WordPress backup service

A backup earns its keep on the day something goes wrong: an update that breaks the site, a hack, a page deleted by mistake, a failure at the host. A copy kept on the same server as the site can be lost along with it, which is why the copy has to be stored somewhere else.

Backups are not sold on their own. They are part of every care plan, alongside updates, uptime monitoring, security scanning and a monthly report. Each plan takes a backup of your site daily and stores it offsite. This page describes that part and says which plan keeps what. The prices of the Essential and Care plans are on this page, and all four plans are on the pricing page.

Who it is for

• You do not know whether a backup of your site exists, or where it is kept.
• The only copy is at your host, on the same account as the site.
• A backup plugin was set up once, and nobody has looked at it since.
• An update or a hack has already cost you work, and there was no copy to go back to.

Who it is not for

• Someone who wants backups and nothing else. There is no backup-only plan. To run them yourself, see how to schedule automatic WordPress backups and WordPress backup plugins compared.
• A site whose backups are already in hand. If a backup runs on a schedule, is kept off the server and has been restored once as a test, it meets what those two guides ask of any backup.
• A site that is broken now. A backup taken from today on cannot bring back what was lost before it. Describe the fault in a free diagnosis. A one-time fix covers a single issue, and malware removal is for a hacked site.
• A WooCommerce store on a daily backup alone. Orders arrive all day. The Store plan backs up order data more often. See WooCommerce maintenance.

What is included

On every plan, starting with Essential:

• A recent copy exists. A backup of your site is taken daily.
• The copy is somewhere else. Each backup is stored offsite, away from the server your site runs on.
• You can go back some way. Backups are kept for 30 days on Essential, and for 90 days on Care, Business and Store.
• A bad update can be undone. If an update breaks the site, the site is restored.

The Store plan, for WooCommerce, adds more frequent backups for order data.

Which plan keeps what:

Every plan also includes weekly updates to WordPress core, plugins and themes with a visual check and rollback, uptime monitoring, security scanning and a monthly report. Care, Business and Store include malware cleanup. WordPress maintenance sets the plans out in full.

What we need from you to start

The free diagnosis form asks for your name, an email address, your site's address if you can share it, and a few sentences about the site. We reply in writing to the address you give. The diagnosis is free, and you owe nothing after it. Whether to go ahead is up to you.

How it works

What it does not cover

• A backup-only plan. Backups come with a care plan, alongside updates, monitoring and scanning.
• Anything older than the plan keeps. On Essential that is 30 days. On Care, Business and Store it is 90.
• Changes made after the last backup. A restore returns the site to the point the backup was taken, so later edits are not in it.
• Fixes on Essential. Every plan restores the site when an update breaks it. Other fixes come out of a plan's monthly time, and Essential has none.
• Anything on your hosting account that is not the WordPress site, such as email.

Before you buy: do it yourself, or check first

A backup is work a site's owner can set up once and check now and then. These pages show how, and what to ask of a backup that someone else keeps for you.

• How to schedule automatic WordPress backups covers where a schedule can live, at the host, in a plugin or in a cron job, and how to prove that a backup restores.
• WordPress backup plugins compared sets five plugins side by side on what each gives free and what it charges for.
• Does your web host maintain your WordPress site? has a section on hosts' backups and what to check about yours: how often, kept how long, stored where, and who restores.
• What WordPress maintenance includes gives the questions to ask about any backup service, ours included, such as the date a backup was last restored as a test.
• The WordPress maintenance checklist puts a test restore into the monthly routine.
• For a store, how to maintain a WooCommerce store explains what a restore does to the orders taken since the backup.
• The downtime cost calculator works out what an outage costs, from your own revenue and the hours the site was down.

Everything on the subject is listed under WordPress maintenance and care plans.