Automatic WordPress Backups: 3 Methods for 2026

Modern server data storage for secure WordPress website backups

Contents

Why WordPress needs automatic (not manual) backups
Recommended backup frequency
What to back up: more than just the database
Method 1: UpdraftPlus (free and the most popular)
Installation and initial set-up
Set up an automatic backup schedule
Test a restore before a crisis
UpdraftPlus Premium (optional, $70/year)
Method 2: ManageWP (a cloud service that is easier to use)
How to set up ManageWP
Where ManageWP beats a plugin
The downside: you pay per website
Method 3: native backups from your host
How to switch them on in cPanel
How to back up manually in cPanel (Backup Wizard)
Why you should not rely on hosting backups alone
The 3-2-1 strategy: a best-practice set-up
References
More articles you may find useful

Backing up WordPress is not optional. It is a foundation of website security that often gets ignored until disaster strikes. A hosting crash, a plugin update that corrupts the database, a malware hack, or an admin's wrong click that deletes important data: every one of these has happened to websites that looked “perfectly fine” on Monday morning.

This guide explains 3 automatic WordPress backup methods that every business website should set up: backups via a plugin (UpdraftPlus), backups via a service (ManageWP) and native backups from your host. By the end, you will have a 3-tier backup strategy, which means that if one method fails, you still have 2 fallbacks.

Key points in this article

The golden rule of backups is 3-2-1: 3 copies of your data, 2 different locations, 1 offsite (cloud)
UpdraftPlus is the most popular free option; schedule daily backups for the database and weekly backups for files
ManageWP and Jetpack Backup are premium options with 1-click auto-restore and a staging environment
Switch on your hosting backups, but do not rely on them as your only backup: if the server crashes, the backups go with it
Test a restore at least once before a real crisis, because an untested backup only gives you the illusion of safety

Why WordPress needs automatic (not manual) backups

Manual backups via cPanel or manual downloads through a plugin have 3 fatal weaknesses: (1) admins often forget, (2) there is no version history (only the latest backup), and (3) if the admin is ill or on leave, nothing gets backed up. Scheduled automatic backups remove all three risks.

Recommended backup frequency

How often you back up depends on how active your website is:

E-commerce / news / sites updated daily: database every hour, files every day.
Business websites with a weekly blog: database daily, files weekly.
Static company profile websites: database weekly, files monthly plus every time the content is updated.

For every category: always back up BEFORE updating plugins, themes or WordPress core, because that is when crashes happen most often.

What to back up: more than just the database

A complete WordPress backup covers:

Database: all content, settings, users and comments (.sql file)
wp-content/uploads/: all media (images, videos, documents)
wp-content/themes/: the active theme plus any custom child theme
wp-content/plugins/: plugins (especially custom ones)
wp-config.php: the database credential configuration (never share this file publicly)
.htaccess: custom rewrite rules

Method 1: UpdraftPlus (free and the most popular)

UpdraftPlus is the number one backup plugin for WordPress, with 3+ million active installs. The free version covers most of what small and medium-sized business websites need.

Installation and initial set-up

From the WordPress admin, go to Plugins, then Add New, search for “UpdraftPlus”, click Install Now and then Activate. Once it is active, open Settings, then UpdraftPlus Backups. The first tab, Backup / Restore, is where you can trigger a manual backup for testing.

Set up an automatic backup schedule

Switch to the Settings tab:

Files backup schedule: choose “Weekly” for a typical business website or “Daily” for an active one. Retain backups: 4 (meaning the latest 4 backups are kept and older ones are deleted automatically).
Database backup schedule: choose “Daily” for every type of website. Retain: 7-14.
Choose your remote storage: pick Google Drive (15GB free), Dropbox or OneDrive. Click it and authorise access via OAuth, and UpdraftPlus will create a folder in your Drive.

Click Save Changes. The first automatic backup will run on schedule.

Test a restore before a crisis

A backup that has never been tested may not be valid. To test a restore, trigger a manual backup and wait for it to finish. In the Backup/Restore tab, find the most recent backup, click “Restore”, choose the components to restore (start by testing the database only) and confirm. If it works, you know your backup system is sound.

UpdraftPlus Premium (optional, $70/year)

The premium version adds incremental backups (faster and lighter on storage), multisite network support, more destinations (Backblaze, Azure, etc.) and a migration tool. For a single website, the free version is more than enough.

Method 2: ManageWP (a cloud service that is easier to use)

ManageWP (acquired by GoDaddy) is a cloud-based platform for managing multiple WordPress sites. It suits web agencies, or website owners who manage 3+ sites at once.

How to set up ManageWP

Sign up for free at managewp.com, install the “ManageWP Worker” plugin in WordPress and connect the website to your ManageWP dashboard. From the dashboard, go to Backups, select the website and set a backup schedule. The free tier gives you 1 monthly backup. For daily backups and restore tools there is a paid add-on per website (check the current price at managewp.com).

Where ManageWP beats a plugin

Backups are triggered from an external server rather than from your WordPress install, so they do not put extra load on your server. You get 1-click restores from the cloud dashboard without logging in to WordPress (important if your website has already crashed), a staging environment to test restores with no risk to production, and a multisite dashboard for managing 10+ websites from one interface.

The downside: you pay per website

For just 1-2 websites, paying for the add-on per website is less efficient than using the free UpdraftPlus. It starts to be worth it once you manage 5+ websites.

Method 3: native backups from your host

Almost every Indonesian hosting provider (Niagahoster, Hostinger, IDcloudhost, Domainesia, etc.) offers native backups. Switch them on, but DO NOT rely on them as your only backup.

How to switch them on in cPanel

Log in to cPanel and look for the “Backup” or “JetBackup” section (depending on your host). The settings usually available are backup frequency (daily/weekly), retention (how many backups are kept) and a manual backup trigger. Turn on daily backups with retention of at least 7 days.

How to back up manually in cPanel (Backup Wizard)

For one-off backups before risky actions (major version updates, migrations, etc.), open Backup Wizard in cPanel, choose Full Backup, pick a location (Home Directory or Remote FTP), add an email notification and click Generate Backup. A .tar.gz backup file is created; download it to your own computer as an offline archive.

Why you should not rely on hosting backups alone

Hosting backups are stored on the same server as your website. In a crash scenario (server hardware failure, disk corruption, or your hosting account being suspended over a billing dispute), the backups disappear too. Hosting backups are Tier 1 (fast recovery from minor problems), but you MUST also have Tier 2 (UpdraftPlus to the cloud) and ideally Tier 3 (periodic manual downloads to your own computer).

The 3-2-1 strategy: a best-practice set-up

The industry-standard rule for data backups is 3 copies of your data, 2 different storage locations, 1 offsite (cloud). For WordPress, that looks like this:

Copy 1: the live website on your hosting server (production), plus native hosting backups for quick recovery. Both sit on the same server, so they count as one location.
Copy 2: UpdraftPlus to Google Drive (offsite, cloud): this is the one that saves you when your hosting crashes completely
Copy 3: regular downloads of your backups to an office computer or an external hard drive, as a second storage location away from the server.

The total cost of this set-up is between nothing and Rp 30,000/month (if Google Drive needs extra storage). The return is peace of mind whenever you update plugins or your hosting runs into trouble.

References

Once scheduled backups are running, strengthen your WordPress security against hackers as another layer of defence. If you are still in the initial set-up, also consider 15 essential WordPress plugins and lightweight premium themes for a solid foundation.

Frequently asked questions

Can an automatic WordPress backup miss files?

Yes, if it is not set up correctly. Standard backup plugins (UpdraftPlus, BackWPup, etc.) back up the wp-content folder and the database, but they do not automatically include WordPress core files (wp-admin, wp-includes), wp-config.php or .htaccess. That is usually fine, because core files can be downloaded again from WordPress.org. But wp-config.php holds your unique database credentials, so a separate backup of it is ESSENTIAL. In UpdraftPlus, the "Any other directories" option under "Include in files backup" only covers what is inside wp-content, so keep a manual copy of wp-config.php and .htaccess or use a paid add-on that covers files in the WordPress root.

How much Google Drive storage do I need for WordPress backups?

It depends on the size of your website. Rough estimates: a company profile website (~10 pages, 50 images): 100-300 MB per backup. A medium-sized blog (200 posts, 500 images): 500 MB - 2 GB. E-commerce with thousands of products: 5-20 GB. With retention of 4 file backups and 7 database backups, you need 4-8x the size of your website in total. Google Drive's free 15 GB is enough for small to medium websites. Upgrade to 100 GB ($1.99/month) for an e-commerce website.

Can a WordPress backup be restored to a different domain?

Yes. This is called migration and is supported by UpdraftPlus Migrator (premium, $70/year) or by free plugins such as Duplicator or All-in-One WP Migration. The steps: make a full-site backup on the old domain, export the package, install a fresh WordPress on the new domain, install the migration plugin and import the package. The plugin automatically updates the URLs in the database (search and replace) so that all links and image references point to the new domain. Test everything before you switch over the DNS.

What is the difference between a WordPress database backup and a files backup?

A database backup (.sql) holds all your content (posts, pages, comments), settings, users and table structure. A files backup holds everything in wp-content (themes, plugins, uploads/media). The database is smaller (1-100 MB) but the most critical: if you lose it, your website becomes an empty shell. Files are larger (hundreds of MB to several GB) but can be rebuilt (themes and plugins can be reinstalled, although images must be restored from a backup). You must back up both, because a complete restore needs both, from matching versions.

Do Indonesian hosting providers offer free automatic backups?

Most Indonesian hosts (Niagahoster, Hostinger, IDcloudhost and Domainesia, for example) offer native backups, but how often they run and which plans include them differ between providers and can change at any time. Always check your host's documentation, because a backup that is "available" is not always "enabled by default". Log in to cPanel and switch it on manually.

When is the right time to trigger a WordPress backup?

As well as your automatic schedule, trigger a manual backup before 5 crucial moments: (1) updating WordPress core to a new major version, (2) updating a theme with lots of custom code, (3) installing a new plugin that writes to the database (e-commerce, membership, etc.), (4) migrating to a new host, (5) experimenting on production (custom CSS, editing functions.php). Tip: keep pre-update backups for at least 30 days, in case a problem only comes to light after a few days.

How do I restore WordPress if I cannot access the admin?

If you have been hacked or locked out of the admin, restore via cPanel if hosting backups are active (log in to cPanel, open JetBackup or File Manager and restore). If cPanel is not available, restore via FTP and phpMyAdmin: download the backup files via FTP and restore the database via phpMyAdmin (drop the old tables, then import the .sql backup). Restoring via UpdraftPlus only works if you can still log in to the WordPress admin. If you are completely locked out, contact your host's support team, as they have server-level access.

Topics:Website SecurityWordPress BackupsDisaster RecoveryWordPress RestoreUpdraftPlusWordPress Maintenance

How to back up WordPress automatically: 3 methods for 2026