UpdraftPlus Review: The Most Popular Free Backup Plugin, But Is Free Enough?

UpdraftPlus dominates the WordPress backup plugin space for good reason. With over 3 million active installations, it has become the default recommendation for anyone asking about WordPress backups.

When clients ask us point-blank which backup plugin they should use, UpdraftPlus is one of the two we recommend. It has been around for years, offers a relatively easy configuration, and lets you download your backups directly from the interface.

But popularity does not equal reliability in every situation. And free does not mean without cost.

Here is our honest assessment of UpdraftPlus: what it does well, where it falls short, and when the free version is genuinely enough. For a comparison of all the best WordPress backup plugin options, see our detailed guide.

What UpdraftPlus Gets Right

The appeal of UpdraftPlus is not complicated. It works, it is reliable for most basic use cases, and the free version covers what many sites actually need.

Generous Free Version

Unlike many WordPress plugins that hobble their free tier, UpdraftPlus includes real functionality at no cost:

• Full site backups including database, files, themes, and plugins
• Scheduled backups at intervals from every 2 hours to monthly
• Cloud storage to Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, Rackspace, FTP, and email
• One-click restore from the WordPress admin
• Backup splitting for larger sites

For a small brochure website on budget hosting, this covers the basics. You can set up automated backups to Google Drive and have a reasonable safety net without spending anything.

Easy Configuration

UpdraftPlus stands out because you can access the interface and download your backups directly. When a backup runs, you can download that zip file, open it, and verify it works.

If the zip opens, it is not corrupted. If you see the SQL file and all your site files inside, and the file size matches what you would expect, you have a working backup.

This visibility matters. Many backup solutions hide the actual backup files or make them difficult to access. UpdraftPlus puts them front and center.

Proven Track Record

UpdraftPlus reports a 96% restore success rate based on their testing. The plugin has been around long enough to have weathered multiple major WordPress version updates, PHP version changes, and shifts in hosting environments.

When recommending a backup plugin, we recommend tools that have stood the test of time. UpdraftPlus qualifies.

UpdraftPlus Pricing and Plans

First-year pricing is shown above. Non-Gold plans receive a 40% renewal discount. The plugin continues working after your subscription expires, but you lose access to updates and support.

When UpdraftPlus Premium Makes Sense

The free version has real limitations that matter for certain sites.

Incremental Backups

Free UpdraftPlus creates full backups every time. For a small site, this is fine. For a site with gigabytes of media files, creating a full backup daily wastes storage space and server resources.

Premium adds incremental backups that only capture changes since the last backup. This is significantly more efficient for larger sites.

Additional Cloud Storage

The free version covers major options, but Premium adds OneDrive, Azure, Backblaze B2, SFTP, pCloud, and WebDAV. If your organization standardizes on Microsoft services, you might need Premium for OneDrive integration.

Automatic Pre-Update Backups

Premium can automatically create a backup before WordPress core, plugins, or themes are updated. This is genuinely useful insurance against updates that break things.

Multisite Support

WordPress Multisite networks require Premium. There is no workaround for this.

UpdraftClone

The premium plan includes temporary staging environments through UpdraftClone. This lets you test changes or troubleshoot issues without affecting your live site.

The Realistic Limitations

Here is where we need to be honest about what UpdraftPlus cannot do, regardless of which version you use.

It Runs Inside WordPress

This is the fundamental limitation of any backup plugin, not just UpdraftPlus.

UpdraftPlus depends on WordPress cron jobs actually running. On some hosting environments, especially budget shared hosting, cron jobs do not fire reliably. Your scheduled backups might not happen when you expect them to.

The plugin can also break when WordPress updates. It can conflict with other plugins or themes.

We have seen sites where someone installed UpdraftPlus, thought they were protected, and later discovered the last successful backup was from two years ago.

Cloud Storage Requires Configuration

The free version supports cloud storage, but you have to set it up. This means logging in to Dropbox or Google Drive, creating authentication credentials, and connecting the services.

For non-technical users, this can be tricky. You might have to navigate developer consoles, generate API keys, or complete browser-based authentication flows.

And here is the problem we see repeatedly: authentication tokens expire.

You log in to your website and see a notice that Google Drive needs to renew its authentication. You skip it, thinking backups are still running. But they are not, because the token expired.

We have seen all kinds of scenarios where clients think they have backups, but for one reason or another, the system stops working, and they do not notice.

Local Storage Is the Default

Unless you manually configure cloud storage, UpdraftPlus stores backups on the same server as your website.

For people who are not familiar with infrastructure, this provides an easy path to feeling protected. But that protection is false.

If your backups are stored on the same hard drive as your website, they are not protected against catastrophic issues. Server failure, hardware corruption, or data center issues will destroy your backups and your site.

The Responsibility Trade-Off

By not using a managed host that handles backups for you, you take on the responsibility of maintaining these systems.

Your job becomes:

• Verifying cloud service connections are still working
• Checking that authentication tokens have not expired
• Confirming APIs have not broken due to software updates
• Occasionally downloading backups and verifying they open correctly

If you plan to pay a low hosting fee, backup maintenance is your responsibility. And if you do not do your job, it could mean catastrophic results.

The biggest problem with backups is that you do not think about them until you need them. And unless you gave them proper care beforehand, it might be too late.

UpdraftPlus vs the Alternatives

UpdraftPlus vs BackWPup

BackWPup is the other plugin we recommend alongside UpdraftPlus. Both have been around for years and offer reliable core functionality.

BackWPup includes database optimization and repair tools that UpdraftPlus lacks. Its Pro version adds a standalone restore application that works even when WordPress is completely inaccessible.

UpdraftPlus has a more polished interface and more cloud storage options in the free version. For most users, either works well.

UpdraftPlus vs Duplicator

Duplicator is primarily a migration tool that also handles backups.

Choose UpdraftPlus if:

• You only need backup functionality, not migration
• You want a more straightforward backup-focused interface
• You prefer the free version's cloud storage options

Choose Duplicator if:

• You frequently migrate sites between hosts
• You want the recovery point feature for disaster scenarios
• You handle very large sites (400 GB+)

UpdraftPlus vs Jetpack Backup

Jetpack Backup is Automattic's SaaS backup solution.

Choose UpdraftPlus if:

• Budget is the primary concern (free version available)
• You want control over the backup storage location
• You run WordPress Multisite (with Premium)

Choose Jetpack if:

• You want managed simplicity without maintenance
• You prefer real-time backups to scheduled
• You trust Automattic's infrastructure

UpdraftPlus vs BlogVault

BlogVault is a SaaS solution starting at $149 per year. It stores backups on BlogVault's servers, not yours, and claims a 100% restore success rate.

BlogVault's advantage is that backups run externally, so there is no load on your hosting server. And because storage is handled for you, there is no authentication expiration problem.

The trade-off is cost. BlogVault's entry-level price is more than twice that of UpdraftPlus Premium. For budget-conscious site owners, UpdraftPlus remains the practical choice.

UpdraftPlus vs Server-Level Backups

This is not really a fair comparison, but it is an important one.

Server-level backups from managed hosts such as Kinsta, WP Engine, or FatLab run at the infrastructure level and are completely independent of WordPress. No cron jobs to fail. No authentication tokens to expire. No plugin conflicts.

The less you pay for managed hosting, the more backup responsibility you have. UpdraftPlus fills a real need for sites on budget hosting that lack quality server-level backups.

But if you are on properly managed hosting with included backups, you probably do not need UpdraftPlus.

Who Should Use UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus makes sense for:

Sites on budget hosting without reliable server-level backups. If your host does not provide quality automated backups, UpdraftPlus is a solid safety net.

Small sites with straightforward backup needs. A brochure website that updates occasionally can use the free version with Dropbox or Google Drive.

Organizations that want control over backup storage. Some organizations prefer storing backups in their own cloud accounts rather than trusting a third party.

Technical users who will maintain the system. If you will actually check that backups are running, verify authentication tokens, and test restores occasionally, UpdraftPlus rewards that diligence.

Who Should Consider Alternatives

UpdraftPlus may not be the right choice for:

Mission-critical sites that cannot afford downtime. The plugin dependency and authentication maintenance create risks. A SaaS solution like BlogVault or proper managed hosting is more reliable.

High-traffic WooCommerce stores. Transaction data needs more robust protection than a cron-dependent plugin provides. Consider solutions with real-time backup capabilities.

Organizations without technical maintenance capacity. If nobody checks that backups are running, they will eventually stop running. The plugin only works if someone maintains it.

Sites already on quality managed hosting. If your host provides daily automated backups with 30-day retention, adding UpdraftPlus creates redundancy you may not need.

The Bottom Line

UpdraftPlus earned its popularity. The free version is genuinely useful, the interface is straightforward, and the plugin has proven reliable over many years.

But understand what you are taking on.

Plugin-based backups require ongoing maintenance. Cloud storage connections need monitoring. Authentication tokens expire. Cron jobs sometimes fail.

UpdraftPlus is the best WordPress backup plugin for sites that require one. It is not a replacement for proper infrastructure-level backups from a managed host.

If you use UpdraftPlus, make checking your backups part of your routine. Download them occasionally and verify they open correctly. Do not assume protection; confirm it.

The 87% of site owners who never test their backups often discover their backup systems stopped working long ago. Do not be part of that statistic.

UpdraftPlus works. But only if you work with it.