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WordPress Backup Plugins Benchmark

I’ve tested the most used WordPress backup plugins and compared their compression level and backup&restore speed.

The website on which I performed the tests is a WP blog (pcx3.com) that has 2.7 GB in files and database size is 130.8 MB

Tested plugins:

  • Updraft backups 🏆 WINNER 🏆
  • BlogVault
  • BackWPup
  • Backup Guard
  • Duplicator
  • WPVivid
  • All-in-One WP Migration

New plugins might be added later on. 🙂

Spoiler alert – the answers are that:

updraftplus backup plugin logo - WordPress Backup Plugins Benchmark

Possibly the best free WordPress backup plugin is UpDraft Backups. It generates backups instantly, and the restoration process is just as fast. ⚡

And because database, uploads, themes, and plugins are stored inside separate .zip files, the plugin is not required for manual restoration.

UpDraft Backups Pro version supports WP-CLI and Incremental backups.


UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus is one of the most user-friendly backup plugins that you can find and I personally use it on many sites. Using this plugin the backup was generated in 4 minutes and its total size is 2.2 GB

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UpDraftPlus Backup Files

The upDraft backup plugin doesn’t have great compression but the backup and restore speeds are amazing:

time to generate a full website backupbackup sizecompressiontime to restore backup
4m 16s
(Start at 18:58:44 – Finish 19:03)
2.2 GB18.51 %1m
(Start at 19:10:06 – Finish 19:04)

All-in-One WP Migration

A simple backup plugin that supports many destinations but doesn’t really have any settings that you can configure.

Using this plugin the backup was generated in 3.29 minutes and its total size is 2.84 GB

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All-In-One Backup File

WordPress All-in-One Migration plugin stores backups as a single .wpress file.

The free version is pretty limited so I couldn’t even run the restore and measure it.

chrome IW6IHGsskz - WordPress Backup Plugins Benchmark
time to generate a full website backupbackup sizecompressiontime to restore backup
3m 29s
(Start at 19:07:14 – Finish 19:10:41)
2.84 GB+ 5.18 %paid feature

BackupGuard

To be honest I haven’t used this plugin before but the UI is pretty sweet and I like the chunk options that make sure the backup is not terminated due to timeouts.

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BackupGuard Backup File

Both backup and restore took the same amount of time: 6 minutes

time to generate a full website backupbackup sizecompressiontime to restore backup
6 m
(Start at 19:36 – Finish 19:42)
2.03 GB 24.81 %6 m
(Start at 19:52 – Finish 19:58)

BackWPup

To be fair this plugin offers different types of compression based on the selected archive type: zip, tar, or tar.gz – but I’ve kept the default option .zip

chrome DzqiDK7pPW - WordPress Backup Plugins Benchmark
BackWPup Backup File

The backup process with the BackWPup plugin took the longest of all tested plugins – 2h 22m 32s!

chrome k2WtZSsG2K 1024x502 - WordPress Backup Plugins Benchmark
time to generate a full website backupbackup sizecompressiontime to restore backup
2h 22m 32s
(Start at 20:03 – Finish 22:22:32)
2.15 GB 20.37 %/

BlogVault

This plugin is basically a service and after installation, it will connect your website with an account on https://app.blogvault.net/ and automatically start a backup process.

As this plugin doesn’t allow you to store local backups but instead stores them on a remote server, the backup generation speed is also limited to your hosting plan download speed and to their “sync” limits – about 400mb every 8hrs..

chrome LQSxOJ5guq 1024x502 - WordPress Backup Plugins Benchmark
time to generate a full website backupbackup sizecompressiontime to restore backup
~ 1 day2.3 GB 0 %

Duplicator

This plugin makes it easier to clone or migrate WordPress to another hosting but can also be handy for backups. However, I must say that this is the only plugin from this list that caused a 524 Cloudflare timeout error during backup generation.

chrome ACosDbRWDj 1024x502 - WordPress Backup Plugins Benchmark
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Duplicator Backup File
time to generate a full website backupbackup sizecompressiontime to restore backup
4 m
(Start at 23:39 – Finish 22:43)
2.13 GB 21.11 %/

WPVivid

By compression % and backup time, WPvivid outperformed every other plugin, but the restore process took a bit longer than the first-runner UpDraft Plus.

chrome M6S4pyj0ee 1024x502 - WordPress Backup Plugins Benchmark
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WPvivid Backup Files
time to generate a full website backupbackup sizecompressiontime to restore backup
3 m 29 s
(Start at 23:10:24 – Finish 23:13:53)
1.93 GB 28.52 %4 m 4 s
(Start at 23:15:00 – Finish 23:19:04)

Total Upkeep

I was surprised by the efficiency of this plugin, backup was generated in 5 minutes, but the restore process was completed in under a minute – the fastest restore from all plugins tested!

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Total UpKeep (BoldGrid) Backup File
chrome 4Ad96poOrK 1024x502 - WordPress Backup Plugins Benchmark
time to generate a full website backupbackup sizecompressiontime to restore backup
5 m
(Start at 23:49 – Finish 23:54 )
2.07 GB 23.33 %40 s
(Start at 23:56 – Finish 23:56:40 )

Here are the WordPress Backup Plugins Benchmark results:

Plugintime to generate backupbackup sizebackup compressiontime to restore backupbackup location
UpDraft 🏆4m 16s2.2 GB18.51 %1mwp-content/updraft
Total UpKeep5m2.07 GB23.33 %40sboldgrid_backup
WPVivid3m 29s1.93 GB28.52 %4m 4swp-content/wpvividbackups
Duplicator4m2.13 GB21.11 %❌ paid featurewp-content/backups-dup-lite
All-in-One WP Migration3m 29s2.84 GB– 5.18 %❌ paid featurewp-content/ai1wm-backups
BackupGuard6m2.03 GB24.81 %6mwp-content/uploads/backup-guard
BackWPup2h 22m 32s2.15 GB20.37 %❌ paid featurewp-content/uploads/backwpup-1aaa1e-backups
BlogVault~ 1 day2.3 GB0 %*remote

If you plan on storing backups locally (bad idea) and disk size is important, consider WPVivid plugin as it offers better compression. But if you are looking for the fastest possible backups and restores, use the UpDraft backup plugin.

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