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9 min

How to Backup a Website

cPanel and WordPress backup step by step.

WordPress HostingGuides

BeoHosting Team

10+ years of experience — Web hosting and infrastructure specialists

Last updated:

A website without backups is a disaster waiting to happen. This guide covers three reliable backup methods: cPanel Full Backup, UpdraftPlus for WordPress, and JetBackup for enterprise sites. We follow the 3-2-1 rule (3 copies, 2 different media, 1 off-site) and schedule everything automatically.

How to Backup a Website

1

Take a full backup in cPanel

Log into cPanel (yoursite.com/cpanel) and find the Backup section. Click "Download a Full Account Backup". Pick a destination (Home Directory or Remote FTP) and an email for the completion notification. The backup includes all files, databases, email accounts and DNS settings.

2

Take a partial backup (files or database)

For a faster backup of files or the database only: in the cPanel Backup section, under "Download a MySQL Database Backup" click your database to download just the .sql.gz file. For files, use "Download a Home Directory Backup".

3

Install a WordPress backup plugin

For WordPress sites, we recommend UpdraftPlus (free, most popular with 3+ million installations) or BlogVault (premium, with staging environment). Install: WordPress admin → Plugins → Add New → search "UpdraftPlus" → Install → Activate.

4

Configure an automatic backup schedule

In UpdraftPlus settings, the "Settings" tab: pick the backup schedule (we recommend daily for the database, weekly for files). Set the number of backups to keep (3-7 copies). Pick a remote storage provider (Google Drive, Dropbox, S3) for the off-site copy.

5

Set up off-site (remote) storage

Never store backups only on the same server as the site. In UpdraftPlus → "Settings" tab → Remote Storage section, pick Google Drive (15 GB free), Dropbox (2 GB free) or Amazon S3 (paid but cheap). Click "Save Changes" and follow the OAuth authorization flow.

6

Test the restore process

A backup you have not tested is not a backup. In UpdraftPlus → "Existing Backups" tab, find a backup and click "Restore". Choose components to restore (everything or just the database). Always test on a staging or local copy first, not the production site.

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FAQ

Answers to the most common questions about our services.

Depends on how often content changes. For a daily-publishing blog or an e-commerce site: daily database backup and weekly file backup. For a business site with rare changes: weekly is enough. Always take a manual backup before any major change (WordPress update, plugin install, theme change). BeoHosting automatically takes daily backups on all packages.

Yes, BeoHosting takes an automatic daily backup of your full hosting account (files, databases, email). Backups are stored on a separate server and available for restore via the customer panel or by contacting support. We still recommend having your own cloud backup (Google Drive, Dropbox) — redundancy is key, never rely on a single backup location.

UpdraftPlus is by far the best free WordPress backup plugin with 3+ million active installations. The free version offers: scheduled backups, restore from the admin panel, cloud storage (Google Drive, Dropbox, S3) and partial backups (database only, files only). The free version lacks: site cloning, migration and automatic pre-update backups.

A backup is roughly the same size as the site. An average WordPress site (500 MB - 2 GB) will have a backup of similar size. The database is usually much smaller (10-100 MB). To save space: UpdraftPlus compresses backup files, you can exclude cache directories, and limit the number of stored copies to 3-7. For off-site storage, Google Drive offers 15 GB free which is enough for most sites.

From UpdraftPlus: Settings → UpdraftPlus Backups → Existing Backups, find the desired backup and click "Restore". Choose components to restore (everything or just the database). From cPanel: Backup → Restore, upload the backup file. For a full cPanel backup, contact hosting support. Important: take a backup of the current state before restoring in case you want to roll back. On BeoHosting, support can do the restore for you free of charge.

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