WordPress backup: complete guide 2026
How to really do backups, what to include, how often, how to restore when needed.
A WordPress backup is simple to do if you know what to include. Most sites have backups that don't work when needed. Plugins that say 'automatic backup' without telling you they never test the restore. Here you'll find how to do the right backup and how to verify it actually works.
What a WordPress backup must include
A complete backup has two parts. The files: everything in wp-content (themes, plugins, uploads), the wp-config.php file with credentials, the .htaccess file with server rules. The database: all WordPress tables, from content to settings, from WooCommerce options to form data. If either is missing, the restore isn't complete. Many plugins only do one of the two. Files without a database aren't much use, the database without files gives you an empty site with structure but no themes or plugins.
How often to do backups
It depends on how much the site changes. A static WordPress site that doesn't change content for weeks: once a week is enough. A blog with daily articles: daily backup. A WooCommerce with orders every hour: database backup every 12 hours, weekly full backup. The rule: the backup must be older than the data you can't afford to lose. If a customer orders at 10am and the nightly backup is at 3am, you've lost 7 hours of orders. You decide if that's acceptable.
Backup plugins: pros and cons
UpdraftPlus is the most used. Free version does what's needed: full backups, restore, storage on Google Drive, Dropbox, S3. Premium adds incremental backups and support. Duplicator creates a complete package for migration, less convenient for regular backups. WPvivid has a good interface and works without complicated setup. If you need extra reliability for business sites, WP Staging (paid, a few euros/month) is what I use: it copies the site to an internal staging environment, does full backups with one-click restore, and most importantly lets you test every update before pushing to production. It's not just a backup plugin, it's a system: backup, staging, migration all under one roof. The problem with free plugins: they work until they don't. If the plugin has a conflict with something else, if an update breaks something, if the backup file exceeds a server limit, the backup stops coming out and you don't notice until it's needed.
Hosting-side backup: what to ask
Most professional hosts do automatic backups. SiteGround, Kinsta, WP Engine do daily backups with 30 days of history. Ask your hosting if backups exist, how frequent they are, how long they're kept, and if you can restore them yourself without calling them. The problem with hosting backups: they're automated, nobody manages them. If your site's plugin has an error and the database gets corrupted, the next day's backup contains the same corrupted database. Having a database backup before every manual intervention is what's almost always missing.
Where to save backups
Never on the server itself. If the server goes down or gets hacked, you lose the site and the backup together. Solutions: Google Drive (15GB free), Dropbox (2GB free), Amazon S3 (a few cents per month per GB), your own external hard drive with sync. UpdraftPlus lets you send backups wherever you want. If you have multiple sites to manage, S3 with a storage lifecycle works well: old backups automatically move to a cheaper tier.
How to test that the backup works
An untested backup is a backup that doesn't exist. The right way: restore the backup to a staging environment, verify the site works, check that all data is there. Do it at least once every 3 months. WP Staging makes this step trivial: it creates an identical copy of the site (database + files) on an internal subdomain, lets you update plugins and theme on the copy without touching the live site, and with one click you push everything to production if it went well. It's the cleanest way I know to sleep soundly after a critical update. Backup plugins have a 'test restore' function but it only works with backups managed by the same plugin: if you use UpdraftPlus for backup, test restore works. If you switch plugins, the old backup often won't import to the new one.
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