This past week has seen so many technical challenges for me that I forgot what my name was, but one thing I remember in the haze: my need for a simple WordPress backup system and the rise of Backup Creator, a WordPress backup creator (and cloning) plugin that goes beyond just a database backup.

12/14/2011 Update: I no longer support or recommend this plugin.

When WordPress 3.3 came out of beta (after MONTHS of being IN beta), the plugin crashed 6 websites I installed it on, when I globally updated my WP to 3.3.

Of those 6, 3 are presently still down, and all were making me money.

Furthermore, my support ticket wound up revealing that the customer support (also witnessed by a customer of mine from this post) was lacking badly.

I may do a follow-up post on my experience with it, maybe not (as I have no designs to sully a person’s reputation or harm their business – maybe this person was simply having a bad day or his cat ate his curtains?)…we’ll see.

The current version supports (from what I hear) WP 3.3, but my recommendation: avoid this at all costs.

The lack of support was also coupled with a very spam-heavy list, from both of the plugin’s developers, and I’m sorry I supported Backup Creator for these reasons.

I have since forwarded all links to what I am currently using: WP Dolly, so if you click a link for Backup Creator, you will be taken instead to a preferred solution with better support.

You may not realize it, but a database backup only goes so far in what it backs up. It will backup your content, comments, links – but that’s about it.

Got Themes? Plugins? Images? Other files and permalinks and settings and such like?

Forgettaboudit.

You’ll only import that database and still have potential hours of work ahead of you.

Conversely, Backup Creator backs up your files, database, themes, plugins, settings, content…and it all downloads as a compressed zip file.

Mainly, I wanted it for cloning WordPress and for the peace of mind of having website backups just in case the typical happens: the sky is falling.

Usually I’m first in line (with Chicken Little somewhere far behind) when that happens.

Who is Backup Creator Designed For?

Maybe you’ve read the WordPress Codex on backing up WordPress (that’s the link).

Perchance you even understood it (that’s key), and this “ain’t no thang but a chicken wang.” If so, take this post as comedic fodder.

That’s not me in case you ain’t pickin’ up my jive turkey. (Airplane reference, pardon me.)

See, for someone like me, with the coding skills of protoplasm (my technical skills are analagous to blood-letting with mapwing leeches, so keep that in mind) – Backup Creator is perfect for us WordPress knuckleheads.

My apologies for implying you may be a knucklehead like me, I just like how the word sounds (one of my dad’s favorite “pet names” for me, and yes I miss hearing it).

Though I’ve been online commercially since 2009, I have been lazy in backing up my sites until recently (I only run WordPress websites currently, not counting the free sites like Blogger, Weebly, etc.).

I’ve never backed up my sites because it was “too hard” up ’till now, or too expensive, or it just didn’t seem to “make me money” immediately so I put it off.

Sound familiar?

Backup Creator is designed for anyone running WordPress.org sites (self-hosted websites), who either don’t want to hassle with the time necessary to create backups, or who don’t know how (I am vigorously waving my hand and hanging my head in shame, indicating my sad participation in this last group).

Backup Creator saves time, and yes it costs money, and yes I am an affiliate, and yes I’d like you to buy from my links so I can make a commission.

WARNING: Hypnotic Call to Action

 

Buy WP Dolly Instead - Thank Me Later

(Hypnotic, right?)

BUT that’s not really the reason for the post: I have a hunch I’m not the only lazy person online and that you may just need to hear this.

If anyone has had their sites go down (all mine went down last year on Black Friday at once: I lost at least $1,000 that day) – you know the regret of not backing up, right?

Maybe like me you’re hoping your webhost will have the gumption to keep your backups for you.

HostGator is good at that, so is Bluehost: but UG2BKM*, right?

What happens if the server crashes, in case of a fire, in case of natural disaster of other sorts…who knows: the point is that (shitake mushrooms) happens. (Spy Kids reference. Watched movies recently with the kids.)

So besides peace of mind in backing up regularly just in case something nutty were to happen (like hackers, viruses, server crashes, brute force attacks and general apacolyptical mayhem):

You can easily clone your website installations and make production 100 times faster.

*BTW, UG2BKM = U(You’ve) Got (2) Be Kidding Me

Benefits of Backup Creator

These are the reasons I bought Backup Creator, the main benefits that convinced me:

  • Very Competitively Priced (vs. WPTwin, WP Cloner, BackupBuddy)
  • Extremely Easy to Use (vs. the Free Solutions)
  • Time-Savings for Cloning Sites (Production) and Backing Up WordPress (Peace of Mind)
  • Murphy’s Law: It’s Inevitable – Prepare For the Worst, Otherwise it Happens
  • I am NOT Good With Complex, Technical Processes…I am a Technophobe (Not Only a Member: I’m the Technically-Weak, Electronically-Reluctant Publisher’s Society’s President – President T.W.E.R.P.)

The competing plugins work fine, it’s just they’re all too expensive in my book (I am, after all, the author of – budget is my middle name).

There are free solutions, too – but those I looked into are still more complex than I’m interested in (and no I didn’t try them: I got lost on the instructions and kept looking – I wanted a simple solution).

My solution was to buy Backup Creator (obviously) and I don’t regret doing so.

Alternatives to Consider

There are alternatives. For the sake of honesty and full disclosure here, my thought-process included looking at the following:

WordPress.org Instructions.

Read this piece on backing up your files from WordPress. Maybe like me you’ll cross your eyes and think, “No, that’s more work than I want to deal with.” At least that’s how lazy I am.

Learn more at: http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Backups

Pro’s:

  • Price = FREE

Con’s: 

  • Too Many Moving Parts for Me: Backup MySQL Database, Backup Themes, Backup Plugins and Files, Re-Install Site Permalinks and “Settings” in WordPress…
  • Too Many Steps
  • Too Much Time Needed

Use WordPress “Export” Feature for WXR File

This is something you can do under “Tools” if you’re running 3.2.1 or a similar version. It gives you a “WXR” or “WordPress eXtended RSS” file and you can upload that to another WP site under the “Import” feature (fancy that).

Learn more at: http://codex.wordpress.org/Tools_Export_Screen

Pro’s:

  • It’s FREE
  • Painless to Export…BUT…Import? (See Below)

Con’s: (I’ve said this already – it’s a common problem with WordPress: it’s still too geeky at times for people like me…)

  • Too Many Moving Parts for Me: Backup MySQL Database, Backup Themes, Backup Plugins and Files, Re-Install Site Permalinks and “Settings” in WordPress…
  • Too Many Steps
  • Too Much Time Needed

 

Various Free Plugins

There are lots of plugins to try: honestly I didn’t try any.

I want to be totally honest here: I read their steps, their FAQ’s, their features…and for various reasons this is primarily the reason I never bothered. All these intimidated me, so I put the whole thing off.

Learn more at: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tags/backup

Pro’s:

  • Price.
  • That’s It, Really…

Con’s:

  • Too Many Steps
  • Too Confusing
  • Too Intimidating
  • Too Much Time

I didn’t get much farther than reading about 5 or 6 descriptions and was settled on the matter – I wanted a simple-as-possible solution.

These free plugins didn’t present me with one, or they were frighteningly out of date and I’ve had enough trouble with outdated free plugins lately messing with my .htaccess file and incapacitating this blog.

So: if it’s an older, free plugin that’s not compatible with this version of WordPress (and we’re on the verge of 3.3), then I’m hesitating…Or if the plugin hasn’t been updated since Haley’s Comet was spotted in the 1600′s…

Well – it’s just a risk I don’t want to take personally (never mind that most of them are simply more complicated than I wanted).

WP Twin, Backup Buddy, WP Cloner, i.e. Competing Premium Solutions

I haven’t tested any of these. But I know people who swear by them, and I’m sure they work just fine. The only problem: price.

I’m cheap by profession.

That’s the pro/con’s list in a nutshell. You can learn more by simply looking up WPTwin, Backup Buddy, WP Cloner and any others that come to mind.

EDIT: I do recommend WP Dolly, which comes at 3 different prices, starting at $37.

Possible Contender: ManageWP.com

A-ha! This is a possible solution and actually meets my inner cheapskate (for now): the MangeWP plugin just rocks to be honest with you.

It does a LOT more than just cloning, I use it currently though it remains to be seen if I’ll continue (since it’s been free for this Beta but now it’s going live and on sale: see below for pricing).

BUT…it’s not simple by my standards – too many fields like FTP, database this and that…and since it uses WordPress functions…

Well, if you’ve been reading: I don’t like the default WP backup utilities.

Here is the cost according to ManageWP.com:

 

.
We plan to officially launch in November, 2011.ManageWP will remain free for up to three websites.The basic service will cost between $5 USD/month for 10 websites and $50 USD/month for 500 websites with different options in between for 25, 50, 100 and 250 managed sites.Prelovac Media
ManageWP.com
.

 

Pro’s:

  • More Than Just Cloning/Backups: Manages Multiple Sites

Con’s:

  • Standard WP Function: i.e. Not Simple, Not Easy By My Lazy Standards (I’m Not Kidding Here: I Hate Messing With That Stuff!)
  • Monthly Price Unless You Only Have 3 Sites

I already use ManageWP so why did I buy Backup Creator? Because I’m not 100% sure I’m going to pay for ManageWP.

I like it – but have a small network so it’s not a huge issue for me to manage my sites – so this is up in the air to tell you the truth; I keep my monthly overhead to a minimum.

Because of that one-time payment vs. ManageWP’s monthly charge, I bought Backup Creator, and love the thing.

Even if I change my mind and buy the monthly subscription to ManageWP, which is likely if I’m honest - I still don’t like the steps needed by WordPress to clone a site.

ManageWP is NOT the solution I was looking for in terms of “ease of use” (it just semi-automates the WordPress default systems for backing up and cloning).

What I Don’t Like About Backup Creator

Edit: Besides of course what I listed about their ‘support’ and spammy list…

I don’t like the fact that I can’t seem to find a schedule feature – maybe in another version? But honestly I do things pretty methodically so like anything, it’s not an issue for me.

I also don’t like that your backups will be stored in your database someplace (meaning you need to clear out the versions over time so you don’t take up too much disk space) – I’d like to see an ‘auto-purge’ system in place.

However, those things aside – this is the solution I’ve needed for a while.

Especially since I was installing the MaxCDN Content Delivery Network this week plus the W3TC plugin on my key sites…

Oh, and nevermind that I’ve been having a horrid and chronic problem with my .htaccess file getting corrupted every day for the past 2 weeks…

So it was time to create a backup system. All those topics are fodder for another post.

What do You Use?

I’ve covered a few alternatives in brief – do you have a solution you like better? I’m all ears, definitely not a true WordPress geek or anything, so be honest: was this a good buy on my part?

I think at $47 it’s a hot deal, but that’s just my 2 cents.

I will do a review later on WP Dolly, but it was recommended in comments on another blog. Right now I’d recommend that if you’re not doing manual backups, or using something monthly like CodeGarage.com, stick with WP Dolly.

I regret my recommendation for Backup Creator – it’s essentially an excuse to get sold to in frequent emails by its two developers, who I know are competent at marketing, but customer retention is another matter.

If either developer is reading this: would you like to fix my broken sites for me?

 

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