The thought of spending months or even years of your life building your site, only to see it all get wiped out in a matter of minutes due to a server crash, malware attack, or some sort of accidental deletion would be a nightmare. It’s the stuff that keeps webmasters awake at night, yet, contrary to what you may think, it does happen.
Irrespective of whether you are running a small blog, eShop, or business portfolio, one thing is for sure – regular backups of your website are not an option but a necessity. If you do it all yourself, any technical mistake or cyberattack can destroy your content, customer information, and years of work.
In the post that follows, we’ll also examine why it’s so essential to regularly back up your website and how you can automate the process to ensure you have peace of mind and a level of ongoing coverage.
The Real Price of No Backups
Unfortunately, most website owners don’t take the threats very seriously until it is too late. Without backups, you may face:
Data Loss
A minor plugin incompatibility or file corruption can bring down your entire site. And if you don’t have a backup, you may be starting entirely from scratch.
Extended Downtime
There is a saying that time is money, and nowhere is this more true than for online stores and service-based businesses.
SEO Damage
If your site crashes and isn’t backed up for a month or gets infected with malware, search engines may remove it from the index, and your organic rankings are history.
Security Risks
Hackers target outdated, unprotected websites. You can clean the malware, but to roll back your site to a clean state, you will need a clean website backup.
In other words, if you’re not backing up your website regularly, then you’re walking on a tight rope without a safety net.
What is Included in a Website Backup?
A good backup is not just about saving your posts and images—it’s about saving everything that might be needed to restore your site in full:
Website Files: This consists of your theme files, plugins, media uploads, and any core WordPress files (if any).
Database: Stores critical information like blog entries, comments, network user accounts, orders, and preferences.
Configuration Files – These determine how your website communicates with the server.
Custom Code or Scripts: (Add all custom changes done manually)
Note: You have to backup any customisation which you made manually.
If any one of these is absent from your backup, a complete recovery won’t happen.
How Often Should You Back Up?
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. The amount of times you backup should coincide with the frequency at which your site changes.
- Static Websites (seldom updated): You can rely on a weekly or bi-weekly backup.
- Blogs or Content Sites (updated regularly): You should shoot for daily backups.
- eCommerce Stores (high volume of transactions): End-of-day or hourly backups should be done.
- Membership Sites or Forums: Also do not forget high-frequency backups because you have a lot of user activity happening.
It’s also a good idea to have backups saved in multiple versions in case one is corrupt or incomplete.
Manual vs. Automated Backups
Manual backups offer the most control, but they’re also time-consuming and susceptible to human error and forgetfulness. Which is why automated backups are 2025’s gold standard. They help with consistency, with saving time, and with keeping the stress down — especially in anticipation of the unexpected emergency.
With automation, you can:
- Back up every day, week, month
- Remote file storage (cloud, FTP, or email)
- Receive updates on whether you succeed or fail at your backup.
- Recover at the press of a button if required
After you have installed BackupBuddy, just set it up to run automatic backups, and then just forget it; it will work forever, silently in the background, keeping your site safe while you sleep.
Best Backup Software to use in 2025
Below, I’ve gathered some of the best and reliable backup solutions for websites today:
UpdraftPlus
A popular WordPress backup plugin, this one comes with scheduled backups, cloud storage (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.), and one-click restores.
BlogVault
A pretty intense tool for agencies and big sites. Includes daily automatic backups, staging sites, real-time updates, and a simple one-click migration tool.
Jetpack VaultPress Backup
A service by Automattic (the folks who make WordPress.com), the kit enables real-time cloud backups and simple restores in minutes.
BackupBuddy
It’s been a long, long time since the plugin with full-featured, full-site backups, backups of just the database, and remote storage.
WP Time Capsule
The special part is that it works on incremental backups (it backs up only the changes, which saves storage and makes it faster).
If you don’t use WordPress, a lot of hosting companies provide off-site backups as part of their web hosting control panel, which means all you have to do is click a few buttons to get your site backed up.
Safe and Successful Backing Up the Right Way
But they are not infallible. So you take out protection. And that’s also where the tools come in. Some additional strategies to ensure your backups are really up to snuff:
1. Store Backups Remotely
Do not ever have a single backup on your host. Your backups go down with the server if the server fails. Leverage cloud storage, such as Google Drive, Amazon S3, or Dropbox.
2. Test Restorations Periodically
Having a backup is one thing — being able to restore from it correctly is another. Periodically test the restore and make sure the backups are complete and working.
3. Encrypt Sensitive Data
If your backups contain customer data or payment information in particular, you must encrypt your files before storage to satisfy privacy regulations.
4. Keep Multiple Backup Versions
Keep a few fallbacks up to date so it’s possible to roll back to a certain moment in time, especially when an issue/bug passes unnoticed for some days.
5. Monitor Backup Activity
Monitor when your backups succeed or fail using notifications or dashboard widgets, so you’re never left guessing.
Backups Are One Piece of a Larger Strategy
While backups are essential, they are only one part of a general site management strategy. Combine backups with:
- Strong website security
- Regular software updates
- Malware scanning
- Uptime monitoring
- Speed optimization
This is a whole site strategy that bears the added benefit that your site is not just recoverable but fast, safe, and always online.
Final Thoughts: Don’t Wait for the Disaster
The world of websites is not a matter of “if “something goes wrong, it’s about happening. You can have a plugin conflict, a hacking attempt, a hosting collapse, or even worse. But if your backups are automated, you’re always prepared. You can restore your site in just a few short minutes – not days or weeks – and without losing anything (content, customers, reputation – you name it).
Consider backups as digital insurance. You hope you’ll never use them — but if you have to, you’ll be very grateful they are available.
