Making a backup is half the job. The other half is putting it somewhere it will still be when your site isn't. A surprising number of "backups" sit in a folder on the very server they're meant to protect.
Here's how the three places compare, and how to combine them sensibly.
Option 1: On your web server
Good for: quick restores after a bad plugin update.
A backup on the same server is the fastest to make and the fastest to restore: nothing to upload or download. Movebase keeps these in a private folder outside your public website, so they can't be downloaded by guessing a URL.
The catch: if the server fails, the hosting account is suspended, or an attacker gets in, your backups go with the site. Server backups also eat into your hosting disk space.
Option 2: On your computer
Good for: an extra copy you fully control.
Downloading the ZIP parts gives you a copy no host can touch. It costs nothing and works offline.
The catch: large sites take a while to download, the copy is only as recent as your last download, and laptops get lost, stolen and replaced. If you rely on this, copy the backups to an external drive or your personal cloud drive too.
Option 3: Cloud storage
Good for: off-site backups that are always available, for one site or fifty.
Cloud storage keeps your backups in a different data center from your website. You can restore them onto the same site or a completely different one, which also makes moving hosts easier.
You have two routes:
- Storage you already pay for. Movebase connects to IDrive e2, MEGA S4 and any S3-compatible service, including Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2 and Wasabi, with your own access keys. This is free in the plugin.
- Movebase Cloud. Storage we run for you: sign in from the plugin and you're done, with no buckets or keys. One account covers all your sites, and plans start at $10 a year.
Either way, Movebase reads each part back after uploading it and checks its checksum, so a backup is only marked complete when every part arrived intact.
The 3-2-1 rule, made practical
Backup professionals use a simple rule: keep 3 copies of your data, on 2 different kinds of storage, with 1 copy off-site. For a WordPress site, that can be as simple as:
- Your live site (copy one).
- A recent backup in cloud storage (copy two, off-site).
- An occasional download to your computer before big changes (copy three, different storage).
A quick comparison
| Server | Computer | Cloud | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Survives a server failure | No | Yes | Yes |
| Survives a hacked site | Rarely | Yes | Yes |
| Fast to restore | Yes | Slow for big sites | Yes |
| Uses hosting disk space | Yes | No | No (with direct backups) |
| Works for many sites | One at a time | One at a time | Yes |
"My host already backs up my site"
That's great, and you should keep it switched on. But host backups usually live on the same company's infrastructure, are kept for a limited time, and may only be restored by support. Treat them as a bonus layer, not your only copy.
What we recommend
- Small site, rarely changes: server backups plus a download to your computer after each round of changes.
- Business site or shop: cloud storage for every backup, plus a download before major updates.
- Agencies with many sites: one cloud destination for all of them. See how agencies manage backups for client sites.
Ready to set one up? Follow our guides for IDrive e2, Amazon S3 or Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2 and Wasabi.
We build Movebase and test every step we write about on real WordPress sites, from shared hosting to big WooCommerce stores.