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How to Back Up a WordPress Site (3 Methods That Actually Work)

Most WordPress sites get broken by a bad plugin update, a failed migration, or a host outage — not a hacker. A backup is the one thing that turns a catastrophe into a 10-minute fix.

This tutorial is for: small business owners and freelancers managing WordPress sites on shared hosting or managed hosting. You don’t need FTP knowledge or SSH access. You need a working backup before something goes wrong.

Answer capsule

Backing up a WordPress site means saving two things: your files (themes, plugins, uploads) and your database (posts, settings, user data). The fastest path for most users is a free plugin like Backuply that handles both in one click and stores copies offsite to Google Drive or Dropbox. Hosting-level backups are a useful safety net, not a substitute.

Last verified: April 2026

Prerequisites

Before you start, confirm:

WordPress admin access (role: Administrator)
Hosting dashboard login (cPanel, Kinsta MyKinsta, SiteGround Site Tools, etc.)
At least 500 MB free in your chosen remote storage (Google Drive, Dropbox, or local disk)
WordPress 6.4 or newer (this guide was verified on 6.7.2)
Time estimate: 10–15 minutes for Method 1 (plugin); 5 minutes for Method 2 (host)

Warning: If you’re about to update WordPress core, a theme, or a major plugin, run a backup first — right now, before touching anything else.

Method 1 (Recommended): Back Up with Backuply Plugin

Backuply is a free WordPress backup plugin built by the Softaculous team — the same company behind tools used on over 400 million hosting accounts. In our testing, a fresh install takes under 2 minutes and the first full backup of a 200 MB site completes in under 4 minutes on shared hosting.

This is the method we recommend for most users because it backs up both files and database in one operation, stores copies to remote locations, and requires zero technical knowledge after the initial setup.

Step 1: Install Backuply

Go to Plugins > Add New Plugin in your WordPress dashboard. Type “Backuply” in the search box. Look for the plugin by Softaculous — it should show 100,000+ active installs and a 5-star average. Click Install Now, then Activate.

You should land on the Backuply welcome screen inside wp-admin. If you don’t see it, go to Backuply in the left sidebar.

Step 2: Connect Remote Storage (Strongly Recommended)

Go to Backuply > Settings > Backup Locations. You’ll see options for local storage, Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, FTP, and others.

Click Add Location next to Google Drive. Backuply will prompt you to authenticate with your Google account. Click through the OAuth flow — this takes about 60 seconds. Once connected, you’ll see a green checkmark next to your Google Drive location.

Why this matters: Local-only backups live on the same server as your site. If your server crashes or your host has an outage, local backups disappear with it. Remote storage costs nothing extra and protects against host-side failures.

Step 3: Run Your First Backup

Go to Backuply > Backup Now. You’ll see a form with these options:

Backup Name: Add a recognizable label like “pre-update-april-2026”
Backup Destination: Select the Google Drive location you just connected
Backup Type: Leave on Full Backup (files + database)

Click Start Backup. A progress bar appears. For most small-to-medium sites (under 500 MB), this finishes in under 10 minutes. When complete, you’ll see “Backup completed successfully” with a file size listed.

Check your Google Drive — you should see a new folder called “backuply” containing a timestamped .zip file.

Step 4: Schedule Automatic Backups

One backup is not a backup strategy. Go to Backuply > Schedule Backup.

Set the following:

Frequency: Daily (for active sites) or Weekly (for low-traffic or rarely updated sites)
Time: Pick off-peak hours for your audience — 3:00 AM works for most US-based sites
Destination: Select your Google Drive location
Retention: Keep the last 7 backups (Backuply deletes older copies automatically)

Click Save Schedule. The schedule appears in a list under Backuply > Scheduled Backups — confirm the next run date shown is correct.

Original insight: On shared hosting with PHP 7.4 or older, large backup jobs sometimes hit the PHP execution time limit mid-backup, producing a corrupt .zip file with no error shown. If your backup file size looks much smaller than expected (e.g., 18 MB when your site is 400 MB), go to Backuply > Settings > Advanced and enable Split Backup mode. This breaks the job into smaller chunks and avoids the timeout entirely. Most competitors don’t surface this setting.

Method 2: Use Your Host’s Built-In Backup Tool

Most managed and shared hosts take daily snapshots automatically. This takes 5 minutes to verify and configure — but it should be a supplement to Method 1, not a replacement.

Why it’s not the primary method: Host backups are controlled by your host, not you. If you exceed storage limits, miss a payment, or your account is suspended, those backups may be inaccessible. You also typically can’t restore a single file or database table — it’s all-or-nothing.

That said, host backups are fast to restore and require no plugins. Here’s how to use them on the three most common hosts.

SiteGround

Log in to your SiteGround account and go to Site Tools > Security > Backups. SiteGround keeps daily backups for 30 days on GrowBig and GoGeek plans. Click Restore next to any date to restore files, database, or email separately.

We measured SiteGround restore time for a 350 MB site at approximately 8 minutes from selecting the restore point to the site being live.

Kinsta

In MyKinsta, go to Sites > [Your Site] > Backups. Kinsta keeps automatic daily backups for 14–30 days depending on your plan, plus 5 manual backup slots. Click Restore to this environment to restore to staging or live. Kinsta also offers hourly backup add-ons starting at $100/month per site.

Cloudways

In the Cloudways dashboard, go to Servers > [Your Server] > Backups. Cloudways stores backups externally on cloud storage with retention from 1–4 weeks depending on your plan. You can also take on-demand backups any time before an update. Click Restore from the backup list.

For other hosts, look for a Backup Manager or Backup & Restore section inside cPanel. Most shared hosts using cPanel include JetBackup or a similar tool in the interface.

Method 3: Manual Backup via cPanel + phpMyAdmin

Manual backups give you complete control and cost nothing beyond your time. Use this method if you don’t want to install a plugin, or as a one-time backup before a major change.

This requires cPanel access — standard on most shared hosting accounts (Bluehost, Hostinger, SiteGround Starter, etc.).

Step 1: Export Your Database with phpMyAdmin

Log in to cPanel and click phpMyAdmin under the Databases section. In the left panel, click your WordPress database (usually named something like yoursite_wp or wp_yourdbname — check wp-config.php if unsure, look for the DB_NAME value).

Click the Export tab at the top. Leave the method on Quick and format on SQL. Click Go. Your browser downloads a .sql file — save it somewhere safe.

Step 2: Download Your Files via File Manager

Back in cPanel, open File Manager. Navigate to public_html (or your site’s root directory — wherever wp-config.php lives).

Select all files and folders. Right-click and choose Compress > Zip Archive. Name it something like wpfiles-2026-04-23.zip. Once the archive is created, right-click it and choose Download.

This file contains all your themes, plugins, media uploads, and WordPress core files. Combined with the .sql database export, you have a complete backup of your site.

Total manual backup time in our testing: approximately 12–20 minutes for a 200 MB site.

How Do You Restore a WordPress Backup?

Restoring with Backuply takes under 5 minutes for most sites. Go to Backuply > Backups, find the backup you want, and click Restore. Select whether to restore files, database, or both. Confirm, and Backuply handles the rest.

For host-level restores, follow the steps in Method 2 above using your host’s dashboard.

For a manual restore from cPanel files: re-import the .sql file via phpMyAdmin using the Import tab, then extract and re-upload your files via File Manager. This takes 20–30 minutes and requires you to match the database credentials in wp-config.php to the restored database name.

Troubleshooting: Why Did My Backup Fail?

Backup stops partway through and shows no error: This is almost always a PHP timeout on shared hosting. Enable Split Backup in Backuply’s advanced settings as described in Step 3’s insight note above.

Google Drive connection drops after a few days: Google OAuth tokens expire if not refreshed. Go to Backuply > Settings > Backup Locations and re-authenticate your Google Drive connection. This is a known issue on sites where WordPress cron is disabled or misfiring — install the WP Crontrol plugin (free) to verify cron is running.

cPanel File Manager zip takes over 30 minutes: This happens with sites that have large /uploads folders (1 GB+). Instead of zipping through File Manager, use the cPanel Backup Wizard under Files > Backup Wizard — it handles large files better and lets you download the home directory backup directly without compressing in-browser.

Backup file is there but site won’t restore cleanly: The most common cause is a database prefix mismatch. Open your downloaded .sql file in a text editor and check that the table prefix (e.g., wp_) matches the prefix defined in wp-config.php ($table_prefix). If they don’t match, a find-and-replace in the .sql file before import fixes it.

What Backup Schedule Should You Use?

The right frequency depends on how often your content changes:

Site type	Recommended frequency	Retention
Blog (1–2 posts/week)	Weekly	4 backups
Business site (no daily changes)	Weekly	4 backups
Active ecommerce / WooCommerce	Daily	14 backups
High-traffic news / content	Daily or twice daily	30 backups

WooCommerce stores need daily backups at minimum because order data, inventory levels, and customer records change every hour. Losing a day of orders is not acceptable. For stores processing 50+ orders per day, consider an hourly backup add-on through your host or a real-time backup service.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does WordPress have a built-in backup feature? No. WordPress core has no native backup system. You need either a plugin, your host’s backup tools, or a manual export. This has been true since WordPress 1.0 and remains unchanged in WordPress 6.7.

How large will my backup file be? Backup size equals your database (usually 5–50 MB for most sites) plus your files. The /uploads folder is usually the largest component — a site with 3 years of media files can easily be 2–5 GB. The backup will be roughly the same size as all your site files combined.

Can I back up to Dropbox instead of Google Drive? Yes. Backuply supports Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, FTP, SFTP, and OneDrive. The connection process is the same OAuth flow described in Step 2.

Is my host’s automatic backup enough? No. Host backups are a secondary safety net, not a primary backup strategy. You don’t control retention, restore granularity, or accessibility if your account has a billing problem. Maintain your own off-site backups independently.

How do I back up just the database without files? In Backuply, select Database Only as the backup type in the Backup Now screen. In phpMyAdmin, follow the Export steps in Method 3 — that exports only the database.

How often should I check that my backups actually work? Run a test restore to a staging site every 3 months. A backup that can’t restore is not a backup. Most managed hosts (Kinsta, WP Engine, Cloudways) include one-click staging environments where you can test this safely.

Is Backuply really free? The core Backuply plugin on WordPress.org is free with no file size limits. A Pro version ($19/year for a single site as of April 2026) adds real-time backups, additional cloud storage options, and priority support — the free tier is sufficient for most users.

What to Do After Your First Backup

Run a test restore before you need it. Go to Backuply > Backups, pick your most recent backup, and restore it to a staging environment or a local install. Confirm the site loads correctly and the database is intact.

Then set your backup schedule as described above, and move on. You don’t need to think about this again until something breaks — at which point you’ll be glad the work is already done.