Because Losing Everything Isn’t an Option
You’ve done a lot of work to build your site. Now it’s time to protect it.
Websites get hacked. Plugins break things. Hosts go down. People accidentally delete stuff. That’s why every real website needs a simple, reliable backup system.
With backups in place, you can recover your entire site in minutes — instead of starting from scratch and losing everything.
This step is easy to set up and will save you countless hours and headaches down the road.
What Does a Backup Include?
A proper backup includes:
- All your pages and posts
- Your theme settings and customizations
- Your plugins and plugin settings
- Your media files (images, video, audio)
- Your WordPress database
This way, if anything ever goes wrong — even if your host disappears — you can restore your full site on another server if needed.
Best Backup Plugins (All Free or Freemium)
UpdraftPlus
One of the most popular and beginner-friendly backup tools. Lets you schedule backups and store them off-site (Google Drive, Dropbox, email, etc.)
WPVivid Backup
Another strong option with both free and pro versions. Great if you want to clone or migrate your site later.
BackWPup
Simple and reliable. Offers a wide range of storage options and scheduling tools.
As I said in an earlier post, only install official plugins from within your WordPress system. Manually downloading plugins from third-party sites may leave your site vulnerable to hacks and exploits.
How to Set It Up
- Log in to WordPress
- Go to Plugins > Add New
- Search for UpdraftPlus, WPVivid, or BackWPup, or simply search “backup”
- Once you’ve decided on a plugin click Install Now, then Activate
- Follow the respective setup wizard to choose your storage location and backup schedule
Most plugins will let you choose between daily, weekly, or manual backups.
If your site changes often (like daily blog posts or product updates), set it to daily.
If you rarely make changes, weekly or even monthly is fine.
Where Should You Store Backups?
Always store at least one backup off your hosting server. That way, if your host fails, your backup is still safe. I learned this the hard way. A host went out of business, the server went offline, and my backups that were stored on their system instead of to my hard drive became unavailable to me. Not good. Store your backups online and offline. Yes, both.
Good off-site options include:
- Google Drive
- Dropbox
- Email (if file size is small)
- Amazon S3 or other cloud storage
Pro Tip: Keep Multiple Copies
Store 2–3 older backups just in case something goes wrong during an update.
Sometimes you won’t notice an issue right away — having multiple restore points gives you flexibility.
What’s Next?
With your site fully backed up, you’re now ready to set up your domain email and learn how to send and receive professional messages from you@yourdomain.com.
👉 Step 12: Set Up Professional Email Using HostGator’s Built-In Tools