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Got VaultPress Secure WordPress Backup [Review]

Posted: 04 Mar 2011 10:09 AM PST

Now QOT is backed up on VaultPress secure WordPress backup service. Vaultpress backs up your entire WordPress database and important site files in real time so that your blog can be backed up easily if hacked.

Why Vaultpress WordPress Backup?

There are many WordPress backup services available. Vaultpress is created by Automattic, the same people who brought you WordPress, which powers millions of blogs. So I trust them to best understand the technology which goes behind powering WordPress, and how to back it up.

Vaultpress Golden Ticket

Vaultpress is not available to public at large since it is in beta. First you need to apply for golden ticket. They are giving away 60 Vaultpress golden tickets per day, so if you have a reputed blog, chances are you will get in 1-2 days.

Once you get a Vaultpress invite in your email, simply sign up. The Golden Ticket is your plugin.

Download Vaultpress

Download Vaultpress WordPress Plugin

Download Vaultpress plugin, a simple php file, and add to your WordPress plugin folder. Activate and you are done. Vaultpress will start to download all your Uploads, Themes, Plugins, and Database one by one automatically.

Vaultpress Sync

We got impatient as our database was downloaded only 10% after a few hours. A frantic email to support revealed, it is normal as they do not want to overload our server. Our entire site backup took nearly 1 full day, but then QOT has a large database. Most sites will upload much faster.

So now we have realtime backup of our site

Vaultpress panel

VaultPress Cost?

Vaultpress Beta does not come cheap at $15 per month. We opted for the basic plan which gives us comprehensive backup of entire WordPress installation.

Realtime Core Table Backup
Non Core Table Backups
Unlimited Snapshots
Downloadable Archives
Stats, Activity Log, Support

If you decide to get the Premium Vaultpress plan, it would cost you $40 per month, but will include Security Monitoring as well.

How Vaultpress Can Improve?

Vaultpress backs up all your files in realtime, which can cause considerable load on shared hosting, so you might want to think. We experienced some increase in server load, and they throttled from the backend, and advised we enable FTP /SSH access to take load off the server, but I am not happy entering my FTP /SSH passwords in a third party plugin.

Secondly, many bloggers would not be interested in hourly back up of blogs, once or twice a day would be enough, but there is no option to configure that – though many busy blogs would find a realtime back up very useful, to keep comments and latest blog posts safe.

Note Vaultpress backups up only the plugins, themes, uploads and database. So if you have files in the root directory, extra files, htaccess etc, they will not be backed up. Also note you can download these backup files, they will not restore them for you in one click if your server crashes.

I have had a chance to contact Vaultpress support a few times, and it seems they are available US time as that is when replies occur. A fast response time will go a long way to enhance customer trust. Also an affiliate program will help bloggers recover the Vaultpress expenses and help the service grow. But then its still in beta.

Get VaultPress

Vaultpress is definitely not cheap at $15 per month. But if your blog makes decent advertising revenue, you can afford to spend a small fraction of your profits on backing up your blog in real time, so that you can restore it when you need it. Hackers are for real and servers do crash and your hosting backup might get corrupted. The earning blog is the lifeline and income resource for many full time bloggers, and spending a few dollars more will guarantee you a better sleep at night, so even if hackers strike, your blog is safely backed up at Vaultpress.