How to Back Up Your WordPress Site Using a Plugin (UpdraftPlus)

A backup plugin lets you create copies of your WordPress site's files and database from inside wp-admin, and send those copies somewhere other than your hosting account, such as Google Drive or Dropbox. This is useful on top of the backups your hosting account already takes, because it gives you a copy you control directly and can restore from even if something goes wrong with your hosting account itself.

This guide uses UpdraftPlus, a free and widely used backup plugin, as an example. The steps work the same whether your site is hosted on cPanel or DirectAdmin, since the whole process happens inside WordPress itself.

Installing the Plugin

1. Log in to your WordPress admin area (yourdomain.com/wp-admin).
2. In the left menu, go to Plugins, then click Add New Plugin.
3. Search for UpdraftPlus.
4. Click Install Now next to the plugin, then click Activate once installation finishes.

Running Your First Backup

1. Go to Settings, then UpdraftPlus Backups.
2. On the Backup / Restore tab, click Backup Now.
3. In the dialog box that appears, make sure both include the database and include your files are ticked, then click Backup Now again to start.
4. Wait for the progress bar to finish. Your backup will then appear in the list under Existing Backups.

By default, UpdraftPlus stores backups on your own hosting account, in the same place your website files live. If your hosting account is ever lost or suspended, that backup goes with it. Send a copy to a separate storage location using the steps below so you always have an independent copy.

Sending Backups to Cloud Storage Automatically

1. On the UpdraftPlus Backups page, click the Settings tab.
2. Under Choose your remote storage, click the icon for the destination you want, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, or Email.
3. Click Save Changes. You'll be prompted to authorize UpdraftPlus to connect to that account, usually by logging in and clicking Allow.
4. Once connected, every future backup will automatically be copied to that storage location, not just kept on your hosting account.

Setting a Backup Schedule

Rather than running backups manually every time, you can have UpdraftPlus create them on a schedule:

1. On the Settings tab, find Files backup schedule and Database backup schedule.
2. Choose how often you want each to run, for example weekly for files and daily for the database, depending on how often your content changes.
3. Set how many of the most recent backups to keep, so older ones are automatically removed and don't use up storage space.
4. Click Save Changes.

Restoring From a Backup

1. Go to Settings, then UpdraftPlus Backups.
2. Under Existing Backups, find the backup you want to use and click Restore.
3. Choose which components to restore, such as the database, plugins, themes, or uploads, and follow the on-screen prompts.

Restoring a backup overwrites your current site content with the backed-up version. If you're not sure which backup to restore, download it first and review the date before proceeding, since this step can't easily be undone.

A plugin-based backup is a good complement to the full account backups your hosting account takes at the server level. See how to take a full backup of your hosting account if you'd also like a server-level copy of everything on your hosting account, not just your WordPress site.