It’s 9 a.m. on a Tuesday and one of Tom’s regular customers just called to let him know that the website is down. Jumping into action, Tom calls his hosting company only to find out that his website database has become corrupted thanks to the new plugin he added last week. Their advice? Restore his site using the latest backup.
As he hangs up the phone, reality hits: he hasn’t backed up his company’s website for over eight months. He knew it had to have it done, but it just kept getting put off in the face of more urgent-seeming tasks.
Head in his hands, Tom reflects on the fact that that over those eight months, he’d added hundreds of products to his online store. He’d recorded more than 10,000 purchases and captured the details of 2,136 customers.
And it was all gone.
That’s right — things can go wrong with your website and if you don’t have a recent backup tucked safely away, incidents such as the one above can impact your business hard, maybe even irreparably.
The easiest way to avoid a scene like the one above is to backup your website on a regular basis, at least once a week if not every day. If you’re not already doing so, we’ve created a list of 22 WordPress backup tools you can use to protect your blog and site below.
NOTE: If you didn’t use WordPress to build your site, take a look at #1 and then skip down to the “WordPress and Beyond” section.
WordPress Backup Plugins
1. Your Hosting Company
Among other services, a good hosting company will offer a website backup package. It might cost extra however, knowing that someone is managing your site backups on a regular basis is likely worth it.
WordPress Backup Tools: Free WordPress Plugins
There are plenty of WordPress plugins available for backing up your site. The two below are free:
2. Dropbox Backup & Restore
If you have a Dropbox account then you should check out the Dropbox Backup and Restore plugin as it enables you to backup your WordPress site to Dropbox. To restore or migrate your WordPress website, reinstall a clean version of WordPress, install this plugin, connect to Dropbox and press the “Restore” button next to one of the backups on the list:
3. Backup Scheduler
The Backup Scheduler plugin will back up both your WordPress database and site files for free. To restore your site, follow the directions provided at the bottom of this page.
WordPress Backup Plugins: Free Plugins with Pro Versions
This section lists those plugins that give a free taste but offer much more robust functionality if you pay to upgrade to a pro version.
If you want stability (i.e. the plugin will likely be around for a while and upgraded for each new version of WordPress) and support, pro versions are worth checking out.
4. Duplicator
The free version of the very-highly rated Duplicator plugin has all the functionality you’ll need to backup your WordPress site. The pro version offers much more of course but most small businesses will find the personal price to be very reasonable.
This one is a must-check out plugin.
5. Backup Guard
The free version of the Backup Guard plugin offers unlimited backups and restores however, if you want features such as scheduling, you’ll need to upgrade to the pro version.
Click here to compare the free version with the three paid versions…
6. BackUpWordPress
Using the free version of the BackUpWordPress plugin will feel like you’ve purchased a pro version of another backup plugin. The differences between the free and pro versions in this case focus solely on where you can backup to, something that a small business may not deem important enough to pay for.
7. BackWPup Free
Most small businesses will find that the free version of the BackWPup plugin will suit them just fine. The pro version does offer more however, it seems as if it’s geared more towards developers and other technical folks.
8. WPBackItUp
The final plugin in this section, WPBackItUp is an easy-to-use backup solution. If you want the easy-to-use restore solution however, you’ll need to go pro.
WordPress Backup Plugins: Paid WordPress Tools
Paid for WordPress plugins typically offer the most features right out of the box. In addition, if you want stability (i.e. the plugin will likely be around for a while and upgraded for each new version of WordPress) and support, paid for plugins offer the highest level of confidence.
9. BlogVault
BlogVault offers one of the most robust WordPress backup solutions available. With features such as automated incremental backups and even automated restores in the case of hacking, this is the solution to turn to for business continuity and peace of mind.
10. UpdraftPlus
Another fully-featured backup plugin, Updraft Plus is a rock-solid solution with great features and functionality.
11. BackupBuddy
BackupBuddy is one of the best-known backup plugins for WordPress. They’ve been around for a while and their feature set, and ease-of-use, is aimed toward small businesses.
12. Backup by Supsystic
A solid all-around backup solution, Backup by Supsystic offers everything a small business needs at a reasonable price.
WordPress Backup Tools: Security Plugins with Backup
This section lists those WordPress plugins that aim to secure your site and provide backups as part of that mission.
13. ManageWP
If you have more than one WordPress site, then you’re going to love the ManageWP plugin. ManageWP enables you to manage all your sites, including backups, in one place. Throw in security, live monitoring and alerts and optimization and even folks with one site will want to give this solution a look.
14. VaultPress
The VaultPress plugin provides both backups and security for your WordPress site with an easy-to-navigate up-to-date dashboard:
WordPress and Beyond
The solutions in this section can all be used to backup a WordPress site however, they can also be used to back up websites that were not created using WordPress.
If you’re reviewing these solutions for a non-WordPress site, be sure to confirm that a solution is compatible with the type of database your website uses, as well as the type of operating system on which your website rests, before you add it to your shortlist.
Here are the solutions:
Conclusion
Failing to backup your website can have severe repercussions for your business. If you’ve built your website using WordPress, one of 21 WordPress backup tools to protect your blog and site above should help assure that you’re not missing an up-to-date backup when you need one.
If your site was not built using WordPress, check out #1 and well as the solutions in the “WordPress and Beyond” section above to discover a tool that can provide the peace of mind that knowing your website is backed up regularly can bring.
Image: WordPress
This article, "21 WordPress Backup Plugins to Protect Your Blog and Site" was first published on Small Business Trends
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