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Website Backup takes a copy of your website's files and database every day and keeps it off-site, so you can put your website back exactly as it was on any day, even if your hosting account itself has a problem. This article covers how to get started, how to restore, and how it differs from the backups in your hosting panel.
Opening your backup dashboard
- Sign in to the client area and go to My Services.
- Click your Website Backup service. (If you added it to a hosting plan, open the hosting plan and find it under Addons.)
- Use the log-in button on its page. The backup dashboard opens already signed in.
Connecting your website
- Added to a hosting plan with us: your website is connected for you, and the first backup starts by itself. Check the dashboard: your site should be listed, with the first backup in progress or complete.
- Bought on its own: add your website yourself. In the backup dashboard, click Add FTP/SFTP Website, then enter your website's address and its FTP or SFTP details (server, username and password; your hosting provider can give you these). Choose the folders to back up (usually the folder your website is in), then add your database details so it's backed up too.
The first backup takes longest, because everything is copied. After that, only the changes are copied each day.
Restoring your website
In the backup dashboard, open your website and choose the date you want to go back to. You can then:
- restore a single file or folder, for example a page someone deleted by mistake; or
- restore the whole website, and its database, as it was on that date.
You can also test a restore on a temporary copy of the site first, to check you've picked the right date before you change the live site. If your site has been hacked, choose a date from before the problem started: hacked sites often carry hidden code for some time before anything shows.
Change alerts
Each day's backup is compared with the last one, and you're sent an email summarising which files changed. If files change that you didn't touch, that can be an early sign that something's wrong, so it's worth a quick look.
WordPress sites
For WordPress, the backup service can also keep WordPress, your plugins and your theme up to date automatically. It takes a backup first, and puts things back if an update breaks your site. Turn this on from your WordPress site in the backup dashboard.
If you run out of storage
Each plan includes a set amount of backup storage. If your website and its history outgrow it, the dashboard warns you. Move to a plan with more storage from the client area: open the service in My Services and choose to upgrade (see Upgrading or downgrading your plan).
How it differs from your hosting panel's backups
Every hosting plan with us is already covered by our daily server backups (we keep a week of copies off-site and restore from them on request), and you can make your own backups at any time in your hosting panel (see Backups and restore). Website Backup adds:
- a separate, off-site copy, kept away from your hosting account and encrypted;
- a longer history, limited by your storage rather than a week, so you can go back further;
- single-file restores and test restores from an easy dashboard; and
- daily change alerts and, for WordPress, safe automatic updates.
Many people use both: their own panel backups before big changes, and Website Backup as the everyday independent copy.