Backup
It’s essential that you’re backing up your site. When you’re setting up backups, there are a few things to consider:
- Automation: this is critical. If you have to remember to log in and click a button, it won’t happen. Fortunately, most of the backup plugins have some kind of scheduling option.
- Off-site storage: if your server crashes, it would really suck to find out that all of your backups are unavailable, too. I personally prefer backups to Dropbox, but there are plugins that backup to email, to FTP, and to most of Dropbox’s competitors, too.
- Files and database: your site’s settings and content (posts, pages, etc.) are the most time-invested parts of your site. But you also want to back up the files that support your site—files like your theme and the images and other media you’ve uploaded.
My top three picks, depending on your situation:
- VaultPress: it’s $15/month, but for that small fee, you get a service that just works. No hassle, just an automatic, reliable service that works behind the scenes to keep a near-real-time backup of your whole site, without any noticeable slowdown of your site or worries about keeping a plugin up-to-date. VaultPress is run by Automattic, the company behind WordPress, and the backups are stored on their servers, fully accessible even if your hosting company disappears from the face of the earth.
- BackWPup: if you’re on a budget, this free plugin may be just what you need. It backs up to an awe-inspiring number of services, and the automated backup schedule is extremely flexible. Also flexible is the selection of what’s backed up—you can do files (all or a subset), the database, or both. You can also schedule more than one backup “job”; I like to set it up with a lean, just-the-essentials job that runs every night, and a more robust job that runs weekly. The big caveat: because (unlike the other picks) the plugin doesn’t have control of the storage side of things, it’s critical that you check from time to time that backups are being stored. There was a period when the Dropbox interface was failing (and none of my backup-to-Dropbox plugins worked), and it could have left me without backups if I hadn’t noticed.
- WP Engine: this host’s backup solution is closer to VaultPress than a plugin in that it works automatically, behind the scenes, without a plugin. In this case, it’s part of the hosting package. It’s not right for everyone (if you already have a host you love, for instance), but if you’re starting from scratch or don’t love your host, it’s an excellent option.