UpdraftPlus vs. BackWPup – Which is the best WordPress backup plugin?

A WordPress backup plugin is something anyone that owns and runs a WordPress based website should have installed. We have all heard stories of those unfortunate people that have spent a significant amount of time and money on their site, only to lose everything due to an unexpected crash. Once your site has gone, it is almost impossible to retrieve and restore it back to its former working version. There is a simple way however to prevent this; by installing a WordPress backup plugin.

In this blog, we will compare and review two of the most popular WordPress backup and restore plugins: UpdraftPlus and BackWPup.

When looking for any kind of plugin, be it a backup service, caching, image optimization etc, WP.org should always be your first stop. Here you can check out all the most popular and highly rated plugins. When comparing the best backup plugins WP.org has to offer. 

UpdraftPlus currently ranks at number 1, with over 3 million active installs and a top rated 5 star ranking from 5,570 reviews. 

BackWPup is currently ranked 3rd in WP.org, with 700,000 active installs, a 4.5 star rating from 984 reviews. 

From the WP.org ranking and reviews, we can see that UpdraftPlus isn’t only above BackWPup in the backup rankings, but it comes in at number 1 in the overall rankings for the hugely competitive ‘backup’ plugin market – even above Automattic’s own Jetpack backup plugin. 

Both plugins have been on the market for around 10 years, showing that they are established and that the developers have kept up with updates during that time. As both plugins offer free and premium versions, we will be evaluating and comparing the free options for UpdraftPlus and BackWPup as they offer similar services and options. 

Remote storage options

Even with the free version of UpdraftPlus, users are able to backup large sites and can use its proprietary cloud backup storage service. BackWPup does not have a proprietary storage option and have to be made via external backup locations, unless you have the space needed on your server. 

UpdraftPlus has a wide range of external remote storage backup options, including the following:

BackWPup does not offer such a wide range and leaves users limited to the following remote storage options:

UpdraftPlus has a clear advantage over BackWPup when it comes to remote storage options, with several big name backup locations that are missing from BackWPup. 

Encryption

When backing up your files and databases, UpdraftPlus utilizes advanced encryption techniques to help keep your backup secure and encrypts every database backup. If you transfer any of your files or databases to a remote cloud storage option, such as Google Drive, it will automatically encrypt the data, keeping it secure and safe. 

BackWPup also gives you the option to encrypt your files as you are backing up with symmetric and asymmetric procedures. However these procedures can be complex and difficult to follow, even with the instructions provided, making UpdraftPlus the better and easier option. 

Conclusion

If you review the rankings, features and services of UpdraftPlus and BackWPup, UpdraftPlus comes out as the clear winner in a straight comparison.

While the free version of UpdraftPlus offers various benefits and advantages over BackWPup, it has lots of additional features and add-ons that BackWPup lacks, such as UpdraftClone, Migrator and further remote storage options. This increased functionality gives users the option to take full control of their WordPress site with the UpdraftPlus plugin. As BackWPup has no property storage location or migration or cloning options in it’s premium version either, UpdraftPlus emerges as clearly the better and more user friendly plugin, with an extensive collection of additional functionality options, should you ever need them.

Be sure to check out all of our WordPress backup comparison pages:

UpdraftPlus vs. BackupWordPress comparison
UpdraftPlus vs. BackupBuddy comparison
UpdraftPlus vs. Akeeba comparison
UpdraftPlus vs. Jetpack comparison 
UpdraftPlus vs. WP Vivid comparison
UpdraftPlus vs, BackWPup comparison