Why I Use BlogVault for WordPress

Before making big changes like installing new plugins or themes, it’s always recommended to keep a secure backup of your site. Since WordPress doesn’t come with this feature, it’s up to you to back up your site manually or better yet, install the BlogVault plugin to do it for you.

What is BlogVault?

BlogVault is a WordPress plugin and service that keeps secure backups of your site, with a suite of powerful restoration tools that can be accessed at any time. It takes daily snapshots of your site with a 30 day history so that your site can travel back in time if need be. Safety of these backups is guaranteed by storing multiple, encrypted copies of it in secure data centers independent of the main site.

BlogVault offers Auto Restore and a unique Test Restore feature that allows you to actually install and see each backup on a dedicated test site. It can even maintain and restore an entire WordPress multisite network (WPMU) using a single backup.

Top 5 BlogVault Features

1. Incremental Backups

A great thing about having backups of your site is that it makes migrating much easier. That being said, a major concern during migration is the downtime. When an entire site needs to be moved or restored, sites can become slow or even be inaccessible, frustrating users who happen to visit during that time.

Rather than copying each and every file, BlogVault only works with the files that have changed with the last sync, and restores what’s necessary. This speeds up the migration process, saving both speed and bandwidth.

2. Test Restore

BlogVault’s unique Test Restore feature will load any of the previous versions of your site on demand. The process is quick, and can save a lot of headache when trying to figure out which backup is the right one.

Once the test site is ready, you can visit it like any other site to verify its content. Below is a comparison of a SportsPress installation and one of its recent backups using Test Restore:

Original site compare to test restore. Since I was only logged in to the original site, the admin bar doesn’t appear on the test site. Otherwise completely identical.

Of course, you can click through and browse the test site as you would with the original. Instead of restoring a backup without verifying what it looks like, this process lets you actually see each version of your site, and can save a lot of time and headache.

3. Auto Restore

Whether you’ve been hacked, or one of your admins got too excited with the theme editor, you’re left with a fatal error that takes down your entire site. At this point, you either connect to the server via FTP or call someone who knows how to. That’s if you don’t have Auto Restore.

The Auto Restore feature will monitor your site for failures, and will automatically restore the site using the last snapshot without human intervention.

4. Multisite Network (WPMU)

Other backup solutions often require a separate installation for each site within a multisite network, which usually comes with additional fees. Even then, the backups are treated as independent sites, so the network itself cannot be restored easily.

BlogVault will keep a backup of your entire network, making it the ideal solution for sites with a League or Agency license of SportsPress Pro with multiple teams on a single multisite installation.

5. Security

This last one’s not a feature per se, but an absolutely vital element to any backup solution. What’s the point of keeping of a backup if it’s not safe and secure?

BlogVault stores redundant copies of your site in several different locations, including private data centers and Amazon S3 servers. Login details are not stored as part of the backup, which is definitely a plus.

Paranoid? Here’s a neat little feature. If you think you may have been hacked, just visit the Secure Site page in your BlogVault dashboard. These checkboxes will save the day by instantly changing security keys in wp-config.php, invalidating existing cookies, and resetting passwords and activation keys for all users on your site in one big swoop.

Trusted by ThemeBoy

Here at ThemeBoy, I use and trust BlogVault to keep daily backups of our theme demos, which are powered by a multisite network. It has performed exceptionally under every test, and gives me peace of mind that my hard work will never be lost.

BlogVault offers a free 7 day trial with plans starting at $9 per month or $89 per year. Its unique set of features make it the perfect backup solution for any serious club with a SportsPress Pro website.

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