💾 Why Learning to Back Up Your WordPress Site Matters
1. It May Not Seem Urgent—Until It Is
- Backing up your WordPress site might not feel important… until disaster strikes.
- Hacked site? Plugin conflict? Server crash?
→ Without a backup, your content and hard work could be gone.
2. Backups Aren’t Fun — But They Are Essential
- It’s not glamorous, but it’s one of the smartest things you can do.
- Think of backups as a safety net — you hope to never use them, but you’ll be glad they’re there.
3. This Guide Will Make It Easy
We’ll cover everything you need to know in one place — simple, clear, and beginner-friendly.
📋 What You’ll Learn in This Post:
- How Often Should You Back Up WordPress?
→ Based on how frequently your site changes. - What Content Needs to Be Backed Up?
→ Core files, media uploads, database, themes, plugins, and user-generated content. - Where Should You Store Backups?
→ Local, cloud (Google Drive, Dropbox), or remote server. - What Are the Best WordPress Backup Plugins?
→ A breakdown of free and premium tools. - Step-by-Step: How to Back Up WordPress Using a Free Plugin
→ A hands-on tutorial (no coding needed).
Let’s dig in and make your WordPress site disaster-proof. 💪
WordPress Backups 101: Why They’re Important and How to Do Them
In a perfect world, backing up your WordPress site would be a waste of time and effort because nothing ever goes wrong.
However, your WordPress site doesn’t exist in a perfect world – it exists in the real world. And in the real world, there’s a lot that can go wrong with your WordPress site:
- You can make a mistake, like permanently deleting important content by accident (such as an Elementor design that you’ve spent hours working on!).
- A malicious actor might gain access to your site and inject malware or otherwise cause issues.
- Your host might have a failure that leads to lost data.
- A plugin or theme might crash your site.
- A newly-applied update might suddenly cause an issue.
In all of those situations, you’re dealing with the potential loss of all or some of your WordPress site.
Without a recent backup, any one of those situations can be catastrophic.
However, if you always have a recent backup on hand, the worst-case scenario is a minor inconvenience – not a catastrophe.
Long story short, if you have a WordPress site, you need to take backups of your WordPress site.
The rest of this section is dedicated to how, how often, and what to back up.
🔄 Do You Need to Back Up WordPress Yourself?
Doesn’t Your Host Do It?
1. Don’t Rely Solely on Your Web Host
- Why?
- Most hosts do some kind of backup, but:
- You can’t guarantee the frequency (daily? weekly?)
- You can’t verify the completeness (did it include all files + database?)
- You often can’t control the restore process.
- Most hosts do some kind of backup, but:
- Assume their backups = Not Reliable
- For safety, act as if those backups don’t exist.
2. Back Up WordPress Yourself for Full Control
- Benefits of Doing It Yourself:
- You decide the frequency (daily, hourly, etc.)
- You choose where to store the backup (e.g., Google Drive, Dropbox, S3)
- You can restore anytime without waiting for host support
- Use a plugin like:
- UpdraftPlus
- Jetpack Backup
- BlogVault
- BackWPup
3. Exceptions: Premium Managed WordPress Hosting
- Examples:
- Kinsta, WP Engine, Flywheel
- Why they’re different:
- They offer automatic daily (or real-time) backups
- Store backups off-site (safer)
- Provide easy 1-click restore features
- Include backup retention policies (e.g., 14–30 days history)
- Managed hosting = more expensive, but backups are part of the value
4. Best Practice = Combine Both
- Even with managed hosting:
- It’s smart to have your own external backup, just in case
- Hosting backups can fail or be inaccessible during outages or disputes
✅ Summary
| Hosting Type | Built-in Backups? | Reliable Enough to Skip Manual Backups? |
|---|---|---|
| Shared/Basic Hosting | Sometimes | ❌ No |
| VPS/Cloud Hosting | Maybe | ❌ No |
| Managed WP Hosting | Yes (daily, offsite) | ✅ Yes, but own backups still wise |
🗂️ How Often Should You Back Up Your WordPress Site?
The ideal backup frequency depends entirely on how often your site’s content and data change. Use the following guidelines to determine the right schedule:
1. Static or Infrequently Updated Sites
- Examples: Personal portfolio, brochure site, small business site with no blog.
- Update Frequency: Rarely or monthly.
- Recommended Backup Schedule:
- Monthly backups may be sufficient.
- You can also back up after any major change (e.g., plugin update, theme change).
- Why?
- Minimal new content means a lower risk of losing important data.
2. Regularly Updated Blogs
- Examples: Blogs with weekly or daily posts.
- Update Frequency: Several times a week to daily.
- Recommended Backup Schedule:
- Daily backups are recommended.
- Use automated daily backups for convenience.
- Why?
- Losing even a day’s worth of new posts or user comments can hurt SEO and reader trust.
- Extra Tip:
- Don’t forget user-generated content, like comments. If readers are active, daily backups are important even if you only post weekly.
3. High-Traffic & User-Interactive Sites
- Examples:
- WooCommerce stores
- Forums
- Membership sites
- BuddyPress or community platforms
- Update Frequency: Constant (orders, messages, new users, etc.)
- Recommended Backup Schedule:
- Use real-time incremental backups.
- These back up your data instantly whenever changes occur.
- Why?
- Losing even a few minutes of data (like an order) could result in lost revenue or customer dissatisfaction.
4. Ask Yourself: “How much data can I afford to lose?”
- Key Question:
If I lost all the data from the past X days or hours, would it impact my site or business? - If X = one day:
→ Back up daily. - If X = one hour:
→ Use real-time backup.
5. Manual Backups for Major Changes
- Always back up before:
- Updating WordPress core
- Installing or updating plugins/themes
- Making any code changes
- Even if you have automatic backups, doing this gives you a quick restore point.
6. Use a Reliable Backup Solution
- Popular Plugins/Services:
- UpdraftPlus (manual or scheduled backups)
- Jetpack Backup (real-time backups)
- BlogVault (real-time + offsite storage)
- ManageWP (dashboard backups for multiple sites)
- Ensure backups are stored offsite (not on your server) — e.g., Google Drive, Dropbox, or cloud storage.
WordPress Backup Files vs Database
There are two parts to backing up your WordPress site:
- WordPress files
- WordPress database
Your site’s files are files such as:
- Theme/plugin files
- Image/media uploads in the wp-content/uploads folders
Your site’s database contains your actual content, such as:
- Blog post content
- Page content
- Elementor designs
- Comments
- Form submissions (if you store form submissions so that you can view them in your dashboard)
- Settings
When you back up your site, you need to back up both your files and your database.
However, depending on how your site works, you might not necessarily want/need to back up both parts with the same frequency.
Because of that, the backup plugins that we’ll discuss below let you choose to back up specific parts of your site (e.g. just your database).
✅ Conclusion: Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late
- Backing up your WordPress site isn’t optional — it’s a must-do for anyone who values their content.
- Whether you run a small blog or a large eCommerce store, having regular backups gives you peace of mind.
- Don’t rely solely on your host. Take control with a reliable backup plugin and schedule.
- Use the right frequency:
- Monthly for static sites
- Daily for blogs
- Real-time for dynamic stores or communities
- Store backups in multiple locations (e.g., cloud + local) for maximum safety.
- The time you spend setting this up now can save you days (or weeks) of stress in the future.
👉 Take action today — install a backup plugin, set a schedule, and rest easy knowing your site is protected.
