Most bloggers don’t think about backups until something goes wrong. By then it’s too late. A bad plugin update, a hack, a botched migration, a host going dark — any of these can take a blog out instantly. The bloggers who recover are the ones who set up backups properly before disaster, not after.

This post is the no-nonsense version of how to do that.

Short answer: Back up your full site (files + database) on a schedule, store copies off-site (not just on your host), test the restore at least once, and don’t rely solely on your host’s backups. Three places is the minimum: live site, host backup, external storage.
Diagram of a WordPress backup flow showing site, host backup, and offsite storage

What a WordPress backup actually contains

A full WordPress backup has two parts:

  • Files. Themes, plugins, uploaded media, custom code. These live in /wp-content/ and a few core directories.
  • Database. Posts, pages, comments, users, settings, every piece of content. This lives in MySQL.

A backup that’s only files (or only database) is half a backup. You need both. Most backup plugins handle this automatically.

The three-place rule

Backups follow the same rule as any important data: three copies, two media, one off-site. Applied to a blog:

  1. The live site. The current version.
  2. A backup on your host. Most reputable hosts run daily backups automatically.
  3. A backup off your host. Cloud storage like Dropbox, Google Drive, or an S3 bucket.

The third one is the critical one. If your host goes down, has a data center fire, gets hacked, or kicks you off, the on-host backup is gone too. Off-site storage is what saves you.

How often to back up

It depends on how often you change things:

  • Active blog (multiple posts per week): daily backups.
  • Moderate (1-2 posts per week): daily or every 2-3 days.
  • Slow (a few posts per month): weekly.
  • Before any major change: manual backup. Theme switch, plugin update, WordPress core update, migration. Always.

Retention: keep at least 30 days of backups. Some problems aren’t noticed for weeks. A backup from yesterday isn’t useful if yesterday’s site was already broken.

The tools

UpdraftPlus (free, with premium upgrade)

The most popular WordPress backup plugin. Free version backs up to Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, and several other destinations. Premium adds incremental backups and more destinations.

Set it up once, schedule daily backups to off-site storage, forget about it. The standard recommendation for most bloggers.

Solid Backups (formerly BackupBuddy)

Premium. More features. Easier restore process. Worth the cost if backups are critical and you’ve never set one up before.

WPVivid (free, with premium upgrade)

Free version is more generous than UpdraftPlus. Good alternative.

Your host’s backup system

Most reputable hosts (SiteGround, Kinsta, WP Engine, Cloudways, etc.) back up your site automatically. This is the second layer of safety. Don’t rely on it as your only layer.

Manual export

WordPress has a built-in export tool at Tools → Export. It exports posts, pages, and comments as XML. Useful as a quick “just in case” measure but not a real backup — it doesn’t include your theme, plugins, uploads, or settings.

WordPress backup plugin settings showing schedule, destination, and retention configuration

Where to store off-site backups

Several reasonable options:

  • Google Drive. Free up to 15 GB. Easy to set up.
  • Dropbox. Free up to 2 GB. More if you pay.
  • Amazon S3. Pay-as-you-go. Costs maybe $1-3/month for most blogs.
  • Backblaze B2. Cheaper than S3. Good for backups.
  • Microsoft OneDrive. Works similarly to Drive.

Use whichever you already use. The technical differences don’t matter for blog backups. The “off your host’s infrastructure” part matters.

The restore test

This is the part most bloggers skip and the one that matters most: a backup you’ve never restored isn’t a backup, it’s a hope.

At least once a year, do this:

  1. Sign up for a staging environment (most managed hosts include one) or spin up a free local WordPress install.
  2. Download your latest backup.
  3. Restore it onto the test environment.
  4. Check that it works.

If anything fails, fix the backup setup. Better to find the problem now than during an actual crisis.

What can break a backup

Common failure modes:

  • Backup ran out of disk space. Files got too large for the storage destination.
  • Authentication expired. Your plugin’s connection to Google Drive or Dropbox stopped working.
  • Backup is corrupted. Sometimes happens. Restore test catches this.
  • Backup is incomplete. Skipped a folder, missed a database table.
  • You forgot you turned it off. Some bloggers disable backups during a major change and never re-enable them.

Most of these are caught by basic monitoring. Set up your backup plugin to email you on failure.

What about full hosting backup services?

Services like BlogVault or VaultPress (now part of Jetpack) run backups outside your site entirely. They poll your blog, copy changes, and store them on their infrastructure. The advantage is they don’t share fate with your site — if your blog is hacked or down, the backup service is unaffected.

Worth considering if your blog is monetized seriously. For most blogs, a backup plugin to off-site storage is enough.

Backup before any major change

Always take a manual backup before:

  • WordPress core updates (especially major versions).
  • Theme switches.
  • Plugin updates, especially security or e-commerce plugins.
  • Database optimizations.
  • Migrations to a new host.
  • Major content imports or bulk edits.

The 5 minutes to take a fresh backup are nothing. The hours (or days) to recover without one are real.

The short version

Back up your full site (files + database) daily, store copies off your host, keep 30 days of history, test the restore at least once a year, and take a manual backup before any major change. Don’t rely on your host’s backups as your only protection. Set this up once, monitor it, and forget about it until you need it. The day you need it is the day you’ll be glad you did.