UpdraftPlus review: if you want to know whether this is actually the best WordPress backup plugin in 2026 or just the most popular one, this guide gives you a straight answer.
In this complete UpdraftPlus review for 2026, I cover every key feature, the honest difference between free and Premium, real pricing, what actual users say, pros and cons based on real usage, and who should and should not pay for the upgrade. No fluff.
What Is UpdraftPlus?
UpdraftPlus is a WordPress backup, restore, and migration plugin developed by TeamUpdraft. It has been available since 2011 and now has over 3 million active installations, making it the most widely installed WordPress backup plugin in the repository.
The core job of UpdraftPlus is simple: automatically back up your WordPress database, files, themes, and plugins on a schedule you define, store those backups in a remote location of your choice, and let you restore your site from any backup with a few clicks directly inside WordPress admin.
This UpdraftPlus review covers both the free version and the Premium upgrade, so you know exactly what you get at each tier before spending anything.
According to WordPress.org, UpdraftPlus holds a 4.8 out of 5 star rating from over 8,000 user reviews, one of the strongest trust signals of any plugin in the repository.
UpdraftPlus Free vs Premium: Key Differences
Before going into features, here is an honest comparison of what you actually get at each tier:
| Feature | UpdraftPlus Free | UpdraftPlus Premium |
|---|---|---|
| Full site backups (files, database, themes, plugins) | Yes | Yes |
| Scheduled automatic backups | Yes | Yes |
| One-click restore from within WordPress | Yes | Yes |
| Remote storage: Google Drive, Dropbox, S3, FTP | Yes | Yes, plus more options |
| Incremental backups | No | Yes |
| Site migration and cloning | No | Yes |
| Database encryption | No | Yes |
| Multisite network support | Limited | Full |
| Multiple remote storage destinations simultaneously | No | Yes |
| Advanced reporting and notifications | Basic | Advanced |
| Priority support | No | Yes |
| Price | Free | From $70 per year |
The honest assessment in this UpdraftPlus review: the free version is genuinely functional and covers everything most personal blogs and simple business sites need. Premium becomes worth considering when you run a WooCommerce store, manage multiple client sites, or have a large site where incremental backups make a meaningful practical difference.
UpdraftPlus Key Features Explained
1. Automatic Scheduled Backups
UpdraftPlus lets you schedule automatic backups at intervals ranging from every 2 hours to monthly. You configure separate schedules for your database and your files, which is useful because your database changes more frequently than your theme files and plugin files.
For most WordPress blogs and small business sites, a daily database backup and a weekly files backup covers everything needed without consuming excessive storage. For WooCommerce stores where orders, customer data, and inventory change constantly, more frequent database backups are appropriate.
The scheduled backup system runs on WordPress cron jobs. On most quality hosting environments, this works reliably. On some budget shared hosts where cron jobs do not fire consistently, scheduled backups may occasionally miss their schedule. This is a hosting environment issue, not an UpdraftPlus issue, but it is worth confirming your scheduled backups are running by checking the backup log regularly after setup.
2. Cloud Storage Integrations
UpdraftPlus connects to over 15 remote storage destinations. The free version supports Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, Rackspace, FTP, and email. Premium adds OneDrive, Backblaze, Azure, SFTP, WebDAV, and several others.
Storing backups remotely is the most important backup configuration decision you can make. Backups stored only on your hosting server provide false security; if your server fails, is compromised, or your host has a data center issue, both your site and your backups disappear simultaneously. Off-site cloud storage means your backups survive independently of whatever happens to your server.
3. One-Click Restore
Restoring your site from a backup in UpdraftPlus takes a few clicks from the WordPress dashboard. You select the backup you want to restore, choose which components to restore, database, plugins, themes, uploads, or all of them- and click Restore. UpdraftPlus handles the rest.
This is a meaningful advantage over backup solutions that require FTP access, cPanel, or command line skills to perform a restore. Non-technical site owners can recover their site independently after a problem without waiting for hosting support.
4. Incremental Backups (Premium)
This is the most practically important Premium feature for sites with significant content. The free version creates a complete full backup every time it runs. For a small site with a few hundred megabytes of files, this is fine. For a site with gigabytes of media files, running a full backup daily consumes large amounts of storage space and server resources.
Premium’s incremental backup system runs a full backup once, then only captures the changes since the last backup on subsequent runs. If you added 50MB of new images since yesterday, your next backup is 50MB rather than your entire site. For large sites, this is the difference between daily backups being practical and impractical.
5. Site Migration and Cloning (Premium)
The Premium Migrator add-on lets you move a complete WordPress site to a new domain, host, or server. You make a backup on the source site, restore it on the destination, and UpdraftPlus automatically handles the database URL replacement, converting all internal links from the old domain to the new one without manual search and replace.
For agencies that regularly migrate client sites between staging and production environments, this feature alone saves significant time compared to manual migration methods.
6. Database Encryption (Premium)
Premium adds optional AES-256 encryption for your database backups. This is particularly relevant for sites storing sensitive user data, membership sites, eCommerce stores, or any site handling personal information. Encrypted backups cannot be read even if someone gains unauthorized access to your backup storage.
7. Backup Reporting and Email Notifications
After each backup run, UpdraftPlus sends an email report, successful backup confirmation or failure notification with error details. This means you know immediately if a scheduled backup fails rather than discovering it only when you need to restore.
Premium extends this with more detailed reporting and additional notification channels.
UpdraftPlus Pricing 2026
UpdraftPlus uses a tiered Premium pricing model based on the number of sites covered:
| Plan | First Year Price | Renewal Price | Sites |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal | $70 | $42 per year | 1 to 2 sites |
| Business | $95 | $57 per year | 1 to 10 sites |
| Agency | $145 | $87 per year | 1 to 35 sites |
Key pricing facts:
All plans offer a 40% discount on renewal pricing, so the ongoing annual cost is significantly lower than the first year. The plugin continues working after your subscription expires, but you lose access to updates and support until you renew.
For agencies managing 35 sites on the Agency plan at $145 per year, the per-site cost is approximately $4 per year, which is genuinely excellent value for a reliable, full-featured backup solution across an entire client portfolio.
For single site owners paying $70 per year, the calculation is more personal. If your site generates any revenue, from affiliate links, services, WooCommerce sales, or advertising, the $70 annual cost of reliable backups with incremental support and migration tools is a reasonable insurance expense. If your site is a personal blog with no revenue and no content you cannot recreate, the free version is sufficient.
👉 Get UpdraftPlus Free — Download from WordPress.org 👉 Upgrade to UpdraftPlus Premium — See All Plans
UpdraftPlus Pros and Cons
Pros
1. Most powerful free backup plugin available: Unlike competing free plugins that restrict core functionality to push upgrades, UpdraftPlus Free includes full site backups, scheduling, remote cloud storage, and one-click restore from within WordPress admin. For most simple sites, the free version covers everything needed without spending a dollar.
2. 3 million plus active installations and a 4.8-star rating: The scale of real-world usage and the strength of community feedback is the most reliable signal of a plugin’s actual reliability. UpdraftPlus has been tested across more hosting environments, WordPress configurations, and edge cases than any competing backup plugin.
3. Incremental backups make large sites practical: For any site with significant media libraries, the Premium incremental backup system is a genuine operational improvement — reducing backup time, storage consumption, and server load on every subsequent backup after the initial full backup.
4. 15 plus remote storage destinations: More cloud storage options than any competing backup plugin. Whether your preference is Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, or a private FTP server, UpdraftPlus covers it.
5. Continues working after subscription expires: Unlike some plugins that disable functionality if you do not renew, UpdraftPlus continues running after your license expires. You lose updates and support, but your existing backup schedules keep running. This is a user-friendly policy that competing plugins do not always match.
6. Reliable migration tool (Premium): The Migrator add-on handles the database URL replacement that trips up manual migration attempts, making site moves between domains or hosts straightforward for non-developers.
7. Not pushy about upgrades: UpdraftPlus is notably restrained about prompting free users to upgrade compared to many WordPress plugins. The free experience does not bombard you with upgrade notices on every admin screen.
Cons
1. Cron job dependency can cause missed backups on poor hosting: UpdraftPlus relies on WordPress cron jobs, which do not fire reliably on some budget shared hosting environments. Always verify your backup log after setup to confirm scheduled backups are actually running.
2. Cloud storage setup can be tricky for beginners: Connecting to Google Drive or Dropbox requires navigating authentication flows that non-technical users sometimes find confusing. Authentication tokens also expire and require reconnection, a maintenance task that catches some users off guard.
3. Backups stored locally by default until you configure cloud storage: If you do not configure a remote storage destination, UpdraftPlus stores backups on your hosting server, which does not protect against server-level failures. This default is safe-feeling but practically limited. Always configure off-site storage immediately after installation.
4. Performance impact on very large sites: For sites with very large file sets, backup runs consume noticeable server resources. This is less of an issue with Premium’s incremental backups, but free users running full daily backups on large sites may notice temporary performance impact during backup runs.
5. Migration add-on is Premium only: Site cloning and migration are not available in the free version. For one-off migrations, free alternatives like Duplicator handle the task. For agencies doing frequent migrations, the Premium Migrator is the cleaner solution.
Who Should Use UpdraftPlus?
UpdraftPlus Free is the right choice for:
- Personal bloggers and simple brochure sites with minimal content
- Sites where no revenue is at stake and downtime is not a business problem
- Anyone who wants reliable off-site backups without spending anything
UpdraftPlus Premium is worth the upgrade for:
- WooCommerce store owners where database backups need to run frequently, and incremental backups save significant storage
- Agencies managing multiple client sites who need the Agency plan’s per-site cost efficiency
- Sites with large media libraries where full backup runs become impractical
- Anyone who regularly migrates sites between domains or hosts
Consider alternatives if:
- Your hosting already includes reliable managed backups with easy restore access; Cloudways, for example, includes automated daily backups with one-click restore built into its dashboard
- You need real-time backups for a very high-transaction WooCommerce store; UpdraftPlus does not offer real-time backup that captures every single transaction
UpdraftPlus vs Alternatives
UpdraftPlus vs BlogVault
BlogVault is a SaaS backup solution; backups are processed on BlogVault’s servers, not yours, meaning zero server load impact. It includes real-time WooCommerce backup and a staging environment. It costs more than UpdraftPlus Premium but eliminates the server resource and cron job concerns. For high-traffic WooCommerce stores where real-time order backup matters, BlogVault is the stronger specialist choice.
UpdraftPlus vs Duplicator
Duplicator is better known as a migration tool than a backup plugin. Its free version handles one-off site cloning and migration well. For regular automated backups, UpdraftPlus is the more complete and better-suited solution. Many agencies use both: UpdraftPlus for scheduled backups and Duplicator for one-time migration tasks.
UpdraftPlus vs Your Hosting Backup
Quality managed hosts, including Cloudways, which I recommend and use on my projects, include automatic daily backups with one-click restore built directly into the hosting dashboard. If your host already provides reliable managed backups, UpdraftPlus Free adds a useful second layer of off-site protection at no cost. For hosts without reliable managed backups, UpdraftPlus is a necessary addition.
For complete hosting recommendations, see the Best WordPress Hosting 2026 guide and the Cloudways Review 2026.
Final Verdict: Is UpdraftPlus Worth It in 2026?
Yes — UpdraftPlus earns its reputation as the best WordPress backup plugin in 2026, and both the free and Premium tiers deliver genuine value.
The free version is the most capable free backup solution available in the WordPress repository. For personal blogs, simple business sites, and any site where budget is the primary constraint, UpdraftPlus Free configured with Google Drive or Dropbox storage covers everything you need at zero cost.
UpdraftPlus Premium at $70 per year for 1 to 2 sites is worth the upgrade, specifically when you run WooCommerce, manage large sites where incremental backups make a practical difference, or regularly migrate sites between environments. For agencies managing 35 sites at $145 per year, the per-site cost is among the lowest available for a professional backup solution.
The only scenario where UpdraftPlus is not the best choice is very high-transaction WooCommerce stores requiring real-time backup, for those, a dedicated SaaS backup solution is the more appropriate fit.
For everyone else, this UpdraftPlus review gives it a clear, confident recommendation.
👉 Download UpdraftPlus Free — WordPress.org 👉 Get UpdraftPlus Premium — See All Pricing Plans
Frequently Asked Questions
Is UpdraftPlus really free? Yes. UpdraftPlus has a completely free version available from the WordPress.org plugin repository. It includes full site backups, scheduled automation, remote cloud storage connections to Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, and FTP, and one-click restore from within WordPress admin. Core backup and restore functionality is not paywalled.
What happens when my UpdraftPlus Premium license expires? The plugin continues working normally after expiry. Your existing backup schedules keep running, and all backups remain accessible. You lose access to plugin updates and premium support until you renew. This is a notably user-friendly policy: your backups do not stop running just because your license expired.
Can UpdraftPlus restore my site if my hosting server fails? Yes, if you have configured remote off-site storage. If your backups are stored on Google Drive, Dropbox, or Amazon S3, you can restore your site to a new hosting environment by installing a fresh WordPress site, installing UpdraftPlus, connecting the same remote storage account, and importing the backup. This is why off-site storage configuration is the single most important step after installing UpdraftPlus.
Does UpdraftPlus work with WooCommerce? Yes. UpdraftPlus backs up your WooCommerce database, product data, and order history as part of the standard WordPress database backup. For high-volume WooCommerce stores with frequent orders, Premium’s incremental backups and more frequent scheduling options are recommended to minimize potential data loss between backup runs.
What is the difference between UpdraftPlus and Duplicator? UpdraftPlus is primarily a scheduled backup and restore solution. Duplicator is primarily a site migration and cloning tool. Both can technically do both jobs, but UpdraftPlus is better for ongoing automated backup protection, while Duplicator is better for one-off site moves. Many WordPress professionals use both.
Is UpdraftPlus safe to use? Yes. UpdraftPlus follows WordPress security standards and has been actively maintained since 2011 with regular updates. The Premium version adds database encryption for sensitive data. With 3 million-plus active installations and a 4.8-star rating from over 8,000 reviews, its safety record across real-world usage is well established.
Need your WordPress site professionally maintained, including backup configuration, security monitoring, and regular updates? I offer complete WordPress website maintenance services that cover everything your site needs to stay secure and reliable. Contact me here.
Written by the WordPress Expert at wpexpertlab.com
Also read: Cloudways Review 2026 | Best WordPress Hosting 2026 | WordPress Website Maintenance Service | Rank Math vs Yoast SEO 2026
