Best WordPress backup plugins: UpdraftPlus, Duplicator, Jetpack and more (2026)

The short answer by situation

• Most small business sites: free UpdraftPlus, set to send backups to cloud storage you own, such as Google Drive or Dropbox.
• You mainly want to move a site: Duplicator (free Lite version) or All-in-One WP Migration for small sites.
• You want backups with nothing to set up: Jetpack VaultPress Backup or BlogVault, which store copies on their own servers.
• You already pay for good hosting: keep the host’s backups, and add one plugin copy that lives somewhere else.

We build on WordPress every week, and we use UpdraftPlus for backups on our own WordPress sites. We have no affiliate deal with any backup company, and that doesn’t change this comparison. Every price below comes from the vendor’s own pricing page, in US dollars before tax.

What a WordPress backup has to include

A WordPress site has two parts, and a website backup needs both. WordPress.org’s own guide says it plainly: “You need both to be able to fully restore a typical WordPress site.”

• The database: your posts, pages, settings and users, stored in MySQL or MariaDB.
• The files: WordPress itself, your theme, each plugin, your uploaded images and the wp-config.php settings file.

WordPress.org suggests backing up before every update or move, weekly for small sites and daily for busy ones. It also suggests keeping several recent backups, 3 to 5, in different places.

The 3-2-1 idea

A common rule of thumb for backups is 3-2-1: keep 3 copies of your site, on 2 different kinds of storage, with 1 copy somewhere else entirely. For a small site, that can be as simple as:

1. Your host’s automatic backups (copy one).
2. A plugin backup sent to your own Google Drive, Dropbox or Amazon S3 account (copy two, different storage).
3. A download to your computer or an external drive every month or so (copy three, offline).

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) points the same way in its ransomware guide. Its guide says to “maintain offline, encrypted backups of critical data, and regularly test the availability and integrity of backups.” It warns that ransomware tries to find and delete or encrypt backups it can reach. A backup that sits only in the same hosting account as your site can be lost with it.

The plugins compared

Here are three plugins and two hosted services side by side. The table shows the cheapest paid option that covers one site.

UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus has the only free version here that runs on a schedule. Its WordPress.org page says the free plugin can back up on a schedule (every 2 to 12 hours, daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly) to Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, Rackspace, FTP, DreamObjects, OpenStack Swift or email. It adds: “The free version of UpdraftPlus will back up and migrate your website perfectly well.”

Premium costs $70 a year for up to 2 sites, $95 for 10, $145 for 35, $195 for unlimited sites and $399 for the Gold plan with 50GB of storage. It adds incremental backups, automatic backups before updates, more storage destinations and multisite. The pricing page says “Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled” but doesn’t state a renewal price. Each Premium plan includes 1GB of UpdraftVault storage; more costs $35 a year for 5GB.

Right for: almost any small site, and people who want backups in a cloud account they already own.

Duplicator

Duplicator is built around moving sites. The free Lite version makes manual backups of any size, includes a migration wizard and 1-click restore, and stores backups locally and on Duplicator Cloud. Scheduled backups, other cloud providers and multisite need Pro.

Duplicator Pro is an annual subscription. List prices are $79 (Basic, 2 sites), $199 (Plus, 5 sites), $399 (Pro, 20 sites) and $599 (Elite, 100 sites). The page shows a “60% OFF” promotion but doesn’t print the sale price in its text, and its fine print says “all renewals are at full price.”

Right for: developers and site owners who move or copy sites often.

All-in-One WP Migration

This plugin exports your whole site into one file and imports it somewhere else. The free version “backs up and exports sites of any size,” but importing is limited by your host: “Your hosting company decides how large a file you can upload.”

The Unlimited Extension removes that limit and adds one-click restore and command-line tools for $69 a year on up to 50 sites. The Pro Extension is $99 a year. Scheduled backups and cloud storage are paid extensions.

Right for: small sites and one-time moves between hosts.

Jetpack VaultPress Backup

This is a hosted service from Automattic. It backs up your site “at least once a day,” plus real-time copies of changes such as new posts, orders and settings, and stores them on its own servers.

It costs $4.95 a month for the first year, billed yearly, then renews at the full $9.95 a month. That includes 10GB of storage to start and a 30-day archive. It doesn’t support multisite, and each plan covers one site.

Right for: stores and busy sites that can’t lose a day of orders or comments.

BlogVault

BlogVault is another hosted service. Its Personal plan is $49.50 a year per site “with the current 50% discount” ($99 shown struck through), with daily backups and 30 days of history. Business ($149.50) backs up every 12 hours and keeps 90 days. The page doesn’t state renewal prices. Its free sister plugin, Migrate Guru, moves sites up to 200 GB but doesn’t keep backups.

Right for: owners who want off-site backups and staging without managing storage accounts.

What your host already does

Most hosts back up your site for free. Read the limits before you rely on them.

Hostinger’s help center says weekly backups are kept 6 weeks, but its Hosting Agreement says “Only two weeks of backups are stored.” When the two disagree, plan around the shorter one. Host backups are a good first copy. They aren’t the off-site copy, because they live with the same company as your site.

What it costs over 3 years

Here’s one site over 3 years, using list prices. Our standard WordPress baseline (Bluehost Starter for 36 months, a domain and one Google Workspace inbox) is $432.60.

Notes on the math:

• UpdraftPlus doesn’t state a renewal price, so we assume $70 each year.
• Duplicator’s first year may cost less during a promotion; renewals are at full price, so $237 is the most you’d pay.
• BlogVault doesn’t say what you pay after the 50% discount. We assume the full $99 from year two; if the discount stays, it’s $148.50.
• Jetpack: $4.95 x 12 = $59.40 the first year, then $9.95 x 12 = $119.40 a year.
• Free plugins need somewhere to store copies. A cloud account you already have often covers a small site.

How to test a restore

A backup you’ve never restored is a guess. CISA says to “test backup procedures on a regular basis,” and WordPress.org suggests running a manual backup from time to time to check that the automatic ones work. Here’s a safe way to do it.

1. Make a fresh backup and download it. Check that both the database and the files are there.
2. Create a test copy. Use your host’s staging site tool or a spare subdomain with a fresh WordPress install.
3. Restore the backup to the copy. Use the same plugin you backed up with.
4. Click through it. Check the home page, a few posts, images, forms and the admin login. On a store, check products and a test order.
5. Write down how long it took. That’s your real recovery time if something breaks.
6. Remove the test copy once you’re done, so you don’t leave a second site online.

Do this when you first set up backups, then every few months. If a restore fails, find out why now, not on the day your site is down.

What you can take with you

Backup plugins are also your way out. A full backup of files and database can move your site to any WordPress host, which is the main reason self-hosted WordPress scores 10/10 on our exit scores.

Check what happens if you stop paying. Duplicator says Pro features lock when the license expires, though the plugin keeps working. UpdraftVault says backups stay available for two weeks after you cancel, then are purged. If you leave a hosted service, download your latest backup first.

What to do next

• See the two most popular plugins head to head: UpdraftPlus vs Duplicator.
• Find the backup screens in your hosting panel with our cPanel guide.
• Moving hosts? Follow moving your website.
• If something already went wrong, start with what to do when your website is hacked.