ll have lots of options for secure off-site storage.
You can use the free version of BackWPup with WordPress multisite. For extra cloud storage locations, encrypted backups, and differential backups, upgrade to the premium version starting at $69 yearly.
BackWPup is a free option for basic multisite backups. It offers essential features like automatic backups and cloud storage.
Snapshot Pro, by WPMU DEV, is a premium backup and restore plugin. It’s fully compatible with WordPress multisite networks.
With Snapshot Pro, you’ll get standard backup features like automatic scheduling, incremental backups, and easy restores. It comes with 50GB of WPMU DEV’s cloud storage and integrates with third-party storage providers.
Plus, Snapshot Pro comes with extra tools from WPMU DEV. These will help you manage and optimize your Multisite network.
However, it’s important to note that Snapshot Pro requires a WPMU DEV membership, which might not be ideal if you want a standalone backup plugin.
Snapshot Pro comes with any WPMU DEV subscription. These start at $6 per month.
Snapshot Pro, part WPMU DEV, offers a user-friendly multisite backup solution that integrates with their cloud storage and extra management tools.
Duplicator Pro is the top WordPress plugin to back up, restore, and migrate a multisite. It can back up a WordPress network and migrate it to another server. Plus, you can use it to migrate single sub-sites into and out of your multisite.
To install a multisite plugin, access your network admin dashboard, navigate to Plugins » Add New, and install the plugin as you would on a single site. Activating the plugin network-wide makes it available to all subsites.
Transferring a standard WordPress site to a multisite network involves either converting your existing site or migrating it into a new multisite setup. To create a multisite install, check out our in-depth guide.
If you already have another network set up, use Duplicator to back up the single site and import it into the network.
By now, you’ve found a multisite backup plugin to protect your network!
While you’re here, I think you’ll like these extra WordPress guides:
If you’re ready to take the next step in protecting your multisite network, try Duplicator Pro. With one-click restores, custom backups, and disaster recovery, your network will be safe!
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