BackupBuddy Review, Coupon & Alternatives

Over 36 percent of websites are built with WordPress CMS on the web, making it renowned as the most utilized Content Management System (CMS).

With WordPress, you can build several types of websites such as corporate websites, NGO websites, Content Aggregator, eCommerce websites, personal websites, blogs, social networking sites, forums, and more.

Besides, WordPress is built with PHP and MySQL, which makes it dynamic enough to facilitate diverse functionalities and also incorporate several entries such as media files, posts, pages, comments, links, etc.

However, you stand the chance of losing essential information on your WordPress site if any of these events should take place:

• Successful hacking of your WordPress website
• Database corruption
• Web Server crashes
• User errors
• SQL injections, etc.

Hence, it is essential that you backup your WordPress.

With a proper backup system in place, you can quickly restore your blog to its original state.

Also, backing up your blog keeps you proactive against unforeseen events.

WordPress CMS, on the other hand, comes with a basic backup system, i.e. import and export functionalities, but such services are limited.

Therefore, you should consider opting for a dedicated backup solution for your WordPress website.

One such WordPress backup solutions is BackupBuddy.

What is BackupBuddy?

Just as its name implies, BackupBuddy is a WordPress backup plugin with a user-friendly interface that backs up and restores your blog to a specified restore point.

BackupBuddy was created and launched officially on March 4, 2010 by Cory Miller, a former newspaper journalist and the creator of iThemes.

The core objective for creating the BackupBuddy solution was to create a WordPress plugin that simplifies the backup and restore process in a few simple steps.

In a similar vein, BackupBuddy makes WordPress migration easy and hassle-free.

Today, BackupBuddy has grown to become the best backup solution worldwide for sites since its launch in 2010.

Unlike other backup plugins which back up your WordPress database, BackupBuddy, easily creates a backup of all that you need to run your WordPress site, which includes:

• WordPress core files
• WordPress database
• Users
• Media library uploads
• Pages
• Posts
• Comments
• Theme files
• Plugin files
• Theme and plugin settings
• WordPress settings
• Custom post
• Categories and tags
• Images, videos, and other media file uploads, etc.

Hence, with BackupBuddy, you have a backup copy of your entire WordPress installation.
After completion of the WordPress site backup process, you get a downloadable version of your entire WordPress site in a zip file format.

On the other hand, for a WordPress backup to be successful, an ideal WordPress backup plugin should have four backup components, which includes:

• A complete WordPress backup
• Scheduled automatic backup
• Off-site WordPress backup
• Quick and easy WordPress site restoration

Nevertheless, BackupBuddy has all of these four components integrated into its easy-to-use interface.

Therefore, with a few simple steps, you can restore your site to its default state without losing any information.

Benefits of BackupBuddy

Using BackupBuddy for your WordPress backup is quite simple and easy. Besides, BackupBuddy offers you tons of perks, some of which include:

• Save time and money: With BackupBuddy, you can save the time spent migrating your WordPress site from a particular web host to another.Also, BackupBuddy eliminates the need for hiring a technical web developer to assist in WordPress site migration thereby saving costs associated with the process.
• Protection from server downtime: Hosting companies do not have a 100% uptime. Some hosting sites have several hours of downtime in a year. In such cases, backing up your WordPress site restores it to its earlier known state before the server downtime.
• Customized backups: BackupBuddy offers you a customized backup choice for your WordPress. You can opt for database backup only, files-only backup, complete WordPress backup, or set up a customized backup profile.
• Scheduled automatic backups: BackupBuddy offers you several automatic scheduled backups to choose from. You can choose from a scheduled range of backups, starting with an hourly backup plan to a yearly backup plan.
• Individual file restoration: You can use BackupBuddy to perform individual file restoration to their original location in the WordPress site, view file listings and directories in backup archives, and also view web page files such as .php and .html file formats.
• Protection from hacking attacks: WordPress sites are a frequent target for hackers. KeyCDN revealed that 39% of successful WordPress hacking involved websites with outdated WordPress versions. With a reliable backup plugin such as BackupBuddy, you are guaranteed of regular WordPress updates with latest security patches to keep out hackers.
• Contingency plan: Many WordPress site owners rely solely on their host for backup. Although web hosting companies offer site rollback to the last working state; however, not all hosting companies provide this feature in the case of an eventuality. Hence a useful WordPress plugin such as BackupBuddy might come in handy in case of unforeseen events.

Features of BackupBuddy WordPress Plugin

BackupBuddy offers you some of the best migration features absent in other WordPress backup plugins.

With its myriad of features, non-tech-savvy WordPress users can backup, migrate, and restore WordPress sites without technical supervision or real-time assistance.

Nevertheless, we will be highlighting the most important of BackupBuddy features.

1. Staging and deployment: With BackupBuddy’s staging and deployment feature, you can connect your live site with a WordPress staging site and make changes to your website easily with a few clicks.This deployment feature also allows you to change your site’s database, media files, plugins, and themes back and forth with the development site. Also, BackupBuddy’s staging feature allows you to develop your WordPress site at a different location from your live site.
2. Real-time notifications: BackupBuddy notifies you via email notification upon the successful backup of your WordPress site. You also get an email notification from BackupBuddy if anything goes wrong or interferes with the backup process.
3. Downloadable backups: BackupBuddy makes a copy of your WordPress site available to you in a downloadable zip file format. With just a click, you can download a complete copy of your WordPress in a zip folder.
4. Remote backup storage: BackupBuddy sends a backup copy of your WordPress to a remote backup storage location of your choice. Popular backup storage location you can choose from include Amazon S3, Google Drive, DropBox, BackupBuddy Stash, Rackspace Cloud, and Remote servers (sFTP and FTP).
5. Database rollback: BackupBuddy comes with database rollback which allows you to rollback your WordPress database to an earlier working state in the case of an eventuality. You can perform rollback from your WordPress dashboard with just a few simple steps.
6. Easy restoration of WordPress using ImportBuddy: ImportBuddy is a BackupBuddy tool that allows you to restore your WordPress site to a previously known state. With ImportBuddy, you can migrate your WordPress site from one server host to another. To get started, download the ImportBuddy tool from your iThemes sync dashboard.
7. BackupBuddy migration features

Some of the BackupBuddy migration features include:

• WordPress cloning: BackupBuddy has a ‘Clone WordPress’ feature that enables developers to clone an entire WordPress site. Developers can use the cloned copy of a WordPress site to create a new WordPress site quickly and easily.
• Host or server migration: BackupBuddy’s migration feature allows you to move (or migrate) your WordPress site to a new host or server. Conversely, web files migrated retain their original file integrity even after the migration process.
• Change domain name feature: With this feature, you can change your domain name easily. This feature is essential for web developers who build WordPress sites locally or on a temporary domain and have to migrate it to a live domain (or another domain name). With this tool, web developers can migrate an entire WordPress site with its themes to a live domain using the BackupBuddy WordPress migration feature.
• Automatic URL replacements: BackupBuddy replaces all URLs for the old domain name to new domain URLs after migrating your WordPress site to a new domain.

8. BackupBuddy’s WordPress security and optimization feature :  BackupBuddy comes with built-in tools that protect and secure your WordPress site. This guarantees you an efficient, safe, and easy migration process.

With BackupBuddy’s security and optimization feature, you get the following:

• File and database table exclusion: This is an essential feature for excluding unnecessary files, database tables, and high-resolution images or videos from your backup. You can use this feature to exclude specific files and tables from your backup.
  Malware scan: BackupBuddy performs a free malware scan of your WordPress site to ensure that your website stays free from malware like viruses, worms, and Trojan horses.
• Server tools: BackupBuddy incorporates some server tools which are essential for troubleshooting WordPress problems related to your web host or server.
• Serialized data migration: BackupBuddy translates your website data into readable file formats that can be stored and then restored subsequently. This ensures that backup files are not distorted in any form during the migration process.
• Mass text replacement tool: BackupBuddy’s text replacement tool is a vital developer tool for updating text in the database. With the text replacement tool, BackupBuddy users can also update URLs as well.
• CRON manager: BackupBuddy’s CRON manager tool is an important developer tool for viewing, deleting, and running WordPress scheduled CRON jobs manually.
  Interactive site map directory: BackupBuddy’s interactive site map directory is an important viewing tool for checking and discovering files that take up a more substantial chunk of space on your WordPress site.
• Scan and repair: BackupBuddy’s scan and repair feature is an essential tool for fixing common database issues.

Other notable BackupBuddy add-ons include:

• BackupBuddy stash storage space: Basically, BackupBuddy customers are provided with BackupBuddy stash storage space which comes with 1GB of free storage. With the stash storage space, users can store their web files on the cloud-based storage without the need for manual storage. However, the price varies for additional stash storage space.
• BackupBuddy’s iThemes Sync Pro: iThemes Sync is an essential WordPress management tool for managing two or more WordPress sites from a single BackupBuddy dashboard. Conversely, the price varies based on the number of WordPress sites being managed from 5 up to 100 and more.
• 24/7 Customer support feature: BackupBuddy has a team of experts available round-the-clock to assist users with backing up and restoring their WordPress sites. Their responsive support team is always available to help you fix problems relating to BackupBuddy and wild server configurations.

BackupBuddy Pricing

1.  Blogger Plan – Ideal for bloggers

Subscribers to this plan enjoy the following benefits:

• One license site: Subscribers are entitled to backup one WP site
• Automatic plugin updates for one year: This offer is only for a single registered WP site
• One year of complete technical support
• One year access to BackupBuddy’s stash storage space
• Renewable 1GB bonus space on BackupBuddy’s remote stash storage space
• This plan is available for $80 yearly.

2.  Freelancer Plan

Subscribing to the Freelancer plan entitles you to the following:

• Ten license sites: Subscribers are entitled to backup 10 WordPress sites.
• Automatic plugin updates for one year: This feature is available for BackupBuddy’s licensed sites only. You enjoy a whole year of a scheduled automatic backup of your WP sites.
• One year of complete technical support from BackupBuddy’s professional support team in resolving all technical issues relating to BackupBuddy or WP hosting.
• One year access to BackupBuddy’s stash storage space
• Renewable 1GB bonus space on BackupBuddy’s remote stash storage space
• This plan is available for $127 yearly.

3.  Gold Plan

Subscribing to the Gold plan entitles you to:

• Backup and restoration for an unlimited number of WP sites
• Scheduled automatic plugin updates for all BackupBuddy licensed sites for one year
• One year of complete technical support from BackupBuddy’s professional support team in resolving all technical issues relating to BackupBuddy or WP hosting.
• One year access to BackupBuddy’s stash storage space
• 5GB Bonus storage space on BackupBuddy stash storage space: subscribers are entitled to a bonus of 5GB storage space on BackupBuddy’s remote storage solution. This offer is renewable yearly.
• This plan is available for $199 yearly.

Note: Custom Pricing package available upon request.

BackupBuddy Coupon

BackupBuddy coupon codes give you great discounts on all BackupBuddy deals. We have selected some of BackupBuddy’s best coupon codes to give you great discounts on a BackupBuddy subscription.

1.  25 percent discount coupon

You get a 25 percent discount on all BackupBuddy deals simply by subscribing to the iThemes’ newsletter.

How to get the BackupBuddy 25 percent discount

• Subscribe to the BackupBuddy newsletter from the official website.
• Check for the coupon code in your email
• Purchase any of the BackupBuddy pricing packages
• ‘Checkout’ from the BackupBuddy shopping cart
• Register or login at the iThemes Member Panel
• After logging in, enter the coupon code and hit the ‘Redeem Coupon’ button
• The discounted amount is deducted from your total amount
• Choose a payment means by clicking on either ‘Pay with Credit Card’ or ‘Pay with PayPal’

2.  35 percent discount coupon

Similar to the 25 percent discount, you can also get a BackupBuddy 35 percent discount simply by subscribing to their newsletter.

To enjoy the 35% discount coupon, follow the steps below:

• Subscribe to the BackupBuddy newsletter.
• Check for the coupon code in your email
• Purchase any of the BackupBuddy pricing packages
• ‘Checkout’ from BackupBuddy shopping cart
• Register or login at the iThemes Member Panel
• After login in, enter the coupon code and hit the ‘Redeem Coupon’ button
• The discounted amount is deducted from your total amount
• Choose a payment means by clicking on either ‘Pay with Credit Card’ or ‘Pay with PayPal’

Best BackupBuddy Alternatives

BackupBuddy is the best backup plugin to backup and restore your WordPress site. It is also one of the most expensive backup plugins.

There are other great backup plugins with a far less yearly subscription fee than BackupBuddy. Also, there are a handful of free backup plugins like Duplicator etc., which are reliable and easy-to-use as well.

Listed below are 4 of the best BackupBuddy alternatives for WordPress sites:

1.  UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus is a commonly used free backup plugin for WordPress sites. It’s a great alternative to BackupBuddy. UpdraftPlus has over 2 million users worldwide

With UpdraftPlus, you can back up an entire WordPress site and store it as a single folder in cloud storage or on your computer.

Features of UpdraftPlus

• Scheduled automatic backup of WordPress sites
• On-demand backup of WordPress sites
• File backup selection: You can choose files to backup from your WordPress site
• Automatic upload of WP backup to cloud locations like Amazon S3, Dropbox, Google Drive, Rackspace, server locations, and emails.
• Premium version
• Direct backup restoration from the WordPress admin dashboard
• Add-ons for migrating and cloning websites (available with the premium version only)
• Other features and supports available for Premium subscribers
• Premium personal is available for $70 yearly
• Free version offers more features than some other tools

2.  VaultPress (Jetpack Backup)

VaultPress backup solution was created by Matt Mullenweg, a co-founder of WordPress CMS.

Although VaultPress was created as a plugin, it is an integral part of JetPack. Users can only access VaultPress by subscribing to the Jetpack premium plans.

Features of VaultPress

• Automated scheduled backup solution (available for a monthly subscription of $3.50 per month).
• Easy-to-use interface for quick and easy setup of VaultPress
• WordPress site restoration with a simple click on your WP dashboard
• Pay per site update
• WordPress security scan and malware protection (available for premium subscribers)
• Other powerful backup tools and features available for premium subscribers
• Vaultpress has four subscription plans
  • Free Plan with limited access to features
  • Personal Plan with a yearly subscription of $39
  • Premium subscription for personal businesses. Subscription costs $99 yearly
  • Professional Plan – best for organizations. This Plan costs $299 yearly

Cons

• You have to subscribe to JetPack to use VaultPress
• All backups are stored on VaultPress servers. It does not use a third-party cloud storage solution for WP backup.
• Free users have 30 days of access to backups stored on VaultPress servers

3.  BoldGrid Backup

BoldGrid is a backup solution by BoldGrid WordPress site builder. It allows you to create and restore WordPress backups easily using the BoldGrid plugin.

Features

• BoldGrid has easy-to-use features that enable you to create and restore WP backup after crashing
• BoldGrid migration features for migrating WP sites between hosts or servers
• Fault protection feature to protect your WP site against update errors
• Supports third-party remote-cloud storage solutions like Amazon S3, Server storage, Google Drive, emails, etc.
• Scheduled automatic updates of an entire site, database, files, images, or videos

Cons

• BoldGrid does not store more than ten backup archives on its dashboard
• A yearly $60 subscription might be on the high side for beginners.

4.  BackUpWordPress

BackupWordPress is a WordPress backup solution that offers both free and premium WP backup services.

Conversely, BackUpWordPress is quickly growing in popularity. Besides, BackUpWordPress is an open-source software committed to providing free support for its subscribers.

Features

• Simple, easy-to-use interface
• Backup of the entire WordPress site or parts
• Scheduled automatic updates
• A WP site backup feature that enables you backup your WP site components separately on different storage locations
• Works well on Linux and Windows servers
• Available in more than 12 languages like Spanish, German, Chinese, Romanian, etc.

Cons

You cannot backup your WordPress site to a third-party storage solution like Amazon S3, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.

Some of the Premium version features are available in the free version of other WP storage services.

Conclusion

Backing up WordPress sites is an important task due to the risks involved in the case of data loss.

However, not all WordPress site owners take this seriously, probably due to the high cost, technical knowledge, and the hassles associated with the backup process.

However, by utilizing a reliable WordPress backup plugin such as BackupBuddy, you get multi-dimensional features that make WordPress backup and restoration a piece of cake.

Besides, the user-friendly interface makes it ideal for non-tech-savvy WordPress users to streamline their WordPress maintenance tasks without previous knowledge or technical assistance.