Having hosting that says they backup your website, or a plugin you installed that says it backs up the website may be giving you a false sense of security.

You need the following website backups to make sure your website is t really backed up:

• A granular backup
• An off-site backup
• A host backup

Local Backup – A granular backup

This could be a local backup in the same host. I use UpdraftPlus and save the files locally.

A local backup with UpdraftPlus gives me granular control over the restore process. So I can select which database tables to restore, what plugins, templates, etc.

But because it is a local backup, it does not protect me from hacks or losing access to the hosting.

The only reason I keep it local is for the convenience and speed.

But Updraft does offer off-site backup capabilities.

Off-site backup – A backup to protect against disasters and excuses from hosting companies

Keeping a backup in a place you know you can access regardless of whether the hosting company has some sort of disaster or your website gets hacked, or you get locked out of your hosting, gives you incredible peace of mind.

It isn’t enough to download a compressed file of the website backup, actually test that you are able to restore your website in a completely separate hosting environment.

Better yet, automate this process.

That is once again why I use UpdraftPlus. It has off-site backup capabilities, and the ability to boot up a copy of your website from the backup so you can verify check the backup is working.

Last, a Host Backup – A backup of your host settings and website

For websites 1GB in size or bigger, an off-site backup is slow to restore compared to a host backup.

A hosting company usually offers some sort of backup either in CPanel or Softaculous.

These are great to restore an entire website quickly.

It is a kind of local backup in that it is saved in your hosting environment.

It is usually kept separate from your public_html directory so it should be safe from hackers.

But it is not safe if your hosting is compromised due to disaster or account login issues.

However, it is convenient when you cannot log into WordPress administration (which could happen due to hacking and viruses) and you need to restore the entire website back to the last know working version.

Without the ability to log into WordPress admin, you cannot use Updraft to quickly restore your website, you’ll have to follow Updrafts instructions on how to restore your backup manually, which is time-consuming.

Instead, a host backup allows you to restore the entire website in seconds with just one click, lowering the amount of downtime.

Bottom line

It is these three kinds of backups in conjunction that will keep your mind sane and your website secure.