Creating a WordPress backup: 5 secure methods

Regularly creating WordPress backups is part of the basis of a clean Website care. Because if errors occur on the website or your data is completely deleted, you can easily restore your WordPress website with a backup.

As WordPress hoster we create daily backups for all our customer websites and have already saved many websites in the process. Since our WPspace Team WordPress, we have also extensively tested other methods that we recommend to our customers and would like to introduce to you today.

After reading this article, you will know how to create and import automated and manual backups of your website. We'll also give you some important tips on what you should bear in mind when making backups!

Why should I create regular website backups?

You'll be glad to have a backup of your website if it is completely or partially corrupted for any reason. Unfortunately, it happens again and again that websites are corrupted. There can be various reasons for this:

• Updates of plugins, themes or WordPress core are incompatible with each other.
• Reinstallation of a plugin or theme that is not compatible.
• For WordPress Securityto avoid hacked websites due to a security vulnerability.

All these reasons can lead to functions being restricted or your website being corrupted. Depending on the situation, you can localize and fix the cause by troubleshooting. If you are unable to find the cause, you can import a backup and restore your website to the state it was in before the problem.

Creating a WordPress backup: 5 options

There are various ways to create a backup of your website. I will explain the individual methods in detail below, including the advantages and disadvantages.

In general, I recommend that you always create backups of your website in at least two ways. If one of the two backups is faulty, you have a second option that you can fall back on.

💡 Note: If you receive an error message when uploading your backup file, you probably need to change your Increase WordPress upload limit. 

WordPress backup in your WordPress hosting (beginner level)

One of our daily tasks as a WordPress hoster is the automatic creation of backups of all our customers' websites, regardless of size and chosen tariff. Complete backups of customer websites are created automatically once a day and made available to the customer for administration in the hosting interface.

💡 Note: Automatic updates by the hoster are not a matter of course! Pay attention to whether you have a Shared or managed WordPress hosting provider uses. Daily backups are usually included with managed WordPress hosting.

In addition to the automatic backups created by the WordPress host, you can configure your own backups with the following settings:

• Complete or incremental
• Cycle: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, etc.

Create WordPress backup at WPspace

How you can WPspace I will show you how to create your own backup in the following step-by-step instructions.

1. log in via this Login link in your WPspace customer account.
2. click on "Manage" and "Go to hosting control panel" under "Your active products / services" in the line of your hosting tariff

3. now you are in your hosting interface. Click on "Backup and restore".

4. now click on "Create backup"

5. now you can make the settings for your backup. If you want to create a complete backup of your website, I recommend selecting "Complete" instead of "Incremental" under "Type". The other settings can remain as in the standard settings.

6. confirm the creation of your backup and wait until the backup is complete. It will then appear in your overview.

💡 My tip: Download the backup using the green arrow on the right. Then save the backup either locally on your PC and/or in your cloud. This way you have a double backup.

Restore WordPress backup at WPspace

You can restore your own backup created in the hosting interface or a backup created by WPspace with just a few clicks. I'll show you how!

1. navigate to the overview of the backup manager of your hosting interface (if you don't know how, follow steps 1 to 3 of "Creating a WordPress backup at WPspace").
2. in the overview, click on the date of the backup you want to restore.
3. select "Websites" from the drop-down menu under "Type of object to be restored".
4. now click on the box next to your domain and click on the blue button "Select 1 object". After you have clicked on the button, your domain should be in the right-hand column.

5. click on Restore.

6. in the Backup Manager overview, you will now see a bar at the top that shows you the progress. As soon as the message "The restore of the backup Feb. 20, 2024 16:16:00 is complete." appears here, your backup has been successfully restored.

Advantages and disadvantages of backups with your hoster

👍 Advantages of WordPress backups via hoster:

• Automated:
  WPspace automatically creates a daily backup for customers. The backup is available to the customer around the clock in the hosting interface without any additional effort or costs.
• Simple, uncomplicated and fast:
  With just a few clicks, you can create a backup of your own website independently and without any prior technical knowledge. If you have any questions, you can get detailed Instructions in the Help Center and support are available.
• No plugin necessary:
  Each additional plugin on your website brings with it new security risks and loading time losses. No additional plugin is required for the path via the hoster.

👎 Disadvantages of WordPress backups via hosters:

• Can be cost-intensive:
  With most hosters, such as WPspace, backups created by the customer themselves use the booked memory of the hosting tariff. Since backups can be several GB in size, depending on the size of the website, they can quickly take up the "expensive" storage space of your website.

Using the WordPress backup plugin (beginner level)

A particularly easy way to create WordPress backups is with the help of a WordPress backup plugin. There are many different free (and paid) plugins that create backups of your website for you.

My favorite backup plugin is UpdraftPlus. According to the plugin repository, the plugin now has over 3 million active installations (as of March 2024) and an average 5-star rating with over 7,600 reviews.

UpdraftPlus offers you a wide range of functions even in the free version, allowing you to back up your site easily and regularly. With this range of functions, UpdraftPlus clearly stands out from other WordPress backup plugins, which offer much more limited functions.

Create a backup with the "UpdraftPlus" plugin

I'll explain step-by-step how you can easily create backups of your WordPress website with the UpdraftPlus plugin. You will then be able to create and restore backups yourself in the future.

1. WordPress Login:
Log in to your WordPress dashboard. Then navigate to "Plugins" > "Add new plugin".
2. WordPress Backup Plugin Installation:
Enter "UpdraftPlus" in the search box at the top right. Click on "Install now" and "Activate" in the plugin field.

3 UpdraftPlus Dashboard:
Navigate to the UpdraftPlus dashboard via "Settings" > "UpdraftPlus backups". Here you can create and download your backups.
4. create a backup:
To create a backup, click on the "Back up now" button. In the pop-up that has now opened, select the elements to be backed up.
💡 My tip: Select the database and your files for the backup.

The creation time depends on the size of your website and database. You can track the current status in the progress bar. As soon as the backup has been successfully created, you will be notified and the backup can be found under "Existing backups".

4. download and save the backup:
Your newly created backup file has now been saved in the file directory of your website on the server where your website is hosted. To be more precise, under httpdocs > wp-content > updraft.

You can now conveniently download the created backup files via the UpdraftPlus dashboard. Simply click on the various backup files (database, plugins, themes, uploads, other) and then on the "Download to your computer" button.

Advantages and disadvantages of backups created with WordPress plugins

👍Advantages of WordPress backups via plugin:

• Automated regular backups:
  The backup plugin can automatically create a backup of your website for you at regular intervals, for example weekly or monthly.
• Quick installation and configuration:
  You don't need any training to use the "UpdraftPlus" backup plugin. Installation, configuration and use are simple and intuitive.
• Free version is completely sufficient:
  The free basic version of the "UpdraftPlus" plugin provides normal WordPress users with sufficient functions. The paid version is therefore generally not necessary.

👎 Disadvantages of WordPress backups via plugin:

• High memory consumption:
  The backups are saved in your website's file manager. This uses up the storage space of your hosting plan.
• Additional plugin:
  Every additional plugin on your website brings with it security risks and performance losses. You should therefore install as few plugins as possible.

Create a manual WordPress backup (advanced level)

A manual backup means backing up your website's files and database manually. To do this, you access the server on which your website is hosted and save all relevant data. For this procedure, you need an FTP user, an FTP client tool and the free phpMyAdmin program.

To access the files on your website, you need an FTP user and an FTP client tool. With this combination, you can establish a connection to your website's data directory and access it.

You can normally create your FTP user directly with your hoster in your hosting interface. If you are a WPspace customer, you will find detailed instructions in our Help Center on how to create a Create and use FTP access can.

As an FTP program, I recommend the free FTP client tool "FileZilla". "FileZilla is the industry standard. We also work with FileZilla and are very satisfied! If you would like to look at alternatives to "FileZilla", I recommend the following tools:

• Solarwinds Serv-U File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Server 
• Cyberduck - Free FTP client tool (Mac)
• WinSCP - Free FTP client tool (Windows)

To save your database manually, I recommend the free tool phpMyAdmin. If you are a WPspace customer, you do not need to install the recommended tool, as it is already installed on the server for all WPspace customers and is available free of charge.

1. access files via FTP client:

Open your FTP client tool, probably FileZilla. Enter your FTP user data (server, user name, password and port) in the top bar.

2. save website data:

Once the connection has been successfully established, you will see your PC data on the left and your website data on the right.

You can now simply drag and drop the folder you want to back up into the target folder on your PC (left-hand side). The data is then automatically downloaded and saved locally in the selected storage location.

The duration of the process depends on the size of your website and your internet connection. It is therefore best to carry out the download with stable and fast Internet.

3. access the database via phpMyAdmin:

💡 Info in advance for WPspace customers: In your hosting interface, you can access phpMyAdmin directly under Database. This means you do not need to install the program or enter any user data. Start at the next step 4.

Now open phpMyAdmin to access your database. We also need to back this up manually.

As soon as you successfully access phpMyAdmin, you will see an overview that looks something like this:

4. save database:

To finalize your manual backup, you only need a backup of your database. Download this now.

First select your database in the left-hand column and then click on "Export" in the top menu bar.

Leave the export method at "Quick" and the format at "SQL". Then click on export. You are now downloading your website database as an sql file.

5. save a manual backup:

Make sure that you back up your website data (from steps 1 and 2) together with your database (steps 3 and 4) in one place.

The combination is a complete manual backup. If you want to restore a backup, you will need the data and the database.

👍Advantages of manual WordPress backups:

• No plugin necessary:
  You don't need to install another plugin to create it, which can entail security risks.
• Individual data backup:
  You can fully decide where and which data of your website is backed up.

👎 Disadvantages of manual WordPress backups:

• High manual effort:
  Compared to the other options presented for creating a WordPress backup, you need to plan significantly more time for the manual option.
• Basic technical understanding required:
  To create a manual backup of your website, a certain basic understanding of hosting, servers and FTP is an advantage.
• No automation:
  As the name suggests, this is a manual backup. This means that the backup is created manually and not automatically. This means that you cannot schedule backups on a weekly basis, but always have to spend time on them yourself.

Book service provider for backups (beginner level)

If you don't want to take full responsibility for backing up your website yourself, you can also commission service providers. These service providers create backups for you and then make them available to you in encrypted form in a cloud. Well-known service providers include

• Jetpack VaultPress Backup
• BlogVault
• Solid Backups (formerly BackupBuddy)

The prices for the providers listed range between USD 99 and USD 149. The cheapest provider (excluding discounts) is "SolidBackups".

The frequency of your backups and how long backups are kept for you depends on your chosen plan. Some providers keep the backups "forever" for you.

👍Advantages of backups via service providers

• Encrypted backup in a cloud:
  Your backup is encrypted and stored in a cloud. This protects your backup from attacks and you can access your backup in the cloud from anywhere.
• No technical know-how required:
  The service provider takes care of the entire creation, encryption and protection of the backup for you. So you don't need any technical know-how.

👎 Disadvantages of backups via service providers

• Expensive:
  There are many free options for creating backups, but these backup services are very expensive in comparison.

WordPress exporter for individual posts

The WordPress Exporter is a tool that is available by default in every WordPress instance. You can find it under "Tools" > "Export".

With the WordPress Exporter, you don't create a complete WordPress backup of your website, but you can also back up comments, categories and keywords in addition to posts and pages.

1. Export contributions:

First, log in to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to "Tools" > "Export". Select the type of content you want to back up, for example posts or pages. Here you can filter even more precisely by categories, authors, publication date and status. Then click on the "Download export file" button.

Then download an XML file. Save this locally on your PC so that you can import it again later.

1. Import contributions:

If you want to re-import a file exported using WordPress Exporter, you can do this under "Tools" > "Import data".

If the import is not yet installed on your website, you can install it natively here. Simply click on "Install now".

Once you have successfully installed the importer, click on "Run importer". Then click on the "Select file" button and upload the XML file that you exported in advance.

Backup plugins for WordPress

In addition to the "UpdraftPlus" plugin already mentioned, there are other WordPress backup plugins. Based on experience, I can also recommend the following plugins for your website:

• BackWPup
• WP Staging
• BackUpWordPress
• BackUpBuddy

Due to the disadvantages of WordPress backup plugins, I recommend that you only use one plugin to create backups. As a second method, use another option from the blog post.

What you should bear in mind with WordPress backups

Backups are very important, especially in emergencies, in order to be able to restore your website. To ensure that you have clean backups that will really help you in an emergency, we have collected some recommendations for you.

Regularity:
Don't just keep your website up to date, but also create regular backups of your website. If you need to restore a backup and you only have an outdated backup, you will be very annoyed!

Completeness:
Create complete backups of your website (all data + database)! If you only have a backup of one part, you will not be able to completely restore the old status.

Multiple storage locations:
Save your backups in different storage locations so that you have a backup of your backup in case of an emergency. We recommend at least two different storage locations.

Sorting:
Sort your backups and use standardized names. This way, you always know directly which backup was created when for which project. For example, name the backups: Backup_ProjectA_Date

Fuse:
Encrypt your backup files additionally or store them in a ZIP folder. This also protects the data from unauthorized access.

Testing:
Carry out regular tests of your existing backups. This is the only way to ensure that your backups will work in an emergency. You can use a dev environment for this.

Frequently asked questions about WordPress backups

Conclusion on WordPress backups

WordPress backups can restore the status of your website in an emergency. With just two clicks, you can ideally import a backup. Visitors can then access your website again as usual.

There are various ways to create a WordPress backup: Via the WordPress hosting interface, with a WordPress plugin, manually via FTP and phpMyAdmin or you can hire a service provider.

We recommend that you create backups in two different ways. If one of the two backups is damaged, you have an alternative file. A managed WordPress host creates backups for you every day by default and stores them for you for a minimum of 7 days. You can also use the free WordPress plugin Updraft, for example.

When creating and backing up your backups, ensure that they are regular, complete, cleanly named and stored in at least two different locations.

If you follow the instructions and our tips in the guide, you will always have an up-to-date, complete and secure backup file of your WordPress website.