No matter where you host your website, something could happen that would immediately destroy all of your years of work on your blog. Your server could crash, your hosting service could accidentally delete it, or hackers could add malicious code that would take hours to clean up. Just like you (should) backup your personal computer regularly, your website needs backed up too so your data will never get lost.
There are many backup services for WordPress blogs today, ranging from plugins that email you a copy of your WordPress database to ones that archive everything on your site to Amazon S3. The new VaultPress service takes backup to the next level, making sure that everything from your site is redundantly backed up to multiple cloud services within seconds of it being saved on your site. Keep reading to see if VaultPress is the ideal backup solution for your WordPress powered site.
What is VaultPress?
VaultPress is a new service from Automattic, the parent company behind WordPress.com and many other services WordPress, designed to make it absolutely painless to backup your self-hosted WordPress site. It’s a webapp mixed with a WordPress plugin to give you the best mix of manageability and accessibility. VaultPress will backup every single part of your WordPress site, from posts and comments to settings and your wp-config.php file, and it does this as soon as they’re added or changed. Even better, it can automatically push security updates to your site and scan your files for vulnerabilities.
VaultPress' Homepage
I’ve Got a Golden Ticket
VaultPress is currently a beta service, and to signup, you’ll have to get a Golden Ticket with a special signup link. You can signup to apply for a Golden Ticket on their site by adding your name and info to their tongue-in-cheek signup letter. Alternately, many hosting services, including DreamHost, Media Temple, and ServInt, are offering Golden Tickets to WordPress users on their servers, so you may be able to get one from your hosting service if you want.
Wait, you don't have a Golden Ticket yet? Time to ask nicely!
Either way, once you’ve received an invite, you can signup for VaultPress to start protecting your site. VaultPress currently costs $15/month for complete backup of your site, no matter how large it is. Alternately, you can choose their $40/month professional service, which includes security auditing of all the files on your site in addition to the standard backup setup. To complete signup, you’ll need to add payment info, and then sign in with a WordPress.com account or create a new one.
Select the service that will work best for your site
Get VaultPress Setup
Now that you’ve got a new VaultPress account, you’re ready to add it to your WordPress site. You’ll get a link to download a unique copy of the VaultPress plugin with security codes specifically for your site and account. Install it in WordPress as normal, and seconds later you’ll see the current status as VaultPress uploads your site’s contents. It’ll backup everything, including uploads, plugins, themes, and all of your database data including posts, tags, comments, settings, and more.
You can see your files getting uploaded in real-time
You can also checkup on your site from your VaultPress account’s dashboard, where you’ll see some quick info about your site and can re-download the plugin, see its recent activity, change settings, and more.
Your VaultPress Dashboard
Additionally, you can configure VaultPress to integrated more directly with your site. First, make sure VaultPress can remotely upgrade your plugin; this will help keep you site secure and running the latest version at all times. Then, you can add your MySQL SSH and SFTP info so VaultPress can backup your data directly and use less of your webhost resources.
Get VaultPress connected more directly with your site
Get More Info About Your Site
In addition to backing up your data, VaultPress can give you unique data on your site. Right from your WordPress dashboard, you can see the total amount of data that’s backed up from your site, along with the most recent activity on your blog.
See what's backed up right from your WordPress install
On your VaultPress account dashboard, you can see even more interesting info about your WordPress site. VaultPress will list your most productive day of the week, the time you publish the most posts, as well as the most popular day and time. It adds all of this into a graph of your site’s vitality; the more activity, the better! It’s a unique way to look at your site’s data, and I’d love to see it integrated with the default Jetpack WordPress stats.
See deeper info about your site from VaultPress
Get Your Backup Data
Although you always hope you’ll never actually have to use it, someday you may need to restore your site from a VaultPress backup. The great thing is, since it’s always backing up every little change to your site, you can quickly revert to a previous version of your site. If you upgrade a plugin, delete a post, or change a theme and then want to undo what you change, just download your VaultPress backup from the last backup before the change. You can choose exactly what you want to download, and then upload the original files back to your webhost. This is where VaultPress really shines; it helps you in those moments of change that you likely wouldn’t have a backup to fix otherwise.
This is also a great tool if you need to move your site to a new webhost. Just download a complete backup of your site, then upload it to a new install of WordPress on your new host, and you’re ready to go. VaultPress plans to offer a service in the near future that will let you upload your data to your webhost via SFTP from their site, which will be much faster than uploading your files via FTP manually.
Download backups of your site data from anytime in the recent past
Conclusion
So, is VaultPress really worth $15-$40 per month? That will definitely depend on your needs from a backup service, but for most professional sites that actually make money from their site, I’d personally say yes. VaultPress does a much better job at incremental backup than any other WordPress backup solution I’ve seen, and makes it almost impossible to lose data from your site. It’s not for everyone, and obviously $15/month is more than most basic shared webhosting options today. But, considering that VaultPress lets you backup sites of any size for the same price, it’s an especially valuable service for larger sites. Either way, it’s exciting to see more options become available that make WordPress easier to manage and help writers focus on what they do best: writing!