The Four Best WordPress Backup Plugins Compared: Pros, Cons and Pricing

The short version: for most WordPress sites in 2026, UpdraftPlus remains the best-value backup plugin with a strong free tier. For managed “forget about it” off-site backups, BlogVault is the premium pick. For PBN-scale use where you need one licence across many sites, Duplicator Pro works well. Avoid the Jetpack Backup (formerly VaultPress) path unless you are already deep in the Jetpack ecosystem.

Backups are the single most important plugin decision you make for a WordPress site. Compare four popular options in 2026.

UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus is still the most popular WordPress backup plugin by install count, and its free tier is genuinely usable: scheduled backups, remote storage to Dropbox, Google Drive, S3, FTP and half a dozen others, and manual restore from the WordPress dashboard. Its Premium tier (around $70/year for 2 sites, up to around $195/year for unlimited sites) adds incremental backups, migration tools, cloning, and scheduled backups with more granular timing.

Pros

  • Generous free tier covers most use cases
  • Broad remote-storage support including S3, Backblaze B2, and self-hosted SFTP
  • Restoration is simple and reliable; very low failure rate
  • Premium add-ons (Migrator, Clone) are useful for network-wide operations

Cons

  • UI can feel cluttered after a decade of feature accretion
  • Premium pricing is per-site-tier, so costs scale with how many sites you run

BlogVault

BlogVault is a managed backup service rather than a self-hosted plugin — your backups live on BlogVault's infrastructure and you restore from their dashboard, not yours. That means backups succeed even if your site is compromised or your host is down. Plans start around $89/year for a single site, $199/year for 5 sites. Includes staging, one-click restores, malware scanning, and migration tools.

Pros

  • Backups are truly off-site and do not touch your WordPress install while running
  • Incremental after the initial snapshot — even 10 GB sites back up in minutes
  • Excellent restore and migration tools
  • Staging environment included on paid plans

Cons

  • Per-site pricing is expensive for large networks
  • You are trusting a third-party vendor with full site snapshots

Duplicator / Duplicator Pro

Duplicator started life as a migration plugin and has since grown into a full backup solution. The free version handles manual backups and migrations; Duplicator Pro (from around $69/year for 3 sites, up to around $599/year for unlimited) adds scheduled backups, remote-storage targets, incremental archives, and multisite support. The workflow around packaging a site for migration is still one of the best in the ecosystem.

Pros

  • Best-in-class migration tooling; the package-and-install workflow is very reliable
  • Unlimited-site pricing is available, making it cost-effective at PBN scale
  • Archives are self-contained and can be restored without the plugin being installed on the target

Cons

  • Free version does not schedule backups, so you end up upgrading relatively quickly
  • Less polished dashboard than BlogVault

Solid Backups (formerly BackupBuddy)

Solid Backups — the plugin formerly known as BackupBuddy, renamed when iThemes became SolidWP in 2023 — is the veteran in this space. It bundles with the SolidWP suite (Solid Security, Solid Central) at around $99/year per site for the standalone plugin, or $199/year for SolidWP Basic (bundle of 3 tools). Offers scheduled backups, remote storage, and their proprietary Stash off-site destination.

Pros

  • Long track record — plugin has existed since 2010
  • Bundles well with other SolidWP tools for an all-in-one security + backup stack
  • Stash remote storage is inexpensive and purpose-built

Cons

  • No free tier — paid only
  • Per-site pricing is steeper than competitors
  • The iThemes → SolidWP rebrand has created some documentation confusion

Honorable mentions

  • WPvivid — free plugin with a generous feature set, good for budget-conscious multi-site operators
  • Jetpack Backup (formerly VaultPress) — works well if you already run Jetpack; $5/month per site but integrates cleanly with wordpress.com
  • BackWPup — still maintained, strong free tier, good for single sites on a budget

Which should I use?

  • Single site on a budget: UpdraftPlus free tier.
  • Business site, want off-site managed backups: BlogVault.
  • PBN or network of many sites: Duplicator Pro (unlimited-site licence) or UpdraftPlus (multi-site Premium).
  • Existing Jetpack user: Jetpack Backup.
  • Want everything in one vendor: SolidWP suite (Solid Backups + Solid Security + Solid Central).

Frequently asked

Does Bulk Buy Hosting include backups?

Yes — the underlying hosting providers we use (HawkHost, ChemiCloud, InterServer, etc.) all perform their own server-level backups. For PBN use we still recommend running a plugin-level backup on top for restore convenience.

Where should I store backups?

Off your own hosting account. If the server goes down or the account is suspended, a backup stored on the same server is useless. Use Dropbox, Google Drive, Backblaze B2, or Amazon S3 (all supported by UpdraftPlus free). BlogVault and Duplicator Pro handle off-site storage for you.

How often should I back up?

Daily for the database, weekly for the full site. If you publish frequently or accept user content, increase database backups to every few hours.

Are these plugins safe to use on a PBN?

Yes. Backup plugins leave no footprint Google can detect — they are common on real customer sites. If you want to stay conservative, choose one with no remote calls (UpdraftPlus configured to write to your own S3 bucket, not to UpdraftVault).