CentrioHost Blog

From recovering your website data after a breach to simply giving yourself peace of mind while growing your business, WordPress backups are essential in the security game. You have several options for logging backups and restoring the files if something goes wrong.

The first is choosing a hosting company that completes automated backups for you. The other is looking through some of the best WordPress backup plugins and deciding on the one that works for you. Or in some scenarios, you might want to use a combination of both.

In this article, we’ll outline both methods and go through the reasons you might choose each. In addition, we’ll expand on some of our favorite WordPress backup plugins and why you must go with a tool that offers incremental backups (hint: it’s for performance purposes).

What Do You Need for Backing Up Your WordPress Website?

A basic WordPress backup stores your website files and MySQL database in a separate location for you to restore later on. This means that if your site crashes, is attacked, modified, or damaged in any way, you’re able to check back on the list of backups and restore the site to its original state–or one of the most recent versions.

WordPress backup plugins have begun getting more user-friendly and advanced, adding more features and providing interfaces for users to easily make their backups and protect the files in the process. In addition, all site owners want a simple way to restore the files, so that has been a focus as well.

When you’re looking through the best WordPress backup plugins (or hosts that offer backup tools) which features should you keep an eye on?

• Automated backups – Website owners shouldn’t have to worry about creating their own backups on a consistent basis. In fact, if a manual backup was the only way to do it, most companies would forget and never complete any backups
• Storage in multiple locations – Backups are often stored on separate servers so that the files don’t get jeopardized if your site server has problems. Ideally, the more locations you have the better. Physical backups on your own devices are a good start. But you also want to know if your backup plugin or host is storing the files in the cloud or on other servers. A big part of this is access to your files as well.
• Incremental backups – An incremental website backup is when the system only creates a backup when the site files and database tables have been changed. The reason for this is to improve your site performance and avoid dozens of unnecessary backup files on your server. Therefore, it’s best when your backup plugin scans that most recent file and skips the next backup if nothing has changed.
• Manual backup options – Although automated backups are essential, manual backups should still be optional. This way, you can store your files if you notice a threat yourself. Or, you may want to complete a download of your own hard drive. This could be with your host, a plugin, or even creating a manual backup by downloading your files via SFTP and exporting your MySQL database via phpMyAdmin.
• Settings for more specific backup scheduling – Some backup programs only allow for monthly or weekly backups. This is a wonderful start, but we’d prefer to see settings for more specific scheduling. For instance, your company might want to complete an hourly or daily backup. This is especially important for highly dynamic sites such as WooCommerce or membership sites.
• Disaster recovery – What about a backup of your backups? Make sure your host or backup plugin company has a disaster recovery plan for retrieving your files in case something bad happens to on their end. The last thing you want to happen is your site encounters an issue and your backup solution has problems.
• Downloadable backups – As mentioned earlier, it’s wise to store backups in several locations. You may prefer having an extra backup on a hard drive in your office or home. For this, downloadable backups are required.
• A clean dashboard and simple interface for finding and managing backups – What’s the point of having your site backed up if the management and restore interfaces are too complicated? Most of the time if you need to restore a backup, it’s because of a time sensitive matter. We like to see a clean dashboard with instant buttons for restorations, deletions, and downloads. Once again, managed WordPress hosting helps with this.

Best WordPress Backup Plugins for Incremental Backups in 2019

As a reminder, incremental backups are the preferred way to obtain backups without losing disk space and site performance. You’ll find many positively reviewed plugins on the market, but we’re only recommending four of them, since they are the primary options that offer that coveted incremental backup feature.

• VaultPress
• WP Time Capsule
• ManageWP
• BlogVault

Now it’s time to dive into their features.

1. VaultPress

The VaultPress plugin is one of the more popular and powerful WordPress backup plugins, focusing on a wide range of threats such as hackers, host failures, and malware. VaultPress is part of the Jetpack plugin, so you’re able to take advantage of several other tools in one package. For instance, Jetpack provides design tools, security measures, and even social media items.

The reason Jetpack is so appealing is because you’re not forced to install a myriad of other plugins. So, hopefully, you can stick with the one plugin to minimize the number of plugins weighing down your website. However, the opposite could also be said in terms of performance if you don’t need everything it offers.

VaultPress and the Jetpack package starts at just $39 per year. In terms of the backup features, you’re provided with automated daily backups and a 30-day backup archive. This is considered the Personal plan, but you can also upgrade to the Business plan for $90 per year. The backups are then improved so that you have an unlimited amount of storage. There’s even a Professional plan for $299. It provides an unlimited backup archive in addition to the other backup features.

Site migrations and one-click automated site restores also come with the VaultPress backup Personal plan, ensuring that you’re easily able to get your site back up and running after something happens. Overall, Jetpack is an excellent deal, especially for those who run their own web design businesses with numerous clients. You’re able to maintain several types of features by only installing one plugin, and the backup tools are incremental and paired with many other security and backup features.

Why is This One of the Best WordPress Backup Plugins?

• VaultPress has incremental backups and a backup archive for you to check in and find the backups that will restore your website to a previous state.
• The plugin is integrated with the Jetpack plugin, giving you other marketing, social media, and security options.
• VaultPress starts at only $39 per year, so you’re in a situation where you receive lots of features for a fraction of the price of most premium plugins.
• This yearly payment also means that priority support is provided by WordPress professionals.
• Besides backups, VaultPress includes several security measures such as uptime monitoring and brute force attack protection.
• The automated daily backups and easy site restorations are sure to make it easier for all webmasters. This way, you don’t have to do anything manually, and if your site goes down you can either talk to the WordPress support team for h