The first rule of technology is: always have a backup. This applies to servers, computers, external drives and especially websites. No matter how careful you are, websites are still vulnerable to attack, servers still crash and hard drives die. It used to be that backing up was either very time & labor intensive or very expensive. That is not the case anymore. There are lots of easy backup options out there and for a WordPress backup, there are many quality solutions.

Personally I use BackupBuddy [affiliate link] from iThemes for my WordPress backups. Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge fan of all the free functionality available for WordPress sites, but when it comes to a backup solution, I think it is worth every cent to have one that lets me sleep soundly at night. Here are the reasons I parted with my money and bought Backup Buddy:

Simple off-site storage

If things really go south, it doesn’t matter that you had a backup if it was stored on your hosting account. BackupBuddy has its own cloud storage or you can ship your precious WordPress backups off to other cloud storage providers like Amazon S3 or Dropbox. Just set it up and it will do the rest. You can also choose how many backups to keep off-site, so you always have control of how much storage you are using for your backups.

Easy Scheduling

sometimes getting backups to run automatically can be complex and confusing. Backup Buddy has suggested schedules you can implement with one click, or feel free to customize your own using their friendly interface. You can also set up email notification to ensure you know that your WordPress backups are running as scheduled.

5-minute Restore

Sure, it sounds like the same claim every other backup solution makes, but I’ve actually done it. With a full site backup and one other file, an entire site can be back up and running from scratch in literally 5 minutes (maybe slightly longer if your site is HUGE). No manual WordPress install, no database creation, just upload 2 files and follow the wizard.

Site portability

(a.k.a. Magic Migration) Because of the easy full-site restore, this functionality can also be used to move your entire site. Moving to another host or just changing the location of your site becomes as easy as moving two files and pushing a button.

All this great functionality does come at a price. BackupBuddy [affiliate link] is $80 for up to 2 sites. In my opinion, well worth the money.

Your turn, what do you use to backup your website? Or… do you?