How often do you take a backup?

[flukmani]

How often do you take a back-up of your websites database and files?

Do you do it in scheduled or whenever you want?

Or you will use function from web hosting where your backup will be stored on server automatically.

 

[RDO Servers]

This depends on what your site is, how often the data changes, and how critical it is to you.

If it is a blog, then backups monthly would probably be fine.

If it is for a business and has data that changes daily, then use daily automated backups for sure.

If your host had a major failure and all data was lost, how recent if a backup would be good enough for you and how much could the loss potentially cost you?

Always make sure you have your own off site backups as well!

 

[Hostlumina]

How often do you take a back-up of your websites database and files?

Do you do it in scheduled or whenever you want?

Or you will use function from web hosting where your backup will be stored on server automatically.

It comes down to how important is your data and how large. I always recommend creating a backup plan regardless if the hosting provider offers backups.

Your plan needs to consist on a couple of items:
- Determine if you are going to go with an automatic (cron, additional software, etc...) or manually process the backup and if so how will you remind yourself of this task?
- Offsite (back up storage will need to be purchase or a small vps) or downloading the backup to your home or office (usually depends on size)
- How often do you need and want to back up
- Choose a time to do it. When choosing a time you might want to check with your host. Some only allow specific window times and most importantly your lowest traffic time.
- How long do you want to keep the backups for or are required to keep by law (depending on business + data type)
- Lastly, always make an immediate back up prior and after making any changes to your site.


Couple rules I go for myself in regards how often.

Daily to several times a day backups - Crucial sites where content is constantly changing (by the minute, hourly, or couple times a day) such as eCommerce site, blog, forum, database, CRM, etc... This obviously will depend on the size of the business, community, etc...

Weekly backups - For dynamic or static sites where data changes once or twice a week. example - a blog where you post once a week with no comments or very minimal comments or a html site that you update weekly.

Monthly backups - Static web sites that you make changes to once or every other couple months.

**Immediate Backups - This is very important that I find people forget. Always back up prior a change and after a change you make (i.e. script update, code modification, installing add-on, etc...)

 

[Hassan]

Daily backup is very important in case of accidentally deleted files, hardware issue or disaster like fire.

 

[ElixantTechnology]

As a Web-Hosting Provider, Backups are EXTREMELY important, and we have a little bit different of a backup policy that we follow. Depending on the type of website, you should evaluate your backup procedures. If you are running an E-Commerce based website that processes many transactions daily, maybe backup your database twice per day?

 

[Allenafaith]

I take a backup daily just in case something were to happen while I was asleep etc.

 

[samuelson99]

I have a small blog and I take a backup for it around 1 or 2 weeks.

Upon on my new content updated, when I have more new content for the blog, I will backup files and database after content posted to.

 

[Traveler]

I have automated backups in my web hosting control panel that are daily backups but I also do them to my computer once a week most times. I do forget sometime but I do not change my site too often so I will be ok I think if I miss one.

 

[ulterios]

I do automated backups on a schedule for my websites but also do manual backups from time to time, especially after I have made any kind of significant additions or changes to them.

I also keep my backups for quite a while just in case something goes wrong and there is nothing clear as far as when exactly something went wrong. It has rarely happened like this but I like to have them just in case I need them.

 

[vishwa]

I am on Godaddy managed WordPress hosting. They will take backups daily both the files and database. However I personally take backup for my site to make sure that a copy of my site backup is always with me.

 

[Dean]

I am on Godaddy managed WordPress hosting. They will take backups daily both the files and database. However I personally take backup for my site to make sure that a copy of my site backup is always with me.

Are the daily backups part of their service that's included in the price or is that an extra charge for those?

I've been thinking about trying the service out just to see how it compares to their regular hosting.

 

[vishwa]

Are the daily backups part of their service that's included in the price or is that an extra charge for those?

I've been thinking about trying the service out just to see how it compares to their regular hosting.

Hello Dean, Yes, Daily backups are part of my subscription and there is no hidden fees behind it. Godaddy provides free daily backups on all managed WordPress hosting plans.

 

[Kania]

Hello Dean, Yes, Daily backups are part of my subscription and there is no hidden fees behind it. Godaddy provides free daily backups on all managed WordPress hosting plans.

My web hosting does not have free backups and I have to do them myself. Maybe I will try this web hosting because I would like it to be done without extra costs and to save time.

 

[KeralMTG]

I just started to do them more often and now I try to do them every weekend. I was recommended to have more than one place for backups so I am looking into doing that.

I have read some scary stories where people lost their whole website from not having backups so I really recommend doing them often.