How to Back Up Your Website: Complete Guide (2026)

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Photo by Brett Sayles — Pexels

I lost a website once. Not to a hack — to my own stupidity. I was testing a plugin, it broke the database, and my host's most recent backup was 9 days old. Nine days of blog posts, design changes, and new pages — gone. That was seven years ago, and I still haven't forgiven myself for not having my own backup system in place.

Don't be me. Setting up proper website backups takes about 10 minutes and costs nothing. Here's exactly how to do it, whether you're on WordPress, a static site, or any other platform.

Why Your Host's Backups Aren't Enough

Most hosting providers include some form of backup. But relying solely on your host is risky for several reasons:

• Infrequent backups. Budget shared hosts typically back up weekly. A lot can change in 7 days
• No guarantee. Many hosts' Terms of Service explicitly state backups are "best effort" and not guaranteed
• Limited retention. Some hosts only keep the most recent backup. If you discover a problem on Tuesday but the backup overwrites every Sunday, you've got one shot
• Restoration might cost money. Some hosts charge $25-50 to restore from their backup. Others make you do it yourself through cPanel
• If the host has a catastrophic failure, your backups go down too. Server fires, data center outages — rare but real. If your only backup is on the same server as your site, that's not a backup

The golden rule of backups: 3-2-1. Three copies of your data, on two different types of storage, with one stored offsite. Your hosting server is copy #1. Your backup should be somewhere completely separate.

Method 1: WordPress Backup Plugins (Easiest)

If you're running WordPress — and roughly 43% of all websites do — plugins make backups dead simple.

UpdraftPlus (Free)

This is what I use on every WordPress site I manage. The free version does everything most people need:

• Scheduled automatic backups (daily, weekly, monthly)
• Backs up to Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, or email
• One-click restore directly from the WordPress dashboard
• Backs up both files and database separately
• Can exclude large folders (like uploads) from every backup to save space

Setup takes 5 minutes:

1. Install UpdraftPlus from the WordPress plugin repository
2. Go to Settings → UpdraftPlus Backups
3. Set file backup schedule: Weekly
4. Set database backup schedule: Daily (databases change more frequently)
5. Choose Google Drive or Dropbox as your storage location
6. Authenticate with your Google/Dropbox account
7. Click "Save Changes"

That's it. Your site now backs up automatically. I set database backups to daily because content changes (new posts, comments, settings) live in the database. File backups can be weekly since themes and plugins don't change as often.

Other WordPress Backup Options

• BlogVault ($7.40/month) — real-time backups, off-site storage, one-click staging. Overkill for a small blog, great for business sites
• Jetpack Backup ($5/month) — daily backups with 30-day archive, integrated with Jetpack's other tools
• All-in-One WP Migration (free) — not technically a backup plugin, but excellent for creating full site exports you can restore anywhere

Method 2: cPanel Backup (Works with Any CMS)

Photo by Sora Shimazaki — Pexels

If your host provides cPanel — and most shared hosts do, including InterServer and Hosting.com's cPanel plans — you can create manual backups regardless of what CMS (or no CMS) you're using.

Full account backup:

1. Log into cPanel
2. Find "Backup" or "Backup Wizard" in the Files section
3. Click "Download a Full Account Backup"
4. Choose destination (Home Directory is fine)
5. Click "Generate Backup"
6. Download the resulting .tar.gz file to your local computer

This captures everything: files, databases, email configurations, cron jobs, DNS settings. It's the most complete backup you can get.

Partial backups: You can also download individual components — just the home directory (files), individual databases, or email forwarders. Useful if you only need to restore one piece.

For more on what cPanel can do, our cPanel hosting guide covers the full feature set.

Method 3: Manual FTP + Database Export (Most Control)

For developers or anyone who wants full control, the manual approach works with any hosting setup:

Files: FTP download

1. Connect to your server via FTP (FileZilla is free and solid)
2. Navigate to your website's root directory (usually public_html)
3. Select all files and download to a local folder
4. Store in a dated folder: backup-2026-03-26/

Database: phpMyAdmin export

1. Log into cPanel → phpMyAdmin
2. Select your database
3. Click "Export"
4. Choose "Quick" method, SQL format
5. Click "Export" — it downloads a .sql file
6. Store alongside your file backup

This method gives you the most portable backup. You can restore it on any server, any host, anywhere. The downside? It's manual. Unless you script it (which is very doable with cron jobs and bash scripts), you have to remember to do it regularly.

What to Back Up: The Checklist

Component	What It Contains	How Often to Back Up	Priority
Database	Content, settings, users, comments	Daily	Critical
wp-content/uploads	Images, PDFs, media files	Weekly	High
wp-content/themes	Theme files, customizations	After changes	Medium
wp-content/plugins	Plugin files	After changes	Low (re-installable)
.htaccess / wp-config.php	Server config, DB credentials	After changes	Critical
Email accounts	Email data, forwarders	Weekly	Medium

The database is the most important piece. Without it, your content is gone — and content is what takes the most time to recreate. Plugin files can be re-downloaded. Theme files can be re-installed (though custom modifications need their own backup). But 200 blog posts with custom formatting? You can't re-download those.

Where to Store Your Backups

Best free options:

• Google Drive (15 GB free) — enough for most small sites. UpdraftPlus connects directly
• Dropbox (2 GB free) — smaller but reliable. Easy integration with backup plugins
• Local hard drive — download backups to your computer. Free, but if your house floods, so do your backups

Best paid options for serious sites:

• Amazon S3 ($0.023/GB/month) — incredibly reliable, industry standard for offsite storage
• Backblaze B2 ($0.006/GB/month) — cheaper than S3, solid alternative

For a small WordPress blog, Google Drive is more than enough. A typical backup (database + files) for a site with a few hundred posts runs about 500 MB - 2 GB. Google's 15 GB free tier stores multiple backup versions easily.

How Often Should You Back Up?

Depends on how often your site changes:

• Daily blog publishers: Database daily, files weekly
• Weekly updaters: Full backup weekly
• Static business sites: Monthly is fine, plus after any changes
• E-commerce stores: Database daily (orders, customers), files weekly

And always — ALWAYS — back up before making changes. About to update WordPress core? Back up first. Installing a new plugin? Back up first. Changing themes? Back up first. This takes 2 minutes with UpdraftPlus and has saved me more times than I can count.

Testing Your Backups (Don't Skip This)

A backup you've never tested is a backup you can't trust. At least once, go through the full restore process:

1. Set up a fresh WordPress install on a subdomain or local environment
2. Import your database backup
3. Upload your file backup
4. Verify everything works — pages load, images show, forms submit

If you're on shared hosting with Hosting.com or InterServer, you can create a test subdomain for free to practice restores. It's worth the 20 minutes to know your backup actually works.

Your website represents hours, months, or years of work. A 10-minute backup setup protects all of that. Do it today — not tomorrow, not "when I get around to it." Today. Future you will be grateful.

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FAQ

Does my hosting provider back up my site automatically?

Most do, but with caveats. Budget hosts typically do weekly backups with limited retention. Check your host's backup policy — and set up your own regardless. Our uptime and reliability guide covers what to look for in hosting reliability.

How much storage do website backups need?

A typical small WordPress site (under 500 posts, few hundred images) generates backups around 500 MB - 2 GB. Large media-heavy sites can be 5-10 GB+. Google Drive's 15 GB free tier handles most small sites easily.

Can I restore a backup on a different host?

Yes. Database exports (.sql files) and file archives work on any compatible server. This is actually how site migrations work — export from old host, import to new host. We cover this in our migration guide.

Should I back up email separately?

If you use hosting-based email (@yourdomain.com), yes. Download important emails to a local client like Thunderbird. Email isn't always included in standard backup plugins. For critical business email, consider a dedicated email service — see our email hosting guide.