Website Backups and Restores

Why your host's backup is not enough

Many hosts do keep backups, but they are often stored on the same server or the same provider as your site, kept for a short time, and restored only on request, sometimes for a fee. If your hosting account is suspended, the provider has a serious outage, or you simply leave them on bad terms, those backups can be out of reach exactly when you need them.

A sensible rule is the 3-2-1 approach: three copies of your data, on two different types of storage, with one copy off-site. For a small business website that means the live site, a host backup, and an independent off-site copy that you control. That last copy is what dijitul support provides.

What a proper website backup includes

• The database. On WordPress this holds every page, post, product, order, user and setting. Losing it means losing the site's content, even if the files survive.
• The files. Theme, plugins, the wp-content/uploads folder with your images and PDFs, and configuration files such as wp-config.php and .htaccess.
• Enough history. A single backup is overwritten by tomorrow's. If a hack went unnoticed for a week, you need a copy from before it happened, so we keep a rolling history.
• Off-site storage. Backups stored away from the web server, encrypted in transit.

We also make sure the backup does not quietly exclude things. A common fault is a plugin set to skip the uploads folder to save space, which means years of images are never actually backed up.

Restoring when something goes wrong

The value of a backup is only proved by restoring it. When you need one, we:

1. Work out the right restore point, for example the last copy before an update or before malware appeared
2. Decide whether to restore everything or just the database or one folder, so you do not lose today's orders or enquiries unnecessarily
3. Restore, clear caches, and check the site, forms and checkout work
4. For hacks, close the hole that let the attacker in, otherwise the clean site will be reinfected. See hacked website repair.

On shops, restoring the whole database can wipe orders placed since the backup. We handle this carefully, exporting recent orders or restoring selectively, so nothing is lost.

Speed matters too. A restore from a well-organised off-site backup usually takes minutes to an hour, depending on the size of the site, while rebuilding from scratch without one can take days or weeks.

Fixing failing backup plugins

If you run UpdraftPlus, BackWPup, Duplicator or a host tool and it keeps failing, the cause is usually one of a few things: PHP max_execution_time too low for the size of the site, the hosting disk quota being full because old backups are stored locally, a remote storage connection (Google Drive, Dropbox, S3) whose authorisation has expired, or WP-Cron not running because the site gets little traffic. We fix the underlying cause rather than just pressing the button again.

Backups, GDPR and what to keep

Website backups often contain personal data: form entries, customer accounts and orders. Under UK GDPR that data still needs protecting, so backups should be stored securely and not kept forever. We use encrypted off-site storage with a sensible retention period, and can align it with your own data retention policy. For office files and computers rather than websites, see data backup and recovery.

Pricing

Daily off-site backups are included in every support plan. Essential at £25 a month + VAT covers updates, daily backups, uptime and security monitoring. Business at £50 a month + VAT adds an hour of fixes each month and priority support, and Complete at £99 a month + VAT adds three hours plus IT and Microsoft 365 helpdesk. If you are not on a plan and need a restore now, it is £45 an hour + VAT. Get in touch.

What it costs

Support plans from £25 a month + VAT, or £45 an hour + VAT for one-off fixes. Pick a plan if you want it looked after every month, or pay by the hour for a one-off job.

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