Hours of work can disappear in seconds: a bad plugin update, a hacked site, or a file deleted by mistake. A backup plugin gives you your own copies of each site, stored somewhere you control.
LaunchCDN’s Backups: A Safety Net, Not Your Only Copy
Every LaunchCDN account is backed up automatically, and we keep 21 days of backups. You can browse and restore files, databases or a whole site yourself from DirectAdmin. Here’s how backups and restores work.
Our backups are provided on a best-effort basis. They’re there to get you out of trouble, but they aren’t guaranteed and only go back three weeks. Always keep your own backups as well, stored away from the server, so you always have a copy that doesn’t depend on us. A backup plugin is the easiest way to do that.
What to Look For in a Backup Plugin
- Scheduled backups that run without you remembering to click a button
- Off-site storage such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3 or the plugin’s own cloud
- Easy restores from inside WordPress
- Migration or cloning, if you move sites between hosts
- Pricing that scales across a network of sites
UpdraftPlus
UpdraftPlus is the most widely used backup plugin for WordPress, with millions of active installs and a genuinely useful free version. The free plugin schedules backups of your files and database, sends them to remote storage such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3 or (S)FTP, and restores them in a few clicks.
UpdraftPlus Premium adds incremental backups, more storage destinations, multisite support, site migration and cloning, and its own UpdraftVault cloud storage.
Best for: most sites, and the best free option. Learn more about UpdraftPlus.
Solid Backups (formerly BackupBuddy)
BackupBuddy, one of the oldest WordPress backup plugins, is now sold as Solid Backups by SolidWP. It’s a paid plugin that backs up your full site, database or files on a schedule, sends backups to destinations including Amazon S3, Google Drive and Dropbox, and includes tools to restore or move a site.
Best for: anyone who wants a paid, all-in-one plugin with migration tools built in.
Jetpack VaultPress Backup
VaultPress is now part of Jetpack as Jetpack VaultPress Backup. It’s a paid service that stores backups in Jetpack’s own cloud, so there’s no storage to set up, and offers one-click restores and an activity log. Higher plans back up in real time as you make changes.
One thing for PBN owners to watch: Jetpack connects each site to a WordPress.com account, so running many sites under one account links them together in Automattic’s records.
Best for: money sites where you want hands-off backups with nothing to manage.
BackWPup
BackWPup is a long-running free plugin with a paid Pro version. The free version schedules backups of your files and database to common destinations such as Dropbox, Amazon S3, FTP or email. Pro adds more storage options and features such as restoring from inside WordPress.
Best for: simple scheduled backups on a budget.
Avoid Backup Footprints on a PBN
Sending every site in your network to the same cloud account, the same Dropbox folder, or one license key can tie your sites together in that provider’s records. Use separate storage destinations or accounts for groups of sites, just as you would with analytics.
Our Recommendation
Start with the free version of UpdraftPlus, scheduled to send backups to off-site storage, and upgrade to Premium if you want incremental backups or migrations. Together with LaunchCDN’s 21-day backups, you’ll have two independent ways back if something goes wrong.
