5 Best WordPress Backup Plugins in 2026 (Checked Against Live Data)
I pulled the live install counts, ratings and tested-up-to versions for every major WordPress backup plugin. Which five are worth installing, and one to remove.
UpdraftPlus is still the WordPress backup plugin I install on client sites: 3 million active installs, 4.8 out of 5, and it backs up to Drive, Dropbox, S3 or FTP for free. Duplicator is the better pick if you also migrate sites, and WPvivid is the one to choose if you want staging built in. All three were tested against WordPress 7.0.2.
Every list of WordPress backup plugins says roughly the same thing, and most of them were written years ago and never checked again.
So I did the boring bit. I pulled the live figures from the WordPress.org plugin API for every major backup plugin: active installs, star rating, number of reviews, the WordPress version each one is tested against, and when it was last updated.
Two things came out of that. The top of the list is genuinely settled, and one plugin still running on 90,000 live sites has not been touched since April 2024.
Here are the five worth installing, the numbers behind each, and the one to take off your site today.
The short version
Most sites: UpdraftPlus. 3 million installs, 4.8 out of 5, free off-site backups to Drive, Dropbox, S3 or FTP. Migrating as well as backing up: Duplicator. Want staging too: WPvivid. Currently running BackUpWordPress: replace it, it is abandoned.
The 5 best WordPress backup plugins compared
Every figure below was read from the WordPress.org plugin directory on the day this was published. The current WordPress release at that point was 7.0.2.
| Plugin | Active installs | Rating | Tested to | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UpdraftPlus | 3,000,000 | 4.8 (8,578) | 7.0.2 | Most sites |
| Duplicator | 1,000,000 | 4.9 (4,914) | 7.0.2 | Backup plus migration |
| WPvivid | 900,000 | 4.9 (1,510) | 7.0.2 | Staging included |
| All-in-One WP Migration | 5,000,000 | 4.5 (7,656) | 7.0.2 | One-click moves |
| BackWPup | 500,000 | 4.0 (1,320) | 7.0.2 | Cloud and FTP targets |
Pick 1
UpdraftPlus — the best WordPress backup plugin for most sites
Best for: Any site that wants scheduled, off-site backups without paying for anything.
UpdraftPlus is the one I install on client sites, and the numbers explain why: 3 million active installations and 4.8 out of 5 from 8,578 reviews. Very little in the plugin directory holds a rating that high at that scale.
The thing that matters most is in the free version: remote storage. A backup that sits on the same server as the site is not a backup, because the failure that kills the site usually kills the backup with it. UpdraftPlus pushes to Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, FTP or email without paying a penny.
Restores are the other half, and this is where it earns its place. You can restore the database, the themes, the plugins or the uploads separately rather than rolling the whole site back. When one plugin update breaks a site, that distinction saves hours.
The honest catch: the interface looks its age, and the upsells inside the dashboard are constant. Incremental backups and the multisite support sit behind Premium. Neither stops the free version doing the actual job.
Get UpdraftPlus FreePick 2
Duplicator — best if you migrate sites as well as back them up
Best for: Developers and agencies who move sites between hosts and staging environments.
Duplicator holds the highest rating in this list, 4.9 out of 5 across 4,914 reviews, on 1 million active installs.
It grew up as a migration tool and the backup features came later, which turns out to be the right way round. A backup is just a migration to the same place, and Duplicator's packages move cleanly between hosts, into staging, or onto a local machine.
For anyone who builds sites for other people, that matters more than a schedule. Build locally, package, deploy to the client's host, and the same package is your rollback point.
The honest catch: scheduled backups and cloud storage are thinner in free than UpdraftPlus, and large sites can hit PHP timeouts while building a package on cheap shared hosting. On a big site, run it from the host's own tooling or upgrade.
Get Duplicator FreePick 3
WPvivid — best free plugin with staging built in
Best for: Anyone who wants a staging copy to test updates before they touch the live site.
WPvivid matches Duplicator's 4.9 rating and adds the feature I wish more backup plugins had: it creates a staging site in a subdirectory, free.
That changes how you work. Instead of backing up and hoping an update goes well, you clone to staging, run the update there, look at it, and only then push to live. The backup becomes the second line of defence rather than the first.
It also covers backup, migration and staging in one plugin, which keeps the plugin count down. On a site where every extra plugin is another thing that can break, that is worth something on its own.
The honest catch: it is the least known of the five, so there are fewer tutorials and forum answers when something goes wrong. The interface is also busier than UpdraftPlus, because it is doing three jobs.
Pick 4
All-in-One WP Migration — the most installed, and the simplest
Best for: Beginners who want one button that exports the whole site into a single file.
This is the most installed plugin in the category by a distance: over 5 million active installations, and when I checked it had been updated seven hours earlier.
Its appeal is that there is nothing to learn. Export produces one file containing the database, media, themes and plugins. Import takes that file and rebuilds the site. For a beginner moving a first site to a new host, nothing else is this forgiving.
The honest catch, and it is a real one: the free version has an import size limit, and the extension that lifts it is paid. Plenty of people discover this at the worst possible moment, halfway through a migration with a file that will not upload. Check your export size before you count on it.
Pick 5
BackWPup — best for FTP, S3 and self-hosted destinations
Best for: People who want backups landing on their own storage rather than a vendor's cloud.
BackWPup has been going for over a decade and sits at 500,000 active installs. It had been updated ten hours before I looked.
It is the most sysadmin-flavoured plugin here. Jobs, schedules, log files, and a wide set of destinations including FTP, S3-compatible storage and your own server. If you want backups landing somewhere you control rather than in a vendor's account, this is the one built for that.
The honest catch: its 4.0 rating is the lowest of the five, and that is fair. Configuration is more involved than the others and the free version's restore flow is weaker, so it rewards people who are comfortable with the moving parts and frustrates people who are not.
The backup plugin to remove from your site
This is the part no other list on this search seems to mention.
BackUpWordPress still has 90,000 active installations. It was last updated in April 2024, and it is only tested to WordPress 6.5.8 while the current release is 7.0.2. WordPress.org flags it with the standard warning that it has not been tested with the latest three major releases.
Its own description confirms the rest: the team no longer sells or supports the paid add-ons, including the Dropbox and Google Drive destinations. And in its own words, for that job it now recommends UpdraftPlus.
An abandoned backup plugin is worse than no backup plugin, because it gives you the feeling of safety without the thing itself. If it is installed on your site, swap it out this week.
Do you need a paid backup service instead?
For most sites, no. The free versions above genuinely do the job.
Three situations change that answer:
- You run a shop. Orders arrive between backups. Daily is not enough when the gap costs you real transactions, so you want real-time or near-real-time, which means a paid service like Jetpack VaultPress Backup or BlogVault.
- The site is large. Full backups on a big site strain shared hosting. Incremental backups only copy what changed, and they are a paid feature almost everywhere.
- You manage many sites. Backing up thirty client sites one dashboard at a time stops being viable. Managed services handle them centrally.
Otherwise, UpdraftPlus free plus a Google Drive account covers it, and has done on plenty of sites I look after.
How to actually set up WordPress backups properly
The plugin is the easy part. These four decisions are what separate a backup that works from one that only looks like it does.
- Store it off-site, always. Not
wp-content. Google Drive, Dropbox, S3 or FTP. A backup on the same server dies with the server. - Match the schedule to the change rate. Brochure site: weekly. Active blog: daily. Shop: real-time. Backing up a static site hourly just burns resources.
- Test a restore before you need one. This is the step everyone skips, and it is the only one that proves the backup exists. Restore into a staging site once, and you will find out whether your backups are real.
- Keep more than one copy. Two destinations, or the plugin plus your host's own backups. One copy is a single point of failure wearing a helpful name.
Backups also sit next to the other maintenance work that keeps a site healthy, which I have covered in the WordPress plugins I install on every site and the guide to speeding up WordPress.
Final take
For most WordPress sites in 2026, UpdraftPlus free plus off-site storage is the right answer, and the 3 million installs and 4.8 rating are not an accident. Choose Duplicator instead if you migrate sites regularly, or WPvivid if you want staging in the same plugin.
Whichever you pick, the part that decides whether it works is not the plugin. It is whether the backup lands somewhere else, and whether you have ever restored one.
Want this handled rather than managed by you?
We look after WordPress sites end to end, including backups that are tested rather than assumed. Tell us what you are running.
See WordPress developmentCommon questions
What is the best WordPress backup plugin in 2026?
UpdraftPlus, for most sites. It has 3 million active installs, a 4.8 out of 5 rating, and the free version already sends backups off-site to Google Drive, Dropbox, S3 or FTP. Duplicator is a better fit if you migrate sites often, and WPvivid if you want staging.
Is there a genuinely free WordPress backup plugin?
Yes, several. UpdraftPlus, Duplicator, WPvivid, BackWPup and All-in-One WP Migration all have real free versions that schedule backups and restore them. The paid tiers add incremental backups, cloud destinations and multisite support, but the free versions are not crippled.
How often should I back up my WordPress site?
Match the schedule to how often the site changes. A brochure site is fine weekly. A blog posting a few times a week wants daily. A shop taking orders needs real-time or hourly, because anything less means losing customer orders you cannot recreate.
Where should WordPress backups be stored?
Anywhere except the same server as the site. A backup sitting in wp-content on a server that dies is not a backup. Send it to Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3 or your own FTP. Every plugin here does off-site storage, most of them free.
Does a backup plugin slow down WordPress?
Only while a backup runs, and that is the thing to schedule around. A full backup is disk and CPU heavy, so set it for your quietest hour rather than midday. Incremental backups, in the paid tiers, cut that load a lot because they only copy what changed.
Is the host''s backup enough on its own?
Usually not. Host backups are often kept on the same infrastructure, retained for a short window, and restored whole-site rather than file by file. Treat them as the fallback and keep your own plugin backup going off-site. Two independent copies is the point.
Which WordPress backup plugin should I avoid?
BackUpWordPress. It still has 90,000 active installs but was last updated in April 2024 and is only tested to WordPress 6.5.8. Its own plugin page now points people at UpdraftPlus instead. If it is on your site, replace it.
SEO Specialist and product builder with 10+ years in search. The notes come from the work, not the theory.